Conventional Agriculture on the Free Market

The conventional market is not a good bet to get out of poverty for the majority of the world's farmers, hence the continual government subsidizing of American producers so they never feel the pinch and keep global prices artificially low for major industry thereby perpetuating the poverty in developing nations. In other words, the market price is not reflective of the true cost of cotton as a result of Western government intervention by continually subsidizing their farmers. Secondly, developing nations face Western government regulations banning all trade due to issues such as the common practice of forced child labour in impoverished nations. Banning trade only serves to deepen the existing poverty and provides an additional rational for the dehumanizing practice; it doesn't provide any opportunity or model for change. Thirdly, the prices quoted on the conventional market are not indicative of the price farmers receive from the lowest rung of middlemen between the farmer and the ports. It comes as little surprise there are ongoing issues such as forced child labour in impoverished regions; within its own twisted logic due to the artificially low market prices made lower by middlemen, child labour is the obvious answer to keeping a family alive. When we make a direct comparison between conventional trade and Fair Trade it becomes quite clear there is a need for Fair Trade to become a world standard versus simply an alternative to Business as Usual with the systematic exploitation of people and resources as embraced in conventional trade.