During the study abroad component at the Las Nubes EcoCampus in Costa Rica, students engage with farmers who belong to producer cooperatives to study the economic, sociolegal, ecological and political impacts of fair trade. This course offers an experiential education opportunity for students to see firsthand how an alternative trading regime works to promote sustainable development and trade justice. Students engage with the history and practice of fair trade through literature review. Students then travel to Costa Rica to study local farming cooperatives and the effects of fair trade on communities and surrounding ecosystems. Special attention is paid to the challenges that small scale farmers face in accessing global markets, especially the markets of the Global North, and explore the ways in which NGOs such as Fairtrade International aim to overcome such barriers through alternative governance practices. Students critically examine the ways in which UN Social Development Goals can be promoted within this alternative form of development, and compare and contrast voluntary self-governance with the institutionally mandated compliance required for fair trade certification.