Introduction Do Do you ever wonder who makes your T-shirts Or where the melons in your fruit salad are grown Or how soccer balls get those little stitches in them I was always curious about where things came from but I never thought too much about it until I was in my early twen ties and I visited my parents who were living in Tanzania My mother and I visited a cooperative a small group of people who all own a business together where artisans made beautiful wooden toys and hand-sewn clothes The artisans explained that they used to sell their goods on street corners until they joined the cooperative but since then they’d had a steady income and were able to sell their goods to people around the world Speaking to those craftspeople made me realize that Mum and me wearing dresses made by women in a Tanzanian cooperative MICH A EL PA RDY 6
A group of Rwandan artisan women work on a cloth decorated with embroidered patterns SARINE ARSLANIAN SHUT TER S TOCK COM when we buy things we are connecting ourselves to a whole web of people across the globe The idea was exciting and when I came home to Canada I joined a group called the Gaia Project which works with people just like those workers in Tanzania Through the Gaia Project I learned more about how trade works and the effect it has on people’s lives I learned about sweat shops and child labor and environmental problems It turns out that a lot of people work hard to make sure that the folks who grow and make the things we buy get a fair deal Read on to find out about all these amazing people This Zambian girl is collecting palms to make woven baskets for a fair trade project VIDEA 77
chapter one Time to Trade Message in a Bottle Have you ever put a message in a bottle and thrown it into the ocean or a river Did you try to guess who might find it I wonder if the people who make the things we buy ever think about us Does a seamstress imagine the person who’s going to wear the shirt she made Do farmers wonder who will eat the spinach they grew How about you Do you ever wonder about the people who make your things Who they are where they work where they live how old they are These are the ques tions I asked myself when I started writing this book Economists people who study how trade works say that trade has three phases 1 Production when things are grown or made 2 Distribution when things are shipped from farms or factories to stores 3 Consumption when people buy things and eat drink or use them This boy found a message in a bottle eight years after it was cast into the sea He lives in Ireland and the girls who sent it are from Canada They were delighted to hear from him AOIFE MILLEA CLEARE PHOTOGRAPHY 8
CROP TO CUP LEVEL GROUND PLANTING PLANTING FRUIT FLOWERING jasmine scented flowers bloom the coffee cherry holds 2 coffee seeds inside PICKING the ripest and sweetest cherries are hand picked MILLING DRYING FERMENTING DEPULPING the outer husk is removed beans are laid out to bask in the sun's rays the coffee cherry pulp is removed coffee beans are soaked to break down the sugars and develop the best flavours LEVEL GROUND CUPPING BAGGING SHIPPING RECEIVED LGT 60kg sacks of green coffee 300 sacks in a shipping container the container is unloaded and inspected at lastll we micro batch roast and test the coffee ENJOY SHIPPING we deliver to stores PACKAGING within minutes of roasting the coffee is put into packages ROASTING we roast the coffee in a fluid bed roaster A lot of work goes into the production of coffee LEVEL GROUND TRADING
