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Fair Trade week is a time to remember the global injustice that is
causing the food crisis everywhere. The landgrabbing to grow fuel
crops puts the vehicles of the rich before the hunger of the poor.
The people of the developing world are deprived of a decent
livelihood because of landgrabbing and cutting of forests and the
mining industry that destroys rice lands. The food shortage and
rising prices are man-made by unfair trade. The prices paid to rice
farmers are so low and the costs of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides are so high (supplied by the chemical corporations) that
the poor get poorer and are always in debt. Most farmers are
landless and perennial tenants and they are giving as much as 40
percent of their harvest to the absentee landlord. The landowner
lives in luxury and leaves his tenants in poverty and victims of
exploitation. Here at the Preda Fair-Trade project we are helping
farmers to go organic and be self-reliant and to produce healthier
food.
Real developmental Fair-Trade is not a gimmick
to make more profit but a movement that promotes human rights and
the principles of equality and justice in trade. It is the unfair
balance in economics that is the source of pain and hardship,
disease and death for millions. The world is filled with food but
the few own the food of the many. The poor just can’t buy it and
the rich will not lower the prices, they are greedy for profit and
grow fat on unjust profits. Fair-traders give just wages, fair
payments for products and help people overcome all kinds of
exploitation, social injustice and exploitation. When you want to
know who is the real fair trade organization just research what
development products they are funding with their earnings. They
ought to have a direct involvement with the poor.
Fair-Trade is more than ethical trading. It
spends human effort and earnings to better the lives of the poor. It
should not be supporting the rich and powerful.
I have a criticism of the Fair-Trade Labeling
Organization called FLO for giving a Transfair label to big
multinational corporations for one or two products that they call
fair trade. It’s more of a gimmick, a ploy to sell more products
and fool the public into thinking that they are development
organizations out to change the world of the poor. They are out to
maximize profits. They use the hunger of the world to make profit.
They are not fair trade organizations.
Preda Fair trading which I set up in 1975 tried
to give fair and just livelihoods to the poor so they could be
self-sustaining. They get interest-free production loans and other
assistance and we help sell their products all over the world. We
work to spread the message and have other work for social justice
and fairness in trade on all levels.
At Preda Fair-Trade, we are helping the sea-salt
farmers. They are making a very important product and work in the
sun day after day to dry salt from the sea. They deserve a just and
fair price. We give them that and help improve their living
conditions. The mango farmers will benefit from the export of
organically grown mangoes which we will soon export. Presently, the
sugar-free dried mangoes are becoming very popular as a health
product. Recycled bags help the collectors of used and discarded
drink pouches earn a very good income, the bag makers are thriving
and making excellent quality recycled shoulder bags, wallets and
backpacks. There are many things we are doing to make this a better
and happier world. The consumers need to know that Fair-Trade starts
in the poor villages, with the poor, with groups that stand with
them against the landgrabbers, the loggers destroying their
forests, and against the exploiters that keep them in slavery. We
work for economic freedom and a decent and happy life for all.
Fair-Trade is the way you can be one with us by buying Preda fair
trade products.
preda@info.com.ph
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