When Al Newsom and his wife, Suzy, visited Brazil three and a half years ago, they came back with a business idea and aspirations to help the artists they had met.

The result: Blue Brazil Gallery, which sells fair trade Brazilian art near downtown Raleigh.

The Triangle is starting to see more businesses that describe their wares as fair trade. By doing so, these merchants are pledging that the artists, farmers and laborers who make the products being sold are paid fairly and have safe working conditions.

If you're familiar with the concept of fair trade, it's likely because of fair trade coffee.

In the fall of 2005, three major corporations -- McDonald's, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts -- added more muscle to the movement by announcing new commitments to sell more fair trade coffee.

But as fair trade gains steam, merchants and shoppers are finding it tough to know that the money from their well-intended purchase is ending up in the right hands.

The Newsoms say the artists they work with typically get 50 percent to 75 percent of the retail price.

"In a lot of cases we buy the art work outright," said Al Newsom. "They may need the money right then; they may be in a desperate situation."

The items in the Newsoms' gallery are not certified fair trade -- that is, it has no official stamp of approval from any group. Neither is most of the merchandise at Ten Thousand Villages, the largest fair trade retailer in the country, with more than 100 stores. That's because the only group certifying fair trade products, TransFair USA in California, looks at only food products. It marks those it approves with a black-and-white logo.

TransFair is working on new criteria for certifying textiles and other nonfood products. Until those become effective, retailers can join other groups, including the Fair Trade Federation and International Federation for Alternative Trade, to help authenticate their fair trade practices.

Otherwise, shoppers and retailers should base their decisions on reputation and ask questions if they doubt that an item is really fair trade, said Steve Long. Long owns a Raleigh natural- and organic-food store, Harmony Farms, with his wife, Nancy.

"It's very similar to the process of how do you know something is organic," he said. "It's very easy to ask certain questions that would be no-brainers if they really are fair trade."

Among those questions, Long suggested:

* Where is the product grown?

* Which countries does the item come from?

* And, in the case of coffee, where in the mountains it is grown?

"Then we say, 'Who is guaranteeing these growers are being taken care of?' " he said. "The [correct] answer would be that they absorb the cost of going there and making sure the farmers are being taken care of and [the distributors'] beans are coming from the right place."

Merchants who deal in fair trade are usually more than willing to give that information and more. They want their buyers to know the story behind the object and they want customers to understand why the price is higher.

"If you can't buy a sweet bell pepper at the farmers market for 75 cents, you probably shouldn't be able to buy a T-shirt for 75 cents," said Larry Larson of fair trade coffee company Larry's Beans in Raleigh. "This is a long process. We're a decade away at least before we see fair trade sweaters at Kohl's."

Ten Thousand Villages knows the origin of each item and makes sure the artists are paid at least 25 percent of the retail price, said Caroline Smith, marketing manager for the Raleigh store.

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