To create systemic change, we have to look at why exploitation exists in supply chains. We have to come to terms with years of extractive colonial practices leaving countries rebuilding from all their richness and resources being depleted. As a white-owned business from the Global North working with artisans in the Global South, this is complicated work! Fair wages alone are just not enough. We have to think of sustainability across the supply chain from what we source to how we operate. It is naive for us to ignore social justice when thinking about climate justice, or vice versa. 

To assume economic justice alone can solve complex social or environmental issues is naive. Having a more intersectional approach to fair trade by building alliances and collaborating with those living and working within the communities themselves is just the first step. Fair trade is at its core built on the existence of inequities. Paying fair wages cannot be the end goal. Using fair trade to address histories of extraction, colonization, and exploitation is a starting point. We need to start reframing what “impact” looks like. Because, true impact happens when you collaborate with those within the communities you are working in.