With this being Fairtrade Fortnight, and the tenth anniversary of the Fair Trade mark at that, it was to be expected that there’d be some movements on the part of major retailers. The biggest news I’ve picked up so far in the UK is that Marks and Spencers are introducing their first fair trade labelled clothing range. The range appears to be a rebranded version of Gossypium’s yoga clothing, but this is a good step forward. Strangely the Marks and Spencers website doesn’t appear to make any mention of this news, even in their “Commitment to Society” section.
Clothing has for some time been one of the most requested/least available fair trade commodity and it is great to see it gaining more mainstream acceptance. Hopefully the options will soon extend to those of us who don’t tend to shop for yoga-wear!
For those watching, it appears that the profile of Fair Trade continues to rise rapidly in the US, with this article in the Contra Costa Times (a paper from Northern California) exploring the concept and available ranges. The US has historically lagged behind Europe on all things ‘fair trade’ so it’s good to see them hurrying to catch up. Hopefully it won’t be long before the links between the need for fair trade and the troubles NAFTA has brought on US manufacturing are made more clearly and more loudly.