Fair Trade?

Many of us have heard the term "fair trade" in relation to coffee. Ideally, this means that the coffee was negotiated at a price with the grower(s) so they can make a better living off their products. For too long coffee growers have been living in poverty, because coffee companies take advantage of them, and pay way too little for coffees they grow. Fair trade was developed as a practice, in which fairer coffee pricing was negotiated and the farmers have a chance to pull themselves out of poverty. On various coffee packages, you may see a Fair Trade symbol indicating this practice.

Matt Earley, co-founder and Farmer Relations/Outreach Coordinator, for Just Coffee Cooperative in Madison, WI, believes the notion of Fair Trade hasn't worked, but it can. In piece written for Daily Coffee News he details the problems with Fair Trade, and some steps to turn the practice around. He argues with other critics that we should really be calling this, "slightly less unfair trade."

To be fair, there are coffee companies around the world who work with growers and cooperatives to assist farming communities achieve better standards of living. They help provide economic and educational assistance, as well as medical services to these communities. Earley would argue though, that these same companies are still bidding for the lowest price to pay for coffee, which they will markup and sell to you in a grande sized cup for $2.

Earley writes:

A lot of us who “do” what we have collectively identified as fair trade have been struggling mightily to prevent the term from being co-opted and carried off by the forces of big business, their friends, and their apologists. We have just not been able to stomach the idea that this moniker — one that so many have poured years of sweat equity into — can simply be taken away by folks in a real hurry to sell it to the lowest bidder. Even though many of these good people know that their time is better spent building their own visions, they find that they cannot quite stop fighting for the identity of “fair trade.”

Just seeing the Fair Trade label on the coffee is just that a marketing label. Earley believes that organizations have capitalized on this, so you will feel good about helping a farmer by buying this specific package of coffee. He believes that people are deeper than that.

In the article, Earley poses four steps to turn things around in the Fair Trade movement:

1) We need to build a movement, not a brand, because trade is only capable of doing so much

2) We need to create relationships with those who make or grow the things that we depend on

3) Labels are, by their very definition, severely truth-impaired

4) Don’t believe the hype

I encourage you to read the article, which is more in depth than what I am including in this posting. 

http://dailycoffeenews.com/2013/02/12/the-failure-of-fair-trade-and-four-steps-moving-forward/

There is also a series of videos about this issue, which the Just Coffee Cooperative produced detailing what they have learned about Fair Trade. Take a look at those.

http://fairtradechronicles.com

For those of us who love coffee, I think it's important for us to really look at what Fair Trade is, and what we can do to make sure it works better for the growers.

Charlie