Ethical Trade Co. focuses on sustaining companies that support the marginalized

By Jeff Randall, Eastside News

On a recent Saturday after a workout, I found myself in the YMCA sauna sharing the space with a young MBA candidate who was reading Adam Smith’s 1776 tome on capitalism — “The Wealth of Nations.” My seat-mate explained Smith was the first to lay out the philosophy of economics. Businesses and nations are by and large still enthralled by these ideas on wealth and luxury, approaching 250 years on.

An hour later, I met with James Ferrett of the Ethical Trade Co., whose shop very recently relocated from the East­morland Community Center (it was razed and is being rebuilt) to Trinity Lutheran Church on Winnebago and First streets, in the Atwood neighborhood. Like many people, I suspect, I associate fair trade with expensive and dowdy. To say I was pleasantly surprised is a major understatement.

Ferrett and his business partner Manuel Ramminger have been curating a really stylish and useful physical space for the past 10 years, as well as an online presence. Of course, this nonprofit doesn’t just have an eye for really useful and beautiful items (clothing, blankets, foods, teas, etc.) but these items spring forth in a world of cheaply made products and an exploitative marketplace that Adam Smith could speak to.

Ferrett explained there is a lot of research that goes into validating the companies that they work with. Like checking what these companies purport to do and if they provide wages that support producers.

While he gets sponsors and writes grants to fund the business, and relies on volunteers to run the store, the nonprofit’s focus is on sustaining companies in the U.S. and around the world that offer living wages to individuals in marginalized communities. This is a long-term investment. An analogy is: teaching someone to milk a cow rather than supplying a gallon of milk repeatedly. Giving workers business versus short-term aid.

Ferrett has a sticker that reads, “Every time you spend money you are casting a vote for the type of world you want.”

While there are a few ethical fair trade businesses in Madison, like coffee roasters, Ethical Trade Co. is the only online and retail store around. Admittedly, it is more work to seek out the shop, just as it is considerable work to do research into the national and more than 50 international organizations it partners with.

This holiday season, consider the Ethical Trade Co. — not just because it is the right thing to do. If its philosophy doesn’t sell you, the beautiful and flavorful curated items will. Items like blankets from Kolkata, India or olive oils from the West Bank.

“The goal is to provide modern stuff you use every day,” Ferrett said.

The store, 1904 Winnebago St., is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, to browse what Ethical Trade Co. sells or to place an order, visit ethicaltradeco.com.