What is Fair Trade Anyway? Case Study: Shea Terra Organics

Fair Trade protects native workers from exploitation by ensuring that they receive fair wages and fair working conditions.  Many impoverished nations have great natural resources that are purchased by big businesses for use in cosmetic and food products.  Often times these businesses undercut the native farmers and destroy wildlife habitats.  Once company that's making a difference with Fair Trade is Shea Terra Organics.  Shea Terra Organics has been concerned about the exploitation of Africa’s precious resources and native people. Currently millions of tons of African resources are exported each year without consideration for the native people or the wildlife habitats.  Shea Terra Organics goal is to abolish this injustice. 

Shea Terra Organics works closely with self-empowerment programs and environmental groups throughout Africa.  Rather than looking for ways to undercut suppliers Shea Terra allows native farmers to set their own prices and determine what they believe the value of their goods are.  Shea Terra’s goal is to help native people become self-sufficient.  Their Marula Oil is cultivated by a group of over four thousand Namibian women.  Many of these women have escaped the war torn north and this opportunity provides them with their only source of income. By providing natives with money for their wild harvested crops they are given an incentive to protect the environment and it’s wildlife.  By purchasing Shea Terra products you are helping support wildlife preservation, Fair Trade, self-empowerment and education programs in Africa.  Always choose Fair Trade products and you can feel good in knowing that your hard earned money is making a difference in the lives of others. 

Green Washing

This past weekend I went to the Los Angeles County Fair.  As all regular Fair goers know the Fair is filled with Pavilion after Pavilion of the "latest and greatest products".  One such product marketed themselves as "All Natural"; they had huge banners in their multiple booths stating this and even a story about how their product was developed by the founders Grandmother in her kitchen.  This "natural" family recipe was a cure all for everything from bug bites to sore muscles.  My Mom had purchased the product the previous year and was excited to show it to me.  "Since it's natural you might be able to carry it on your website" she said.  We made our way over the booth and I picked up the box to read the ingredients.  There were only a few natural ingredients listed on the box including "Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Aloe Vera”.  Since my Mom loved the product and I could see how natural it was I was sold.  

Thirty-five dollars and several hours later I was in the shower as my husband was going through the items we had purchased.  We were both tired and sore from walking around all day and couldn't wait to try out our new natural pain reliever.  My husband came bursting into the bathroom to tell me that the company was lying about their products.  When he removed the bottle from the box he discovered that the box only listed the natural ingredients in the product, however the bottle revealed ingredients that made us both cringe.  "Methylparaben, Propylparaben, and a host of other ingredients we couldn't pronounce and didn't recognize.  Once again we'd been the victims of "green washing".  There are no laws governing the definition of what is "natural".  Companies are free to market their chemically laden products as natural with no consequences for their deception.  I'm always on alert to this and usually catch it before I've wasted my money on the product.  I wasn't expecting this level of deception and hadn't thought to pull the bottle from the package.  

Although this didn’t surprise me I was angry wondering how many other people had been taken.  I deal with customers on a daily basis that have extreme allergies, are recovering from illnesses such as cancer or simply want to ensure that they're using safe green products.  This is the reason behind Green 4 Your Soul’s full disclosure policy on ingredients.  If there is an ingredient you wish to avoid you can clearly see that ingredient on the website before you buy the product.  Marketing a product as green and withholding the synthetic and chemical ingredients from the packaging is shameful.  Many people wouldn't look beyond the ingredient listing on the box and would unknowingly use a product containing harmful chemicals.  I urge everyone to read labels and use your purchasing power to make a statement against green washing.  Don't spend your hard earned money on so-called "Natural Products", the less support these companies receive the harder it will be for them to continue this charade.