Visit www.eq.tv to watch the video Fair Trade: The Story

The Facts

This is an EQ.TV project in which Aaron Straight wrote, directed and produced a promotional video for TransFair USA, a nonprofit organization that certifies and promotes Fair Trade products in order to build a more equitable and sustainable model of international trade that benefits producers, consumers, industry and the earth.

Notable Partners

EQ.TV, TransFair USA, TinCan Productions, Muse Ranch, Stone Gossard, PCC Natural Markets, Tony's Coffee, University of Washington Fair Trade Coffee Coalition, E-Town Awards, Ben & Jerry's, 10,000 Villages, and all the other Fair Trade Licensees.

About TransFair USA

TransFair USA, a nonprofit organization, is one of twenty members of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. They audit transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In addition, annual inspections conducted by FLO ensure that strict socioeconomic development criteria are being met using increased Fair Trade revenues.

Fair Trade Certified coffee is now the fastest-growing segment of the US specialty coffee market. TransFair USA opened its doors in late 1998 and began certifying Fair Trade coffee in 1999. In the past six years, TransFair has leveraged limited resources to certify 74.2 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee. This has provided coffee farmers in some of the poorest communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia with over $60 million more than they would have earned selling their harvests to local intermediaries. This means that each dollar of TransFair USA's budgets has been translated into more than $7 in supplemental income for farmers and farm workers since 1999. And Fair Trade in the US is no longer just about coffee: TransFair has also introduced Fair Trade Certified tea, cocoa, fresh fruit, and, most recently, rice and sugar to the US market.

More of each dollar spent on any of these products goes back to the farmers and farm workers who produce them. The US Fair Trade market has thus empowered farmers and farm workers around the world to determine their most pressing local economic development needs for themselves, and reinvest in their products, cooperatives, and communities in appropriate and sustainable ways.

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