Yes I personally support fair trade whenever possible, I am lucky to have a co-op near by who stock a vast array of fair trade goods, I also have a small independent shop as well which only sells fair trade. Although not everything I need is fairtrade, I do my best. I think its a brilliant scheme!

Most of the vegans I know buy everything that they can from farmer's markets, whole foods, grow their own vegetables and buy fair trade and sweat shop free clothing as well. Quite a few of us refuse to shop at Walmart also because of the treatment of their employees and their buy-out practices.

Buying produce from farmer's markets is a way to avoid patronizing conglomerates that cheat share-croppers. In general most vegans at some point become very conscious of the exploitation of humans as well as non-human animals.

BTW- I as a vegan became more conscious of this stuff after reading "Motorcycle Diaries" and "Omnivore's Dilemma".

Interesting question.

I buy fair trade as much as possible and try to buy as many items from the UK as I can. I try not to buy anything such as clothes that are just labelled as 'made in china' etc where I can't trace the origins.

Admittedly though, I'm not as strict about food when it comes to fair trade as I am about food being vegan. I may for example eat a fruit salad at a restaurant without checking whether it's fair trade. On the other hand I will always check whether a meal is vegan. I think my main justification for this (although I haven't really thought much about it up until now) is that yes, there's a chance the workers could be exploited but there is a difference between exploitation and cruelty. Workers may not get as much money as they should but they still have some kind of freedom to live as they please. Animals on the other hand have no choice in the matter. The way I see it... I think in terms of what I would find acceptable for myself. I would be able to handle not getting paid much... obviously I wouldn't like it but I could excuse it. I would not on the other hand think it acceptable for someone to impregnate me year after year, steal my babies and then have machines suck milk out of me.

So anyway, yes I do feel strongly about human exploitation. If I had a choice between buying less of something that is traded fairly than something cheap and exploitative then I will go for the fair choice. I don't buy things that could be made in sweat shops like items from primark of even designer clothes or shoes. I do however feel more strongly towards vegan issues than I do fairtrade.