[Tealeaf]

My best advice to everyone who has read this thread is to ignore it. "Fair Trade" is a scam to get people to cough up far more than they need to in purchasing their everyday foodstuffs. It is already bad enough being in the Common Market and having to fork out twice as much as neccessary for food.

All this racket does is to pay for for various middle class soft southern lefties as they jet off on three month trips to various exotic places to seemingly negotiate higher prices for inefficient peasant farmers' produce. (In reality, it is a holiday junket).

You may as well just stick your money in the Oxfam tin; It's the same thing - sod all of it will get to the third world poor - 95% of the additional money will be spent on over-inflated salaries, travel & marketing, while the other 5% will line the pockets of the usual corrupt local bureaucrats.

Spend your money down the pub instead.