Q. Are producers better off?
A. Yes and no.
To be more precise – Are they better off than they would be without Fair Trade? Undoubtedly yes. Higher and more stable incomes. Greater power within the marketplace. Greater economic control over their fate + more economic options. Greater political power than they had before. Healthier environments (thanks to the success of organic farming), etc. The list goes on. For more see the dozens of academic studies at
The Fair Trade Institute and
The Center for Fair and Alternative Trade Studies
& Are the better off than they were 20 or 30 years ago?
Not always. This is because even as the growth of Fair Trade and farmer co-ops have been helping other factors have been working against the needs of small-scale farmers. Climate change is already throwing off weather patterns in a harmful way. Free trade agreements have flooded many developing countries with cheap subsidized crops from Northern countries. Governments farm credit programs have been slashed. The U.S. dollar is much weaker. This matters as around the world coffee and cocoa are priced in U.S. dollars and in places like Peru $1 might buy ½ what it did in 1990. This list goes on, too.

Q. . . . could (these farmers) support themselves now without the price premium of good-willed consumers?

A. I’m going to respectfully suggest this question leads the dialogue astray in three ways.

1 – There is in fact relatively little price-premium for Fair Trade goods. For example, at Equal Exchange most of our prices are the same or even lower than other organic NON-Fair Trade products of comparable quality.

2 – I’m guessing you’re overstating the role of good will. For example, a great many people who buy Fair Trade products are not aware that they are doing so and therefore good will is not a factor. They might buy our coffee just for the taste. Or because it’s the only organic Bolivian coffee at their store, or it’s the only coffee served at their college cafeteria.
(Yet, thankfully, for many thousands of people, good will DOES indeed play a role. And we’d contend that this is as it should be. We all should be making our choices – including economic choices like shopping – with curiousity and information and conscience. I don’t want to be forever ignorant of, or indifferent to, the consequences of the t-shirt, or orange juice or mutual fund I buy. I want to know that I’m participating in economic relationships that are not exploitative or taking advantage of someone else’s vulnerability.)

3 – It depends on what you mean by “support themselves”. For example, without Fair Trade maybe the farmer’s family would still eat, but less. They might go hungry once or twice or thrice a week. Yet they might still hang on. Or they might manage to hold on to their farm but they’ have to pull their girls out of school. Would either of those scenerios qualify as “supporting themselves”?

Q. Does Equal Exchange offer the business skills, organic farm practices, and personal empowerment they would need to succeed on the free market on quality alone.

A. Business skills? – Yes
Organic farm practices? – indirectly. We don’t pretend to be an agricultural extension service but the millions of extra dollars that we have paid in organic premiums over the years have directly supported the provision of training in organic farming.
Personal empowerment? Yes. Mostly via our robust support for democratic co-ops, but by other means too (which I think are apparent when you read our newsletters, annual reports, trip reports and so on.)

I am thrilled that sustainable food has made such a ripple here in the US and other developed countries that large producers want to source it. The realization that consumers care about something other than price is always enlightening, and that consciousness doesn’t go away once instilled. In fact, for something so regular as coffee I’d say it doesn’t go away even when economic times are tough (this is our health and the health of farmers and the environment). We’re healthier for it, more aware about where coffee comes from, and empowered to fight for trade justice.

Are producers better off? I’d be really interested to see the direct effects. One interesting way to look at it would be: in their trade, could they support themselves now without the price premium of good-willed consumers? Does Equal Exchange offer the business skills, organic farm practices, and personal empowerment they would need to succeed on the free market on quality alone. In other words, aside from the benefits of the business model, is it economically sustainable?

The movement will surely only grow from here. It’s especially important that it does keep its values, as that is entirely what it’s based on. And that will make sure that both farmers and consumers will be better off from a more enlightened and personal trade system.

-Eddie Miller
BU ’10
emiller@bu.edu