Employees from Global Village Gifts traveled to Colorado to attend the annual Fair Trade Federation Conference in March.
“To me, it’s about fairness and it’s about equality," said Clarissa Swain, manager of Global Village. "Fair trade is something that should be a norm.”
Located in downtown Logan, Global Village Gifts is Utah’s only fair trade-certified store.
“Fair trade is a social movement," Swain said. "It’s allowing artisans and farmers in developing nations to compete in the global market in a fair way. It is ensuring things like livable wages and safe working conditions.”
At the conference, members of the fair trade community meet to connect with like-minded individuals, buy new products for their stores, and attend fair trade business workshops.
Swain hopes to bring revamped passion and knowledge of fair trade back to Cache Valley so they can tell the stories of their products and the artisans who made them.
“Engaging with the customers to make that experience rewarding for them is what makes them come back and what makes them feel like they came away with something more than just what they bought,” Swain said.
Tami Jones also attended the conference and learned how consumers are powerful stakeholders in our global market.
“We vote for everything with our dollar," she said. "Consumer trends will change when we start spending our money to support the businesses we want to support. In Cache Valley, we see a lot of people with big hearts and so for them to have even just a small impact on the global scale, why wouldn’t you choose that alternative to something made in a sweatshop?”
