Trade and the things we buy

Ages 13 to 17 Read alone · about 55 minutes

Read together

Most things we buy have travelled far. A cotton T-shirt may use cotton grown in one country, thread spun in another, cloth sewn in a third and sold in a fourth. These links are called a supply chain. Trade can create jobs and lower prices, and it can also hide harm: low wages, dangerous factories, and damage to land and water.

Fair trade labels, such as Fairtrade, aim to give farmers and workers a better price and safer conditions. Labels are not perfect, and some critics ask whether they reach the poorest. Laws and campaigns also try to make companies responsible for their supply chains.

The Bible speaks about fair wages. Deuteronomy 24:14–15 tells employers not to take advantage of poor workers, and to pay them on the day they work. The prophet Amos condemned those who cheat the poor with false scales.

Do it

1. Pick one thing you own, such as a T-shirt or a phone. Find where it was made from its label or from a reliable website, and map where its materials may have come from.
2. Research one company's report on its supply chain or one fair trade label. What does it promise, and how is it checked?
3. Interview a shopkeeper or farmer about prices: who sets them and who gets what share?
4. Write a one-page plan for how you could buy more thoughtfully: buy less, buy used, choose durable goods, ask questions.

Talk about it

• Who is not paid fairly for the things you use?
• What can one buyer do?

For the grown-up

Supply chains are complicated, and one family cannot fix them. Small choices, learning and speaking up add up. Avoid guilt and encourage curiosity and generosity. A book such as Pietra Rivoli's “The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy” traces one shirt from Texas cotton to Chinese factory to used-clothes markets in Africa.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power and Politics of World Trade, 2nd ed. (John Wiley and Sons, 2009)
• International Labour Organization (ILO), information on global supply chains and decent work
• Book of Deuteronomy 24:14 to 15; Book of Amos 8:4 to 6

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.