Fair Trade - Short Answers

Question 1

What is a sweatshop?

Answer 1

A factory or workshop that is usually to do with the clothing industry, where workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and poor conditions.

Question 2

What is the Silk Road?

Answer 2

The Silk Road was an international trade route between China and the Mediterranean. It began in 203BC and involved trading goods such as silk, gold, herbs and drugs

Question 3

What is Fair Trade?

Answer 3

Trade between companies in developed countries and producers in developing countries in which fair prices are paid to the producers.

Question 4

What is a petition?

Answer 4

A formal written request, typically one signed by many people, appealing to authority in respect of a particular cause.

Question 5

Name 2 countries that grows cocoa beans.

Answer 5

Ghana, Brazil, Ecuador, Nigeria, Indonesia.

Question 6

Why do we trade?

Answer 6

To gain access to resources people could not provide themselves.

Question 7

What are three countries that largely rely on cash crops?

Answer 7

Ghana, Laos and Cuba

Question 8

List 3 examples of cash crops

Answer 8

Coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, bananas, cotton.

Question 9

How have the number of cash crops changed over time?

Answer 9

Earlier times = small but vital part of a farm’s total yield.
Now = esp. in developed countries, almost all crops are grown for cash.

Question 10

How is the price a farmer is paid determined?

Answer 10

Set by global markets and varies from year to year.

Question 11

What is a bumper crop?

Answer 11

A crop that has yielded an unusually productive harvest, which results in low global prices.

Question 12

What countries don’t sell Coca Cola?

Answer 12

North Korea and Cuba

Question 13

How does changes in the market have severe consequences for people and their communities.

Answer 13

Abundance of a cash crop = lower global market price = less income for farmers and families = poverty

Question 14

What is a market?

Answer 14

Noun: a regular gathering of people for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other commodities.
Verb: Advertise or promote something

Question 15

What is a trade route?

Answer 15

A route used by traveling traders or merchant ships, e.g. the silk road.

Question 16

What is a co-operative and how does it have positive impacts on the farmers?

Answer 16

• A group of people who work together to obtain fairer prices for themselves and their community.
• Removes middle men which allows more profits to return to the farmers who produced the product. So more money can go towards providing education for the community and improves the quality of the community.

Question 17

What does the Fair Trade logo represent?

Answer 17

Items are Fair Trade certified, meaning that the price of the item covers both the cost of production and a fair living wage for the workers to cover basics such as food, shelter, clothing, education and medical care.

Question 18

Why is Fair Trade good?

Answer 18

• It guarantees that farmers are always provided a minimum price.
• Profits are reinvested into community development projects which are supported by FT. Allows for children to receive education.
• Assures that farmers work in more humane conditions; prevents child and slavery labour.

Question 19

What is Karma Cola and what do they do?

Answer 19

• A small business that make Fairtrade organic craft sodas, aiming to make a difference.
• Works directly with cola nut farmers in the Boma village in Sierra Leone, to help rebuild their crops and their communities in the aftermath of war.

Question 20

Why is the clothing industry unfair?

Answer 20

Sweatshops operate in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, and China. Major brand manufacturers minimize costs and maximize profits by having companies in those countries competing against each other. The international brands pressure the factory owners, threatening to move production to another country if the clothes are not cheap enough; the owners in turn pressure their workers.

Question 21

How does the clothing industry affect those working in developing countries?

Answer 21

• Workers have to work in poor conditions - hot and chemical environments and unsound buildings - and live on low salaries.
• They have a difficult time demanding rights; Bangladeshi workers may be beaten by their employers and Cambodians are shot by the police.
• Demand for cotton in India has led to the planting of GM cotton, increasing the use of pesticides which causes environmental damage, birth defects, cancer and mental and physical disabilities.

Question 22

How does media affect the desire of people in America?

Answer 22

It increases the desire to buy and create an identity focused on consumption.

Question 23

How can we make a difference?

Answer 23

• Buy clothes made with sustainable fibres (e.g. organic cotton)
• Ask brands how their clothes are made
• Recycle clothes at thrift stores, or donation locations
• Buy what you need, not what you want
• Mend clothes rather than throwing them out.