Fair Trade - Not as new as we might think!
“Anticipate charity by preventing poverty; assist the reduced fellow man, either by a considerable gift or a sum of money or by teaching him a trade or by putting him in the way of business so that he may earn an honest livelihood and not be forced to the dreadful alternative of holding out his hand for charity. This is the highest step and summit of charity’s golden ladder.”
This is a quote attributed to Maimonides as early as the 12th century and echoes another famous quote - give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for his life. These, for me, are as much the building blocks of fair trade as the fair price criteria, because it is also our duty to help producers develop a business that can compete in the marketplace rather than create a dependency on ourselves as just one customer. Fair Trade should always represent a hand up rather than a hand out!
Fair Trade Phil
Posted on June 23rd, 2007 under Uncategorized • 
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August 31st, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Amen to that.