Meander around your nearby branch of Asda, and you are witnessing the benefits of globalisation. One can buy almost anything at very low cost. It could be herbs from Laos or tobacco from Brazil - it’s for sale all year round. This is by far the greatest period of time in the history of humanity to be a shopper! This has come about by just in time stock control, economies of scale, powerful competitive forces, and perhaps most significantly, the fact that most manufactured goods are located, and often produced, in second and third world countries.

That last point is quite crucial, and very contentious. While western consumers are buying clothing, food, drink and other items made from second and third world nations at low costs, workers and business organisations in these manufacturing nations are frequently short-changed, and have no true sustainability as they are the last stop of a very lengthy chain of middle-men who determine what they make, how much, and how often. This long string of middle-men all get their pay too - in the end there’s not a great deal of revenue left for the end-of-line manufacturer.

However, there is help for these desperate labourers and businesses. Fairtrade is a movement that attempts to give some power to these end-producing business organisations in the poorer countries of the world. It attempts to get rid of these middle men, and pay the end-producer a fair price for a product in a far more targeted way. You may have discovered Fairtrade items in your local supermarket. Sometimes they’re a little bit more pricy, but by purchasing such ethical products - such as fair trade products - you will be happy to know the manufacturer is working in a sustainable way that doesn’t just pay them justly through a much more direct revenue flow, but it also grants them to put this extra money into their company through greater earnings, which really contributes in a positive way toward these poorest areas of the world.