Fairtrade

Fairtrade

1. Summary

   • Fairtrade aims to bring 'distant strangers' of poor farming communities into the world of concern of Northern consumers. Early fair trade based on the credibility of NGO'S e.g. Oxfam.
   • Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers. It’s about supporting the development of thriving farming and worker communities that have more control over their futures and protecting the environment in which they live and work.

2. Shift in the imagines from poor farmers, to tourist landscapes of 'quality', to movie, television and music celebrity endorsers

   • Mainstream good?
     • Pros: Fairtrade would of reached saturation point. Ethically sourced products reach more people. Market growth= more money going back to farmers and others. More people know about fair-trade. Positive value to famers.
     • Cons: Dilution of religious and community movement. Big food companies able to deflect criticism of their business practices through the 'halo' effect. Quality requirements of fair-trade goods are a barrier to entry for some of the most marginal farmers/producers wanting to take part in fair trade.
     • Celebrities’ involvement could be more ‘noise’ than ‘signal’ Distract audiences from the more substantive aspects of campaigns Practice of caring diluted to superficial media appearances.  Reduction of poverty attached to the politics of personalized taste. If I don’t like U2’s music or Johansson’s movies, chances are I might not be willing to listen to their messages about development.
   • Images/descriptions of famers, and their livelihoods, benefits of fair trade market participation- that works to create a moral economy between fair trade producers and consumers. These became too ethical therefore this maintained perceptions of poor quality of goods.
   • Celebrity campaign - different foods were placed in various people’s mouths bringing a new level of ‘performativity’ to fair trade media
   • Celebrities are the most important figures in activist media-scales and lend their voices and 'heavenly bodies' to campaigns (Boykoff and Goodman, 2009)
   • Celebrities have the power to frame issues in a manner that attracts visibility and new channels of communication at the mass as well as the elite levels. Celebrities help reach an audience which you wouldn’t otherwise get to, one which doesn’t listen to institutions but responds to people”. (Cooper, 2008, p. 7) HEAD OF OXFAM

3. History of Fair-trade

   • In 1940s, the Mennonite Central Committee and SERRV fair trade supply chains in developing countries. Handicraft were mostly sold by volunteers in 'charity stores' or 'ethnic shops'. Goods themselves had often no other function than to indicate that a donation had been made
   • In 1965 first Alternative Trading Organisation created: Oxfam’s Helping by Selling [Bridge] Sold imported handicrafts in Oxfam stores and mail-order catalogues (circulation ~ 100,000). Aim - to support the work of cooperatives and community enterprises in the developing world
   • Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of volunteers sold coffee from Angola and Nicaragua in Worldshops, in the back of churches. Using the products as a vehicle to deliver their message: give disadvantaged producers in developing countries a fair chance on the world’s market, and you support their self-determined sustainable development.
   • 1980s: handicrafts to commodities Fall of agricultural commodity prices e.g. collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989 Commodities more successful on the market, renewable source of income for producers and substitute to the stagnating handicrafts market 1992, 80% handcrafts to 20% agricultural goods. 2002: handcrafts accounted for 25.4% of sales 2002 Oxfam abandon its loss-making handcrafts trading program after 27 year
   • Fair trade’s Faustian Bargain – mainstreaming, increasing quality and more money going back to poor. But bringing in supermarkets, barriers to entry and a growing opaqueness to its transparency. expand distribution without compromising consumer trust in fair trade products and in their origins. To “strike a Faustian bargain” is to be willing to sacrifice anything to satisfy a limitless desire for knowledge or power.
   • 1988: first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar. Solidaridad imported Mexican coffee into European markets and selling it with a 'Max Havelaar' seal to indicate that it had been obtained under specific fair trade conditions. Independent certification allowed goods to be sold outside worldshops Label allowed customers and distributors to confirm that the products were really benefiting the producers at the end of the supply chain
   • Initially, each label had their own Fairtrade standards, product committees and monitoring systems. In 1997 creation of Fairtrade Labelling Organisation International (FLO) In 2002 launched a new International Fairtrade Certification mark. Over 20 Labelling Initiatives are members of FLO International.

4. Starbucks

   • Boycott by Oxfam and Organic Consumers Association of Starbucks
     • In 2009 Starbuck announced partnership with Fairtrade. Making it the world's biggest buyer of Fairtrade-certified coffee. “During that time we’ve funded more that $14 million in farmer loans to Fairtrade co-operatives as part of an ongoing commitment to helping farmers to manage risk and strengthen their business”.
       • Promoting ‘Third World’ development is an established part of the Starbucks experience designed for anyone - who can sip a Fairtrade coffee in a Starbucks anywhere in the world.
   • OCA criticises Starbucks. 99% is ethically sourced, mix of Fairtrade and the rest of Starbucks' coffees are "ethically sourced," But Starbucks' self-certified coffees do not have to pass any outside review, only the company's own criteria and in-house standards. Caffè Nero? put "Fair Trade" prominently on its website although they don't actually sell Fairtrade coffee