Read what the New York Times had to say about TransFair USA’s departure from the FLO International Fair Trade System, their lowering of the Fair Trade standards, and their controversial decision to allow plantations to compete with small farmer co-ops in the Fair Trade System. The article appeared on the front page of the Business Section on Thanksgiving Day. Let us know what you think!
Click here to hear the NPR interview with Rink Dickinson and for a link to the Mother Jones piece about this latest Fair Trade controversy.
Small Farmers. Big Change. 
It’s not necessary for a product to be certified ‘Fairtrade’ to be actually an example of fairer trade. My biggest criticism of Fairtrade is the lack of information with each product, such as who made or farmed it, under what conditions, and for what daily pay? And as far as I understand, Third World farmers have to pay for ‘Fairtrade’ accreditation, meaning that the smaller, poorer farms cannot afford to get ‘Fairtrade’ approval, even though they tick all the right boxes.
We were the first to import ethically sourced coffee to the UK back in 1976. It was years before Fairtrade started… But we created a stir when we imported almost 3 tonnes of instant coffee from Tanzania to the UK to help support manufacturing in the Third World. Our labelling was unique, and featured a photo of a pile of coins, showing who-got-what for the price of a jar of coffee. With the coffee came a booklet called, “The World In Your Coffee Cup.” We provided sufficient reading material to last several cups of coffee! Last month BBC radio interviewed me about our pioneering ‘Campaign Coffee’, that helped to start the idea of ethically sourced coffee in Great Britain. The broadcast is now available on YouTube (4 minutes):