At the rate "fair trade" sales are going in the U.K., it may not be long before merchants such as Marks & Spencer and others begin to refer to the do-good imports as "great-trade" products.
"They've gone from the margins to the mainstream quite fast," Professor Tim Lang, an expert in food policy at London's City University, told The Christian Science Monitor.
Sales of fair trade items in the U.K. grew to nearly $500 million last year, a 46 percent jump from 2005. Today, Marks & Spencer only sells fair trade coffee and tea. Sainsbury only sells fair trade bananas.
"It's part of a whole change of mood around the way we want to live our lives," said Helen Browning, food and farming director of the Soil Association, a charity that promotes sustainable farming practices. "There's a recognition that the consumer society and values of the 1980s have worn thin, and people are looking for something more real."
Nova Smith, a volunteer who helps at her church's fair trade sales events, explains it a bit differently. "People feel it's a small thing they can do to make a difference. You can't change the world, but you can do a little bit that helps."
Some believe that fair trade will follow a similar upward climb as organic foods did in the U.K.
"The tipping point came when we started getting retailers doing 100-percent [fair trade] for certain products," said Barbara Crowther of the Fairtrade Foundation. "In terms of volume and range of product available to the consumer, the U.K. is the world's leader."
According to The Monitor, many view the fair trade business as being driven by upscale consumers.
Mr. Lang sees it differently. "There is strong evidence that [fair trade] has a cross-class appeal," he said.
Discussion Questions: Is there such thing as a tipping point for products such as organics and/or fair trade items where sales suddenly explode upward? Is that what has happened in the case of fair trade goods in the U.K. and is it likely to happen here? What do you think the response to fair trade goods says about the difference between consumers in the U.S. and the U.K.?