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Promoting Fair Trade
Fair trade in a global economy
Fair trade is a set of principles and practices that more equitably distributes wealth and provides producers and farmers with a living wage. Supporting fair trade is central to UUSC's commitment to strengthening human rights and dignity for workers in the global economy.
Around the world, workers and small-scale producers in the global South are some of the most negatively affected by current patterns of economic globalization and trade. Excluded or undermined by policies and structures that do not recognize or meet their needs, millions of small-scale producers are unable to gain access to fair markets, seek adequate protection from market risks, or avoid exploitation in the global marketplace.
Trapped in a vicious cycle of low returns for back-breaking work, these workers are unable to make a sustainable living, and face huge obstacles to claiming their human rights including lack of adequate housing, education, and health care.
Trade justice for the developing world and for this generation is a truly significant way for developed countries to show commitment to bringing about an end to global poverty.
— Nelson Mandela
UUSC's approach to strengthening fair trade
UUSC strengthens fair trade by helping secure the human rights and dignity of those made most vulnerable in trade relationships. We do this by:
- Partnering with fair trade and worker-led organizations to achieve humane working conditions, deepen producers' skills and capacity to participate in trade practices and politics, and strengthen inclusive, sustainable communities.
- Leading UUSC members to learn about fair trade, and to express their moral and political values through direct actions, experiential learning opportunities, and informed consumerism.
We're taking fair trade activism beyond the coffee cup and developing a wide variety of fair trade resources and activities, experiential learning opportunities, and program partnerships. Read on to learn more and get involved!
More about UUSC's work to promote and strengthen fair trade
- Faith Activists for Fair Trade
- The Small Farmer Fund: Partnerships for Fair Trade
- UUSC Coffee Project
Featured stories about the fair trade
 During Halloween, companies like Nestle USA enjoy their biggest sales to children. Unfortunately, chocolate is no treat for the hundreds of thousands of child cocoa laborers who must work to support their families, sometimes toiling under conditions of slavery. But there's something you can do to help end abusive child labor in the cocoa industry - Reverse Trick-or-Treating! |
 UUs and UU congregations are putting their faith into action by choosing to serve fair trade coffee.
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