Stories from our Team: Fatherhood, Fair Trade, and Building a Better Future

At a Fair Trade Certified™ tea farm in Jiangxi, China, father and son He Xinren and He Fushan work side by side harvesting tea and helping lead their farming community. Fair Trade has helped strengthen the farm’s future by supporting stable market access and better prices, creating new opportunities for the next generation.

Fair Trade Fathers Reflect on Family, Purpose, and Impact

This Father’s Day, we’re celebrating the dads who work every day to create brighter futures for their children. Across the globe, fathers share a common goal: providing opportunities, security, and a better life for the next generation. Fair Trade helps make that possible by supporting safer working conditions, stronger livelihoods, and community investments that help families thrive. 

We asked fathers on the Fair Trade Certified™ team what Fair Trade means to them, how parenthood shapes their work, and what they’ve learned from farmers and workers in the field. Their reflections highlight the importance of leading with your values, showing up with integrity, and helping to build the type of future you want to see.  

What does Fair Trade mean to you as a father?   

As a father, Fair Trade means sustainability, dignity, and equity. It is the assurance that the hard work put into the land today translates into a stable, secure future for our children. It ensures that fathers in agricultural communities can earn a fair living, allowing them to provide proper nutrition, healthcare, and education for their families without compromise. 

 

Cédric T.
Cocoa Specialist, Producer Services

One of my most basic goals is that my kids grow up to be thoughtful, conscientious adults, who understand that they are part of a community that’s much bigger than them. In my house, Fair Trade is an important part of that. When I’m at the grocery store with my five-year-old, he’ll point out the Fair Trade label on a package of raspberries, and say “look daddy, it’s your co-worker!” I love that he recognizes our label and is already starting to understand that we get to eat delicious raspberries because of the hard work of farmworkers in another country. That knowledge helps us have conversations about how we are all connected, and we all have responsibilities to one another.

 

John G.
Director of Producer Services

It means that I have an opportunity to provide for my kids and family with products that help provide for the families of the producers who harvest, grow, catch, and create those products. Equity and justice are core values for our family and it is important to us to lead by example for our kids – to “walk the talk” wherever we can. Buying Fair Trade products is an incredibly easy and accessible way to do that.

 

Billy L.G.
Senior Director of Communications

It means ensuring a fair chance for parents everywhere. As a dad, I know the universal desire to provide food, safety, and a good education for your kids. Fair Trade guarantees that farmers and workers receive the fair wages and safe conditions they need to lift their own families up. It bridges the gap between my family and families across the globe, uniting us in a shared demand for human dignity and respect.

 

Nathaniel P.
Data Scientist, Impact, Research, and Learning

Saifuddin Zuhri is a coffee farmer on a Fair Trade Certified farm in Indonesia. Inspired and supported by his father, he attended university and returned to his home village to become a coffee father. His education made it possible to open his own coffee shop on his farm.

How does your family impact your decision to pursue mission-driven roles? 

They are my moral compass. I want my children to grow up seeing that a career can—and should—be driven by purpose. Working in a mission-driven role allows me to model the values of empathy and responsibility that I teach at home. By fighting for a more just world today, I am helping build the ethical, sustainable future that I want my own children to inherit tomorrow.

 

Nathaniel P.
Data Scientist, Impact, Research, and Learning

My family is my primary driver. Every time I think about the world I want my children to grow up in, it reinforces my commitment to sustainable agriculture and fair supply chains. Pursuing a mission driven role allows me to lead by example, showing my children that professional success can and should go hand in hand with positive social impact and community empowerment.

 

Cédric T.
Cocoa Specialist, Producer Services

We want to raise kids with a foundation of doing what is right, with compassion and care for others. We try to lead by example as parents by living our values. Buying Fair Trade and similarly ethically sourced products is one way to do that. Dedicating our careers to making a positive impact on the world is another. Whether they choose to follow a career path that is mission-driven like I have or not, my sincere hope is that by virtue of seeing how we as parents live our values, that they will carry that with them wherever they go and whatever they choose to do professionally. We need those values in every sector and every community.

 

Billy L.G.
Senior Director of Communications

Before we had kids, my career was for me. Now I work for my family. I know that’s also true of every parent at every Fair Trade Certified factory and farm I’ve visited. Farmers and workers are able to translate their hard work into stronger, more resilient communities where their kids can thrive. I deeply value that my work at Fair Trade helps me give my kids the life that my partner and I envision for them and also helps so many other parents who produce Fair Trade Certified products do the same for their children. 

 

John G.
Director of Producer Services

Mohamed Shabudin, a pitloom weaver at a certified factory in Bihar, India, is proud to support his five children through his craft. As a father, he values the opportunity to provide better educational opportunities for his family through Fair Trade. Mohamed is also serving on a Fair Trade Committee, helping improve access to healthcare and other benefits for fellow workers and their families.

How have you seen fatherhood make a difference in the field?

I often see fathers acting as true pillars of transformation. I’ve witnessed cooperative members and community leaders who are intentionally investing in the future. For instance, many fathers are champions in the fight against child labor, actively setting up remediation projects and ensuring their children stay in school. They act as role models, teaching the next generation modern, climate-smart agricultural skills, while passing down the values of solidarity and hard work. 

 

A brief inspiration from the field: 

When working with cocoa and agricultural cooperatives, nothing is more rewarding than seeing a father proudly talk about his children going to university or taking over a modernized, sustainable farm. Fair Trade gives these fathers the tools to transform farming from a cycle of vulnerability into a proud legacy. 

 

Cédric T.
Cocoa Specialist, Producer Services

As a member of the Producer Services Team, I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to have had many opportunities to connect directly with farmers, workers, and fishers in countries all over the world. I’ve met so many inspiring fathers in the field, who have helped me understand the kind of dad I want to be.  

 

Earlier this year I participated in a workshop on child labor in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire with about two dozen cocoa farmers, almost all of whom were fathers. They shared stories of what it was like growing up in cocoa producing communities, and how they feel their children have more opportunities now than they did. As members of the Fair Trade program, they’ve invested Fair Trade Community Development Funds in schools, busses, and uniform fees so that their kids can be in school instead of on the farm. For those fathers, Fair Trade isn’t just some set of rules they need to follow on the farm. It’s a fundamental part of how they give their kids the future they envision.  

 

John G.
Director of Producer Services

I’ve seen so many examples of the care and considerations fathers have when put in a position of having agency and self-determination. There are so many stresses related to fatherhood – expectations around being the breadwinner, taking care of the family’s financial security, being a protector, coaching and teaching our kids. It is a lot, even when we don’t acknowledge it. For fathers who work in physically demanding jobs that require a lot of hours, not being able to come home w/ the financial means to meet those expectations is defeating and puts far too many fathers in the wrong kind of mindset and mood to be the dad that they want to be.  

 

I have seen the pride in men’s faces when showing off the improvements they have been able to make to their homes or in their villages from Community Development Projects. I have felt the enthusiasm from them when talking about the scholarships that their kids have received from their cooperative. I know that the ripple effects of that are felt by their partners and children, and throughout their communities. There is a lot of hidden pain and insecurity that fathers face, often alone. I have seen the difference that empowerment can make for them, their families, and their communities. 

 

Billy L.G.
Senior Director of Communications

Lasting Legacies

This Father’s Day, we celebrate the fathers whose hard work, leadership, and care help strengthen families and communities around the world. Their stories share how the Fair Trade mission helps create opportunities for parents to provide for their children, invest in their futures, and build lasting legacies.