Fair Trade; Fairly Obvious?

If you every actually try to sit down and work out who is trying to do what in the area of ethical trading, you'll be due a headache. The increasing number of branded non-profit organisations and NGOs is making consumers who buy ethically sourced products very confused indeed.

My initial mission to "Come out to Latin America to work in Fair Trade" is an admission in this confusion itself; Fair Trade is but one brand amongst a range that are out there representing ethical trading and sourcing, admittedly with more profile than others. Recently it has enjoyed a rise in awareness and publicity with the partnering of various large companies such as Cadbury, Starbucks and Sarah Lee all sourcing Fair Trade commodities. However, many people feel that Fair Trade has diverged from its original purpose with these developments and it was very interesting to read an interview with one of the founders, Frans Van Der Hoff, regarding the evolution of Fair Trade on the Equal Exchange blog. To quote:

"The interview couldn’t have come at a better time. Consumer confusion about the goals and impact of Fair Trade vs. other brands and certifications is at an all-time high. And that should come as no surprise. The certifying agencies (FLO International and Transfair USA) have watered down the purpose and integrity of the movement, aiming for dollars over mission, breadth over depth, as they lower standards to increase the number of products available on the shelves...

...somewhere along the line, the certifiers began marketing Fair Trade as a poverty alleviation strategy, rather than an economic transformation model as it was originally intended. Alleviation means, “to lessen (pain, for example); to make more bearable.” Fair Trade was actually created to provide producers with a basic level of security, a social net to raise people out of abject conditions so that they would have the ability to approach their situations with more complex strategies, not to alleviate, but to change their economic conditions.

The original founders of Fair Trade knew that economic conditions don’t change by extending charity. They understood the far more impactful goal of supporting farmer organizations so that together, the farmers can tackle the myriad issues which will enable them to create better conditions for themselves. Organized farmers build economic and political power, create social programs, lobby governments, enlist the collaboration of others by building solidarity networks. This is the true power (and potential) of Fair Trade."

It is interesting to see how an organisation that is seen to have achieved so much is to some extent becoming a victim of its own success, and how the directors will seek to capitalise on their successes without comprimising the basis of the brand. One key difference for me is the divergence of seeking to support farmer organisations and the social stability and benefits that they bring, over increasing awareness of a brand, much as any other corporation with less ethical designs on sourcing would.

Lima, Peru
5th Novermber 2009

Full Flavour Behaviour

The SolCafe beneficio stands beside the main road into Managua, a collection of dispersed concrete buildings and warehouses surrounding a large concrete patio and field that is completely covered with coffee beans drying in the sun; its here that the farmers of the CECOCAFEN cooperative bring their coffee beans from the surrounding region to be weighed and sold. Emerging through the front gate with Rachel, with whom I’ve been lucky enough to spend the last week understanding more about the world of ethical trading, we commence a tour of all the buildings to greet everyone on-site and search for Rachel’s partner Simon who, it turns out, is being shown large and complicated coffee processing machines in one of the warehouses by a proud figure of authority. We’re here to do a tasting, comparing the coffee that the owners of the cooperative are currently selling to the national market against a range of other coffees that Rachel has taken from the local supermarket shelves.

Assembled in the beneficio’s coffee lab and surrounded by the rich odour of toasted and ground beans, Rachel, Simon and I are joined by the resident tasters and a couple of guys who are responsible for the beneficio’s nationally distributed consumer coffee brand, Café Nica. Solemnly, cups are placed around a rotating table in groups of four for each of the six varieties that we will perform a blind taste test with, and ground coffee is distributed among the cups. We are duly handed marking sheets, and instructed how to engage in the process of evaluating a cup.

The first step is to describe the odour of the dry ground coffee. Following instructions, I place my hand over the top of the cup and sniff deeply through the small aperture between my thumb and finger. Owing to my enthusiasm for the exercise a notable amount of coffee goes up my nose and while I try I ignore the tickling in the back of my nasal cavity I focus on the list of adjectives in Spanish on my sheet, which include vocabulary such as ‘nutty’ and ‘floral’. The table spins in front of me and I realise that I have no time to ponder the poetics of my cup; there are another twenty three to go. I frantically sniff and write, extending my nose to the very limits of its abilities.

Next the granules are soaked, with boiled water poured over them, and a fresh round of sniffing commences. Each cup is ‘broken’ by stirring the layer of floating granules on the top of the water with a spoon, causing them to sink and release an aroma. I succeed in not inhaling any hot coffee through my wary nostrils.

