About Us

The Fair Trade Institute (FTI) is a scientific community that makes the world’s growing body of research and analysis of Fair Trade accessible to all. Through this interface, the Fair Trade Institute enhances dialogue and learning among academics and practitioners internationally and ultimately contributes to an improved understanding of Fair Trade and its impacts on the ground. Our goal is to enhance the depth of understanding of Fair Trade – its strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and potential – so as to provide a shared knowledge among Fair Trade stakeholders, constituting a framework to build a Fair Trade future.

Valéry Bezençon (Ph.D.) is the founder and co-director of the Fair Trade Institute. He is a professor at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

Laura Raynolds (PhD) is the new co-director of the Fair Trade Institute. She is the Director of the Center for Fair & Alternative Trade and Professor of Sociology at Colorado State University, USA.

The Center for Fair & Alternative Trade (CFAT) is a multidisciplinary research center which provides critical and scholarly studies of fair and alternative trade, product certification, worker rights, and other initiatives seeking to promote market-based social change.

CFAT advances research through projects & publications focusing on local, national, & global approaches to alleviating poverty & promoting sustainable development, education by teaming with students in guiding individual research projects supported by related courses, seminars, & funding opportunities, and outreach by connecting academic, policymaking, citizen, activist, business, & philanthropic communities through presentations, consultancies, & media forums.

For additional information please visit http://cfat.colostate.edu.