We can all do justice as responsible consumers
November 8, 2012 · By Fr. Shay Cullen
email: [email protected]
(Fr. Shay’s columns are published in The Manila Times,in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and on-line.)
Panfilo 57, is a carpenter, vegetable and mango farmer from Moriki, Kapalong, Davao Del Norte. In1986 he planted fifty one mango trees and now they are giving mangos fruit and while not all bear fruit every year he can earn 20,000 Pesos ($486) each annual harvest selling to a fair Trade buyer.
This he says is almost double what he would earn from the commercial buyers who reject half of his fruit.The Preda Fair Trader buys all the fruit ,big and small scratched or bruised because they slice and dry them.
He earns more besides because he gets a premium payment for every kilo a profit share from Preda. This kind of fair trading that encourages small farmers to plant mangos and other fruit bearing trees and fight climate change.Above all it keeps his family together and sends his kids to school.
Doing justice for those farmers who have been exploited and impoverished for generations is what Fairtrade is all about. It is a combination of trade and social justice. It helps people to help themselves and become self-reliant and feed themselves and their children. It brings justice into the market place and it is what we need in the developing world to end poverty and misery and disease.
Its it just being a decent business person or a fair minded consumer willing to pay a fair price and treat the producers with respect and give them the dignity they deserve. By paying a fair price and not trying to exploit them by giving low prices is what is just and right.
It is immoral to be taking advantage of them because they are hungry and need to sell there produce and desperate to get some money however small. Exploitation robs the people of their energy,and initiative to plant and grow and toil . The rich blames them for their poverty and being lazy when in fact the are malnourished because of being exploited and cheated.Not only are they sick and tired but when in the end of all the hard work their produce is worth so little. That’s the cause of dire poverty and there is much of it in the Philippines.
Because its not a fair trading system the poor remain remain poor and their children go malnourished and have to work on the land to help earn enough for them just to survive. That’s the curse of the unjust system run by the dynastic families that rule this country and live luxuriously while the poor are like Lazarus at the gates starving.
The champions who work for justice in trade and human rights,they have put aside personal profit and self-seeking and have dedicated themselves to the cause of alleviating the dire poverty and hunger that still stalks our world. They are the grassroots people who made this Fair Trade movement grow and they are a people-power for justice and human rights.
Developmental FairTrade as implemented by Preda FairTrade is specific in overcoming injustice and making a better future for the poor and oppressed people and transforming society and the way people think about the people in the developing world. We don’t want people to buy Fair Trade products as an act of charity out of pity. But because they are quality, desirable and valuable products in themselves and also because they are fairly traded and not the product of exploitation or child labor.
One billion are still hungry on this planet of plenty. It just so happens that the wealth is accumulated by the few while the many go without the basic needs of life. The champions of FairTrade are those who have challenged this inequality that causes much human suffering and death by hunger and disease.
The goal of Preda Development fair Trade is to help people to overcome poverty by their own efforts earning just wages and returns for their hard work and improving there communities through team and community self-help development projects.
The success of fair trade relies greatly on the quality of the products, the just wages and conditions under which they are made. But equally it depends on the choice of committed consumers to act in a morally right way and choose to buy the fair trade products rather than the commercially supplied products. Doing justice makes our lives happier and the lives of the workers.
Need Help? Contact:
Privacy Policy:
We will never share, sell, or rent individual personal information with anyone without your advance permission or unless ordered by a court of law. Information submitted to us is only available to employees managing this information for purposes of contacting you or sending you emails based on your request for information and to contracted service providers for purposes of providing services relating to our communications with you.
Physical Address:
CONTACT US:
PREDA Foundation, Inc.
P.O Box 68
Olongapo City 2200
Preda Main Center
Upper Kalaklan, Subic Bay
Olongapo City 2200 Philippines
E-mail: [email protected], Information Officer: [email protected]
TO SUPPORT THE WORK OF PREDA you may freely pass on the article or republish and send a donation via mail or PAYPAL at our website https://preda.org or through the Columban Missionary Society.