It’s time for the tasting. Rachel shows us how it’s done with a cup of water for practise, sharply sucking in the liquid from a spoon with a slightly open mouth before swilling the liquid around the mouth and spitting it out into a big metal bin beside the revolving table. We try with varying degrees of success, and are firmly put in our place when one of the in house tasters demonstrates the technique, producing a sound when taking the liquid like a sheet of heavy material ripping. We are all suitably impressed.

Table revolutions begin anew, and this time I juggle the descriptions of the acidity, body and flavour of the coffee (earthy, buttery, full, bitter…) and I finish the tasting with a scruffy sheet marked seemingly randomly with descriptive words and give a rather faltering explanation to the group in Spanish as to my decisions on the best and worst coffees. I’ve fortunately managed to avoid insulting the beneficio’s coffee (it came up at number two of six), but sadly my Neanderthal palette fell foul of the cheapest and nastiest sample, which in a fit of confusion I decided was worth of the top spot.

It’s all a very interesting exercise and fascinating when you start to think about the almost infinite variations of flavours possible by tinkering with the different types of beans, blends and various stages of processing, but to be honest I’m a long way off being able to brandish lavish descriptions of something that I usually just use as a tool to pull me out of my early morning semi-comas.

Matagalpa, Nicaragua
16th October 2009

A Rather Unpleasant Business

Now, I'm generally thought of as a mild mannered sort of chap, but a blog article from the folks at Equal Exchange that popped up in my RSS inbox recently got me a bit cross.

It seems that the looming multinational banana corporate Dole Food Company has been caught in no uncertain terms funding right wing paramilitary groups in Colombia to, among other things, murder union leaders and organizers, use terror tactics to discourage workers from joining unions or negotiating collective bargaining agreements with Dole and driving small farmers from their land to allow Dole to plant bananas. All pretty shoddy stuff, and my fingers are crossed for positive progress with a lawsuit that has just been filed against Dole.

Some very strong reasons cited on Equal Exchange's "Small Farmers, Big Change" blog that have caused me to cite this recent legal development in an effort to increase awareness in what small way I can, are as follows:

1) An international human rights organization, the International Rights Advocates, is asking people to take action. Labor rights activists feel that pressure is needed to bring justice to the plaintiffs in this case.

2) These lawsuits are occurring at a time when President Obama is attempting to craft his direction on free trade agreements in Panama, Colombia and elsewhere. Although Obama was clear during the campaign that the existing free trade agreements, such as NAFTA and CAFTA, should be renegotiated, he has reportedly not maintained the same level of commitment since coming to office. Human rights abuses and labor union assassinations remain high in Colombia; and it is hard to imagine that a trade agreement which truly respected and protected the rights of small farmers, labor and the environment, could actually be negotiated and implemented in this kind of climate.

3) Transfair USA has just given Fair Trade certification to Dole bananas. Several years ago, Fair Trade activists were outraged when Transfair USA tried to bring Chiquita Brands into the system. Could small farmer bananas ever successfully gain market access and compete in a market with Fair Trade plantation bananas sourced from a multi-national company as large and sophisticated as Chiquita Brands? Did a company with the kind of history that Chiquita has had “belong” in an ethical Fair Trade system? Could Transfair have the capability to ensure that plantations were respecting worker rights and Fair Trade agreements such as the use of social premiums? Many labor organizations were in favor of giving Fair Trade certification to unionized plantations, as a way of further promoting workers rights and they were at odds with the Fair Trade activists. Chiquita itself appeared uncomfortable giving a stronger voice to labor unions and vetoed the idea of Fair Trade premiums being decided by union members. In the end, amidst much controversy (and some secrecy), the deal collapsed.

Now, without much fanfare, Dole Fruit Company bananas will soon “appear” in the Fair Trade system and on the shelves. Those working on the Dole lawsuit have made it known that if we think Chiquita was a dubious company and were concerned about its entrance into the Fair Trade system, we should be even more upset about the certification of Dole bananas. While Chiquita has allowed many of its plantations to be unionized, apparently Dole has a much less tolerant view of unions and worker rights issues.

Aside from reflecting about how terrible this all is, you can actually do something about this situation; using the link below, you can send a request to the US Justice Department to instigate an investigation into the business dealings of the Dole Food Company, which one can only hope would extend to wider investigations of the behaviour of other such multinationals overseas that have been conducting their affairs in a very unethical way.

http://smallfarmersbigchange.coop/2009/05/26/dole-food-company/

At a time when the winds of change are blowing for the USA, please take the opportunity to make a positive impact on the situation for the thousands of workers in Colombia.

Chiapa de Corzo

2nd Junio 2009