Thanks so much for your articulate and insightful comments. I couldn’t agree with you more – on every one of your points.

I think that one of the weaknesses within the Fair Trade movement is that we have allowed the message of Fair Trade to be simplified to “look for the seal”, implying somehow that “all you have to do is buy this product and change will happen.” I actually believe that sending this “dumbed down” message out to the world does a disservice to producers and is somewhat patronizing and insulting to consumers.

The more powerful message of Fair Trade is that it is about changing relationships, building economic and political power for producers, educating consumers and “sparking” them to start by changing their consumption patterns, but to keep going from there.

I believe that if the Fair Trade movement continued pushing the envelope, so to speak, we’d be at the table with those trying to make change through policy channels and in partnership with the buy local movement.

If these movements could align themselves more closely, we would be able to truly build a much larger and more powerful movement that could effectively challenge “business as usual” and take back our food system so that it works for US.

Thanks… and please keep commenting! I’d love to continue this dialogue.

phyllis

I don’t want to be misunderstood here – I am an avid supporter of Fair Trade companies and products, as well as greener, more sustainable producers. But we can’t change the world by free market activism alone.

I get the feeling many within the Fair Trade movement do get this – the folks I have worked with push for transparency, fairness, and environmental responsibility – not just because it’s good for their business, or because their customers expect it, but because they believe it is the right thing to do for ALL business.

Fair Trade certainly won’t end up being the model for all business, not even all imports from the developing world, but it can certainly act as A model, and as a beacon, and as a loud voice that all trade, global and local, needs to change to become more sustainable, equitable and transparent. Whether it’s direct trade, FAir Trade, Whole Trade – all these things should be a means to an end not an end in themselves. And that end willl take voting with dollars, voting with our feet, voting with our voices and, errrm, voting with our votes.

Thanks for raising your voice.

I think one reason why Fair Trade’s profile in this discussion is lower than you’d expect given Fair Trade’s relatively higher profile in cafés & on grocery store shelves is that so much of the volume of Fair Trade food in the U.S. is handled by corporations (eg Starbucks, McD’s, even Dunkin Donuts) who rarely weigh in on the bigger food system debate.

In fact even among the dozens of smaller food firms that have a strong commitment to sourcing and selling Fair Trade foods only a handful of us (Equal Exchange, Deans Beans, Just Coffee, La Siembra and a few others) tend to ever get on a soapbox and speak up on these bigger issues like the food bill, or the plight of U.S. small farmers. And together we few represent only maybe 10-15% of the total volume of Fair Trade imports.

Regardless, speaking as one whose job is to work with the media, I think one place to start is to better communicate to journalists and other ‘thought leaders’ how Fair Trade, and its long track record, have much to offer in the broader effort to reform how the world’s food is grown, traded, processed, marketed, distributed and consumed.

I worry that the take over of the Fair Trade/Organic (and possibly soon even the Local) movement by major corporations has hurt it tremendously. Allowing corporations like Walmart and Startbucks to get in on the FT and ORG labels was a mistake. Sure they increased volume but they watered down the driving emotions that started the movement, such as solidarity, empowerment, and cooperative businesses.

Now the word is getting out that the movement has been compromised. (See this article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5429888.ece?Submitted=true). And now consumers are burnt out and distrustful of Fair Trade. How many of these consumers will be motivated to re-examine what Fair Trade is all about?

Hopefully the core movers and shakers (newcomers and old timers alike) will stick to their guns and continue to take close, hard looks at the companies that bring food to the table.