Your essential guide for shopping consciously
Fairtrade, Fairwild, Fair for life… Fairly confusing, we hear you thinking. The amount of sustainable labels has grown rapidly, with the unfortunate side-effect of being mixed up easily. Most of us don’t have a clue anymore which label to look out for whilst doing groceries. Fear no more because we’ve made a guide to shop consciously, minus the confusement.
Fairtrade (Fairtrade International)
Let’s start of with one of the most popular ones: Fairtrade. Fairtrade means that farmers receive a fair price, with a premium on top, as a way to lift them out of poverty. The label is specifically intended to support producers in the South. After all, international trade often fails to pay farmers in developing countries a fair price that allows them to live in dignity. Moreover, the chain should be as transparent as possible and every trader in the chain should respect people and the environment. 
Fair for life (Ecocert)
Fair for Life is considered as the ‘gold standard’ in fair trading. In fact, this label got introduced as a complementary approach to the existing fair trade certification. Furthermore, Fair for Life is amongst the most transparent fair-trade systems in the world. Where the regular, classic fairtrade certification focuses on farmers and workers only, Fair for life combines three kinds of requirements: organic farming, corporate social responsibility and fair trade. A second big difference is that Fair for life is a global standard, meaning it covers trade with ‘developed’ as well as ‘developing’ countries. Fun fact: Pukka, our favorite tea brand - and also one of our clients, is committed to the Fair for life system. 
Fairwild
Perhaps you’ve seen it yourself when visiting a fancy restaurant: nowadays a lot of chefs use all kinds of wild flowers and herbs. And what about your skincare routine? Chances are high there’s some kind of wild flowers or herbs involved in the ingredient list.Unfortunately the rising demand for wild collected products poses some ecological challenges.That’s why the fair wild certification was invented. FairWild means that buyers - whether it be the ingredient traders or consumers - are guaranteed they are dealing with legally and sustainably harvested wild herbs and plants. Good thing is that it protects collectors on one hand, and the wild plants on the other. 
Still confused?
Admittedly, this post wasn’t exactly a light read. To make it a bit more easy we’ve summarized everything into a little scheme. Fairtrade
mainly focuses on helping farmers and workers to live in dignity
Fair for life
takes it a step further than fairtrade by combining: organic farming, corporate social responsibility AND fair trade
Fairwild
for anything that has to do with the cultivation of wild plants and flowers
Fairtrade | mainly focuses on helping farmers and workers to live in dignity |
Fair for life | takes it a step further than fairtrade by combining: organic farming, corporate social responsibility AND fair trade |
Fairwild | for anything that has to do with the cultivation of wild plants and flowers |
