awareness on workers’ welfare. When your country is a huge importer of flowers, where they come from and how they are cultivated, does matter. “From one shop in the central station 20 years ago, today, you can find fair-trade flowers even in the supermarkets of Leipzig”, says Juliane. But, have we lost the capacity to grow our own flowers? Or have we pushed the limit, that it has become a need to import flowers? The final stop was the Weltladen (Worldshop), a store exclusively for fair trade products. The first Worldshop was established in 1969 in the Netherlands. Today, they are found in several cities and towns all over Europe. Some of them are non-profit organizations that also offer educational workshops for various age groups. The fair trade movement became popular in the mid20th century as an alternative to conventional trade practices. It has evolved over time to improve trading relationships between countries and protecting the rights of marginalized labour. The certification process may vary based on the product. Amongst textiles, there are several certifications like Global Organic Textile Standard
(GOTS), Fair Wear Foundation, Fairtrade Certified Cotton and so on. Each of them have their own criteria and are different from one another. Some focus on the raw material only, while some take into consideration every stage of production – from harvesting cotton to labelling the clothes. Personally, the walk raises critical questions about our lifestyle choices by revisiting a few examples from our everyday life. The information that this line of questioning leads to, empowers us as citizens. This enables each of us to make choices within our capacity. “The walk itself, was used as a methodology to reach out to the younger population on topics such as globalization and consumerism”, says Juliane. Having developed the idea over a period of 15 years, the organizers alter the route based on their theme, every time they do the walk. The Body shop (standing up for animal protection), Deutsche bank (criticism on financial investments in projects in third world countries), Reformhaus (selling regional and ecofriendly products), McDonald’s (criticism for promoting unhealthy food, cruelty to animals, labour exploitation and more)
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