A Thinking Reed

Follow up on fair trade

Written by

Lee M.

in


Thanks to Siel (the “green LA girl”) for stopping by and offering some informative links on the fair trade coffee issue. I found this overview (PDF) from Oxfam particularly helpful.

Commenters raised some good points. First, even if “in the long run” fair trade doesn’t raise prices for farmers, it’s offering concrete help to people now. Secondly, fair trade co-ops offer farmers ways to circumvent middlemen and exporters, helping to break the virtual monopoly enjoyed by a handful of companies, as well as giving them access to market information and credit at non-extortionate rates.

Comments

6 responses to “Follow up on fair trade”

  1. Steven

    Dear Blogkeeper,

    Thank you kindly for this clarification.

    shalom,

    Steven

    Reply
  2. jack perry

    I would mention that I think Keynes’ remark to be terribly wrong-headed. (“In the long run, we’re all dead.”) Based on that point of view, one might as well praise the Bush administration for its gargantuan deficit spending, which helped prevent a depression after Sept. 11th.

    However, Keynes was using that phrase to justify massive government intervention, which is not terribly amenable to capitalism. That’s not what Fair Trade is doing: it’s using capitalism precisely for what it’s for. FT is increasing competition by offering a new kind of product that people weren’t able to choose before. The fact that the appeal of this product is immaterial (“moral self-gratification” or whatever they sneer) has no bearing on the fact that it is flexing the gears of capitalism.

    Go, FT, go. If I drank coffee, I’d buy it. Alas, I detest the stuff. How can something smell so good and taste so bad?!?

    Reply
  3. Siel

    Jack! I’m horrified at your dismissal of all coffee! 😉

    Kidding — but just in case you’re a tea guy, there’s lots of yummy fair trade certified tea out there. And fair trade chocolate too!

    Reply
  4. Joshie

    The place I use is http://www.sacred-grounds.com (all organic and fair-trade) out of Arcata, CA. They’re super friendly and they have a coffee club where they send you 2 12 oz. bags of coffee a month (that’s what I do).

    They also have tea and cocoa. I don’t know if they have kool-aid for Jack. You can email and ask.

    Reply
  5. Iain

    There’s another whole set of questions that need to be answered; as well as asking about the effect it has on the farmers, what about the effect it has on you?

    If you are willing to knowingly buy (unfairly traded)coffee that does incredible harm to people by keeping them in real absolute poverty (can’t feed clothe or educate their families adequately), what sort of a person are you? Are you happy with acting in this way? What sort of toll is it taking on you? Are you confident that you can account for your actions before God?

    Reply
  6. jack perry

    If you are willing to knowingly buy (unfairly traded)coffee that does incredible harm to people by keeping them in real absolute poverty (can’t feed clothe or educate their families adequately), what sort of a person are you?

    Poor, sometimes, and in desperate need of a jolt.

    I’m not one of those people myself (as I said, I don’t drink coffee), but I started imagining who might be.

    Reply

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