Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in growing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. Members of the fair trade movement add the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries, but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers, and gold. The movement seeks to promote greater equity in international trading partnerships through dialogue, transparency, and respect. It promotes sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers in developing countries. Fair trade is grounded in three core beliefs; first, producers have the power to express unity with consumers. Secondly, the world trade practices that currently exist promote the unequal distribution of wealth between nations. Lastly, buying products from producers in developing countries at a fair price is a more efficient way of promoting sustainable development than traditional charity and aid.
Stiff Little Fingers are an Irish punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star, doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years and four albums, although they reformed five years later, in 1987. Despite major personnel changes, they are still touring and recording. In 2014, the band released their tenth studio album and a world tour followed its release. Jake Burns, their lead singer, is the only member to have been with the band during all its incarnations, but in March 2006, original bass guitarist Ali McMordie rejoined them following the departure of The Jam bass player Bruce Foxton after fifteen years.
Alastair Ian Stewart is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of characters and events from history.
Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. He became one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Smoky Mountain Rain", "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", "Any Day Now", and "Stranger in My House". He is credited with six Grammy Awards and thirty-five No. 1 country hits, third to George Strait and Conway Twitty. He was selected for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
Hatful of Hollow is a compilation album by English rock band the Smiths, released on 12 November 1984 by Rough Trade Records. The album features BBC Radio 1 studio recordings and two contemporary singles with their B-sides. It was released in the United States on 9 November 1993 by Sire Records, which had initially declined to release the album in the US. Sire instead released Louder Than Bombs in the US in 1987—which contains several of the same tracks as Hatful of Hollow—as well as The World Won't Listen.
Shane Steven Filan is an Irish singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer of boy band Westlife, which was formed in 1998, disbanded in 2012, and regrouped in 2018. Westlife have released thirteen albums, embarked on twelve world tours, and won several awards, becoming one of the most successful musical groups of all time.
Hawk Nelson is a Canadian Christian rock and pop punk band from Peterborough, Ontario. Formed in 2000, the band has released eight studio albums to date.
Independent music is music produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing. The term indie is sometimes used to describe a genre, and as a genre term, "indie" may include music that is not independently produced, and many independent music artists do not fall into a single, defined musical style or genre and create self-published music that can be categorized into diverse genres. The term ‘indie’ or ‘independent music’ can be traced back to as early as the 1920s after it was first used to reference independent film companies but was later used as a term to classify an independent band or record producer.
Grant Vernon Hart was an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-songwriter for the punk rock band Hüsker Dü. After the band's breakup in 1988, he released his first solo album Intolerance before forming the alternative rock trio Nova Mob, where he moved to vocals and guitar. His solo career became his main focus after the dissolution of Nova Mob in 1997.
Confederate Railroad is an American country and Southern Rock band founded in 1987 in Marietta, Georgia, by Danny Shirley, Michael Lamb, Mark Dufresne (drums), Chris McDaniel (keyboards), Warren "Gates" Nichols and Wayne Secrest. After serving as a backing band for outlaw country acts David Allan Coe and Johnny Paycheck, the band signed to a recording contract with Atlantic Records, releasing their self-titled debut album that year. In the 1990s, they released four more albums for Atlantic.
Record Collector is a British monthly music magazine. It distributes both within the UK and worldwide. It started in 1979.
Fair Trade USA, formerly "TransFair USA", is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that sets standards, certifies, and labels products that promote sustainable livelihoods for farmers and workers and protect the environment.
Fairtrade Canada, formerly TransFair Canada, is a national non-profit certification and public education organization promoting Fairtrade certified products in Canada to improve the livelihood of developing world farmers and workers. It is the Canadian member of FLO International, which unites 24 fair trade producer and certification initiatives across Europe, Asia, Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Fair to Midland was an American progressive rock band based in Texas. They produced two self-released albums before signing to Serjical Strike, Serj Tankian's vanity label at Universal Republic. There, they released their only major record label album, Fables from a Mayfly, in 2007. While the album broke into the Billboard 200, they eventually parted ways with Serjical Strike and later released their fourth album, Arrows and Anchors in July 2011. Tentative plans for a fifth album had been discussed at the end of the Arrow and Anchors touring cycle, but the band became inactive in 2013.
The Cake Sale are a collective of mostly Irish musical artists including Swedish singer/songwriter Nina Persson of The Cardigans and Australian musician Nick Seymour of Crowded House.
The fair trade debate is a debate surrounding the ethics and alleged economic implications of fair trade as well as alleged issues with the Fairtrade brand. Some criticisms have been raised about fair trade systems. One 2015 study in a journal published by the MIT Press concluded that producer benefits were close to zero because there was an oversupply of certification, and only a fraction of produce classified as Fair Trade was actually sold on Fair Trade markets, just enough to recoup the costs of certification. A study published by the Journal of Economic Perspecitives however suggests that Fair Trade does achieve many of its intended goals, although on a comparatively modest scale relative to the size of national economies. Some research indicates that the implementation of certain fair trade standards can cause greater inequalities in some markets where these rigid rules are inappropriate for the specific market. In the fair trade debate, there are complaints of failure to enforce the fair trade standards, with producers, cooperatives, importers and packers profiting by evading them.
Humanifesto was a Canadian hardcore punk music group from Montreal formed in 2004 by singer / bassist Phil Campeau and singer / guitarist Franck Chevrier, and which was active between 2004 and 2011. Over years, the band would perform over 100 shows in the Eastern Canadian area, sharing the stage with notable acts including Propagandhi, Strike Anywhere, The Video Dead, Chixdiggit and Hostage Life, and would go on to record two full-length albums, their debut A Declaration of Intent, followed by The Infamous as well as a split 7" vinyl EP All These Lives and a NOFX tribute album, released on 7" vinyl, titled Don't Eat Meat.
Days Difference was a pop/rock band that formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia in 2004. The quartet consists of Jeremy Smith, Jonathan Smith (drums), Micah Ricks and Jeremiah Ricks. The group released their debut album Numbers in 2007. Their self-titled album Days Difference was released on October 6, 2009 and marks the group's first major release on the Universal Motown Records label. In 2011, the band was signed to Universal Republic Records for the release of their next album. The band officially announced in September 2013 that they had been broken up since 2012.
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London, England in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson; former member Zayn Malik departed from the group in March 2015. The group signed with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records after forming and finishing third in the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2010.
Anthony Tyrone Evans, Jr. is an American Christian singer and songwriter. Evans has made six studio albums during his career as a musician: Even More in 2004 with Epic Records, Letting Go in 2006 with Integrity Music, The Bridge in 2006 with EMI Gospel, Undisguised in 2010 with INO Records, Home in 2011 with Fair Trade Services, and Real Life/Real Worship in 2014 with Fair Trade Services.
