What's Missing from "Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide?"

The Fair Trade movement in the United States is growing and changing.  It is hard to keep up with the facts and figures, not to mention the individuals and organizations getting involved.  To try and help us all catch up I plan to do a simple update of my book, in PDF form, in time for Fair Trade Month in October.   I will do a chapter-by-chapter review, providing updates as I can as well as some questions for discussion given recent changes (ex. the use of plantations for Fair Trade certified flowers).

If you have topics you think missed in the book or updates that you'd like included, let me and other readers know by commenting and recommending sources of info and inspiration. 

You, Me and the Food Price Crisis

Yesterday I paid $1.75 for one tomato.  I was scrabbling around for a quick lunch to serve my mom, who is visiting from Atlanta.  Cheese and tomato sandwiches are always a good bet, so as I completed some morning errands I popped into a local organic supermarket . I try to make most of my household purchases organic and free-range, so I am used to having to pay a bit more for food.  But I was surprised: almost two dollars for one tomato.  Now don't worry, I am not about to whine about the price, because I try hard to be aware of the privilege I have in being able to pick and choose the types of food in my pantry.  In fact, I raise this point because my fleeting moment of surprise is somewhat ridiculous when people all over the world--including the United States--are struggling with food prices that are rising at double digit rates, and that is if they can find the food to purchase.

Analysts have listed a "perfect storm" of reasons for the crisis.  A recent NY Times editorial dubbed the prime consequence "Man-Made Hunger" created by irresponsible government farm subsidies and opportunistic energy policies.  There have been some factors outside the power of governments, such as drought, but another crisis-creating factor cited often is exponential consumer consumption in places like China and India.  Rethinking consumption, as I describe in Chapter 10 of my book, is something I believe that consumers in United States have a special obligation to do, for the benefit of both producers and consumers around the world.  I have been pondering how conscious consumers like you and I can best react to the growing economic global crisis.  

Certainly we can advocate for fairer government policies and we can tackle world-wide environmental issues like climate change that increase the likelihood of drought.  But what can we do on a personal level?  Many of us have been redoubling our efforts to live greener lives.   My home of Washington, DC even has a rock radio station that offers its listeners tips to protect the planet.   Although I am, of course, very gratified that more and more individuals and communities are thinking about ways they can recycle office paper, water bottles  and the like, I fear we are forgetting that "recycling" is the third R in a mantra to REDUCE, REUSE and then RECYCLE.  The first step is to reduce the number of things that we buy.  Reduction lowers the amount of waste that is created by excess, decreases the use of energy, and simplifies our complicated lives.  When we do need to bring a new item into our lives, we can take the chance to reuse something that is still useful, whether we buy it at a consignment or thrift store or obtain it free-of-charge from a community service such as the freecycle network.

As we consider growing poverty and hunger around the world, as we feel our own pocketbooks shrink in the face of $4.00 a gallon gasoline, I believe that now is the time to consider how many things we are buying.  Our daily lives can impact the daily lives of others even as we work through our own challenges.  In tough economic times it is easy to get fearful about our futures, to drown out the worries of others, but I believe the principles of Fair Trade--such as promoting sustainability and long-term partnerships--can help us navigate confusing and challenging times. If you have ideas for how, please post a comment.

Is it Alright to Promote "Domestic" Fair Trade?

Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that I caught up on reading and blogging during this holiday weekend. I see from a listserv that the Farm Labor Organizing Committee has organized a campaign asking the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company to be more transparent about their corporate structure so that advocates can effectively work to secure labor rights. Tens of thousands of farm workers in the Southeast plant, tend, and harvest tobacco for RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, but apparently the tobacco giant isn't willing to work with farm worker representatives of FLOC.

When I directed an AmeriCorps and EPA funded farmworker safety project I learned that tobacco sickness--which is basically a condition that comes from being exposed to tobacco--was one of the most prevalent illnesses farmworkers faced on a regular basis. That is in addition to pesticide exposure and concerns like dehydration. These kind of "safe and healthy working condition" issues that the working poor face in the United States seem to me a great opportunity to uplift Fair Trade principles and practices as an alternative way to do business. In fact, the Domestic Fair Trade Association works to "contribute to a movement for fairness, equity and sustainability that supports family-scale farming, farmer-led initiatives such as farmer co-operatives, just conditions for farm workers, and the strengthening of the organic agriculture movement." Companies like Equal Exchange are promoting domestic products such as pecans from my old stomping grounds of Georgia. For many years now, groups like SERRV have offered handmade products from projects such as The Enterprising Kitchen in Chicago, which helps low-income urban women succeed in the U.S. workforce.

But, for some advocates the declaration of these initiatives as "Fair Trade" blurs the distinctions around the "true" meaning of Fair Trade: partnerships to help the global south gain market access, restore equity in international trading practices, empower small-scale entrepreneurs etc. As a friend and colleague once put it (this is a paraphrase), "The needs of the American family farmer are of great concern, but somebody in Iowa struggling to make his payments on a tractor isn't suffering like a farmer in Bangladesh. The farmer in Bangladesh is who Fair Trade is concerned with."

This reminds me of a recent couple of articles in BusinessWeek.com, where some advocates (myself included) were quoted about whether or not Fair Trade standards are being watered down. Case in point was the entry of plantations--including those run by suspect companies such as Chiquita--into the Fair Trade system. Some advocates are concerned that mechanisms that stray from the original practices of Fair Trade, in this case small scale farming, dilute the power of Fair Trade and drift from the alternative nature of the system.

To me, it seems that we need to apply Fair Trade principles to the case of oppressed farmworkers in North Carolina and to landless plantation workers in Latin America. Doing so broadens our fight for economic justice. At the same time, we need to highlight and buy from those companies, such as Oke Bananas, which focus on farmer ownership and power sharing. It doesn't seem to me that we have to be exclusive in our efforts.

Perhaps this is naive or falling into the trap of "Fair Trade Lite." What do you think?