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Editorials

CURRENT EDITORIAL

Producers First and Foremost
Éric St-Pierre
Eric St.-Pierre  

In its New Global Strategy for Fairtrade, FLO states that within the next few years, producer networks may take their place as fundamental actors of the system instead of being just the recipients of fairtrade. This endeavour has always been at the heart of the movement. But do producers really occupy the place that is rightfully theirs in this system?

For the past 15 years, my own fair trade has been centred on the families that are at the base of the system, on the field. This journey around the world of fair trade began in 1996 when, with Laure Waridel, I visited members of the Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Región del Istmo (UCIRI), in Mexico. Since then, I have visited 25 producer groups in 15 countries. Added up, these trips amount to almost two years living in direct contact with farmers, craftspeople and other workers in the fairtrade world.

What Brings Big Business to Fair Trade?
Alison Ward
Alison Ward   

It was the village of Bipoa in the Kumasi region of Ghana which helped provide the inspiration for the Cadbury Dairy Milk move to Fair Trade. Bipoa is set in the heart of Ghana’s cocoa growing area in the Kumasi region of Ghana.

I travelled to Bipoa in December 2008 with Martin Hill from the Fairtrade Foundation and Nicolas Adjei-Gyan from Kuapa Kokoo, a Fair Trade co-operative of farmers. Bipoa looks like many other cocoa villages and again, like so many, is reached by a dusty red road. Small children can be seen playing in the village square and chickens run around freely.

Bipoa was one of the first villages to become Fair Trade certified and is part of the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative, with a membership of around 50,000 farmers. The real difference, however, is obvious as soon as one meets the villagers.

The Changing Tide
Lowell Ewert
Lowell Ewert, University of Waterloo  

There is much to celebrate about Fair Trade. Its dramatic growth and increased acceptance as a legitimate social and economic movement are cause for optimism. That large corporations have started to dabble in marketing Fair Trade products is a further indication of its permanence in the marketplace. For a movement that began as an alternative and which still represents less than .01% of global trade, being emulated by transnational actors is a remarkable accomplishment.

This is, however, far less than the whole tale. The most inspiring aspect of the Fair Trade story remains largely untold. There has been a greater depth of influence and impact than is often explicitly acknowledged.

It’s important to remind ourselves that Fair Trade emerged from a global context which celebrated Milton Friedman’s mantra that the only social responsibility of business was to increase its profits, a philosophy that has today been rejected by almost every credible business and corporation.

Fair Trade: The Paradox of Global Social Change
John Kay
John Kay  

Like all great social change movements, Fair Trade is a messy and imperfect project.

A grassroots movement that for some emerged in opposition to global free trade eventually gave rise to an ambitious labeling and certification system that has now grown into a complex global organization. A simple yet powerful idea that began with small scale coffee farmers now spans a vast range of products that includes soccer balls and soon artisanal gold.  From the 1988 launch of the world’s first Fair Trade labelling initiative, Stichting Max Havelaar is today part of a worldwide network of twenty-three certifying bodies, that includes TransFair Canada, and three producer networks within the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) International.

The Fair Trade Miracle... How Did It Happen?
Jeff Moore
A photo of Jeff Moore, co-founder of Just Us! Coffee Roasters Coop  

In the face of the universal gospel of “free trade”, it was heresy. Yet it took hold and now that the global economy is in shambles, it stands as a potential model for doing business differently, globally and locally.

Or does it?

It started as a simple proposal in the late 80’s. At the height of “free trade” frenzy, aimed at breaking down all obstacles and obligations, political, social and environmental for international trade. The crass justification for free trade was that if those with wealth were able to maximize their profits, it would “trickle down” to everyone else. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith suggested that was akin to thinking “if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows”.

Rather than, or perhaps in addition to, the high-minded but ultimately hopeless protests at the time, the idea of Fair Trade was to make a concrete proposal – concrete ideas that would foster concrete actions.


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