As I was browsing through my classmates blogs, I came across Bonnie’s blog post on fair trade. After reading her thoughts on free trade, I agree with her main points. I believe small companies have a more meaningful effect on society than large corporations. In my opinion large corporations don’t always actually care about the social and environmental aspect, but they need to appear like they do in order to increase profits because customers respect the company more. I realize this is not always true; however, I do believe it is for some companies. Small, local companies tend to genuinely want to make a difference and help the community.
I looked through a list of companies who participate in free trade, and found Strait Coffee, located in British Columbia. When customers purchase Strait Coffee, they promote the fair treatment of small farmers and workers, ensuring them healthy living conditions and a sustainable economic future. Lots of times, big corporations focus on social issues that are already widely known. I think it is interesting that Strait Coffee, like many other small companies, focus on issues that aren’t as publicized. All in all, I found it interesting how smaller companies aren’t as well known, but they still focus on social and environmental issues.
Works Cited:
http://fairtrade.ca/en/content/registered-companies
http://www.straitcoffee.ca
https://blogs.ubc.ca/bonniecheng/