Fair Trade

Fair Trade

Fair Trade or Fairly Traded? Fair Economy Promoters Share Views With Onegreenglobe.com Community

FEATURE

FAIR TRADE

As consumers, we don't always think about the impact of our purchasing power. How many times have you actually stopped to ask yourself, "Where was this craft, coffee, chocolate, or tea produced, and did the worker receive a fair wage for his or her work in the production process? That probably hasn't happened too often. After all, we live in a consumer society conditioned with not just an individual, but a collective consumptive mentality. That those products represent some of our largest imports from under-developed nations whose cost of living increases against a backdrop of stagnant wages, makes this a topic well worth consideration.

Not many of us have the phrase "Global Equity" etched across the top of our weekly shopping lists - although that may not be such a bad idea. Conditioned to believe that we need the next best thing and in ever increasing quantities, we've moved through much of our lives down a consistent though generally thoughtless path of frenetic purchasing activity.

Fair Trade is an organized endeavor to correct that course. It serves to help marginalized workers and small scale producers to attain economic self-sufficiency and stability toward an increased standard of living. Fair Trade promotes the practice of fair pricing and ethical consumer consumption through international labor standards, environmentalism, education, and the development of social policies around labeled and unlabeled Fair Trade products.

Contemporary economics traditionally driven by consumerism has been focused primarily on the relationship between product quality and price. Fair Trade seeks to create an equitable exchange and so has developed a labeling and certification process as a means to further protect workers and producers, while assisting consumers in their conscientious shopping activities.

The Fair Trade Debate: Fair Trade Versus Fairly Traded

There are two major camps of debate surrounding the Fair Trade issue: one that sees Fair Trade as an unnecessary subsidy that impedes economic growth; and one that sees organized Fair Trade as paying lip service - that Fair Trade is not enough and somewhat falling short of a thorough challenge to the current trading system.

Amidst it all is the promising hope of change. With the advent of (CSR) Corporate Social Responsibility at the big business level pushing for responsible action, to public education and the quiet conscious efforts of smaller businesses and organizations who have long known and understood the importance of economic equality - Fair Trade has moved from a remote public consideration to a genuine model of moral socio-economic behavior.

One company that plays a strong role towards effecting this type of change is Camano Island Coffee Roasting Company based in Camano, Washington.

Whether you're a coffee aficionado, a tea drinker, or neither, Camano Island Coffee Roasting Company serves as an excellent example of a company that exemplifies the true meaning of Fairly Traded products.

Camano Island Coffee Roasting Company http://www.camanoislandcoffee.com

Jeff Ericson, founder and co-owner of Camano Island Coffee delivers more than great tasting organically grown coffee products.

He is not just another well seasoned businessman singularly concerned with the bottom line either -- Jeff understands the true long-term value of equitable trade, and with proper balance... how to successfully join Fair Trade principles with strong market economy business practices to the benefit of all.

He believes that Fair Trade is not enough:

"We not only must make sure that a fair price is paid for the coffee - we also need to make sure that the farmers own the land that they work on. We need to make sure the children are getting basic health services and learning to read and write - so we do not repeat this process again in the next generation. We need to make sure the people are not totally dependent on just one crop (like coffee) - but that they have other ways to make money. We need to make sure that the village we work with has learned to work together as a team and can create streamlined approaches to business challenges of a rural area and that they have clean water to drink."

THEN- we can pay a fair price for their coffee while requiring the coffee is organic and shade grown.

The challenge with a bureaucracy is that they tend to "lower the bar" in order to get everyone (even the big guns) into the pack.

We feel sustainability is a commitment - not a marketing term. If you do anything less then 100% in your purchasing decisions of coffee - then we feel you should not call yourself "fairly traded".

We use the term "fairly traded" because we do not feel it is our role to promote a bureaucracy but to promote a practice of responsible consumerism.

Jeff has built his organization based on principles of quality, equality and service, not simply a series of campaigns to remain favored in the public eye. When you look into the community at large, you find both a man and a company that lead and inspire. They provide exceptional organic coffee products that are produced with the utmost regard for sustainability. It is a system that is vigorously enforced, providing fair-trade wage and opportunity to the coffee farmers who work so hard to maintain that delicate balance of health and prosperity.

What makes this coffee so special? Camano Island Coffee beans are 100% organic, shade-grown which preserves the native plants, and fairly traded using the top 1% of the available coffee market. The company aims to develop "Prosumers", or customers who are conscious of the impact their dollars have on coffee spending.

To help customers enjoy these benefits, Camano Island Coffee offers, "The Coffee Lover's Club". the Coffee Lover's Club is a great program that provides two pounds of coffee each month (your choice) for just $24.90, plus you get a 1/2 pound share-bag of their coffee of the month - delivered straight to your door at no extra cost!

"I like it when people share our vision, but if they don't, we still want them to buy if they want the best coffee in the world."

A strong part of the philanthropic vision is realized through its mission-based business model. The company participates in two key charity programs:

Coffee Kids: Grounds For Hope - an international organization established to improve the quality of life for coffee-farming families; and Agros International - an organization committed to breaking the cycle of poverty for families in Central America and Mexico by enabling landless communities to achieve land ownership and economic stability.

Camano Island Coffee Roasters donates $1 of ever Coffee Lover's Club program purchase to one of these two key organizations, by customer choice.

For more information on Camano Island Coffee Roasters, or to join the company in its mission to promote strong sustainable business models, with strong sustainable values visit: www.camanoislandcoffee.com

About the Author

Marie Gunter, is the Co-Founder of One Green Globe (http://www.onegreenglobe.com), a leading online community for conscientious individuals, businesses and groups promoting sustainable and healthful living. Marie is an experienced holistic healthcare practitioner, and seasoned promoter of innovative technololgies, working in both the corporate and non-profit sectors and across various industries. She is a life-long proponent of holistic systems and sustainability. Marie provides independent consulting, business development and public speaking services throughout the U.S. Contact: 206-905-9254 for details.

For more information on One Green Globe check out http://www.onegreenglobe.com

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How to effectively make a product fair trade?

My question is on bananas.
These are the methods that I already know:
-setting product prices at a minimum that covers the cost of sustainable production
-promoting producers by the use of funds
-Methods that concern setting prices at the final wholesale or retail level is impractical as it is illegal

Would there be another way to make bananas a fair trade product without using these methods?

Fair trade does not have an objective meaning. It's not a term of economics, it's a term of ethics. Like fairness itself, the meaning depends on the opinion of the person using the word.

Think of it like this. Suppose you want to know the difference between the market price of a banana, and the 'fair' price. How would you calculate that? Well, you can't, because it's not calculable.

You might say, it's the difference between the market price, and the price of production. But you could only conclude so if you had pre-supposed that the price of production is the fair price in the first place, so the argument would be circular.

What makes you think that the sellers of bananas aren't already pricing them so as to cover the costs of sustainable production? If the market price is less than that, then people won't buy them, so it won't be sustainable any more. And if the market price is more than that, does that mean it's not fair, so the producer should get less?

"Promoting producers by the use of funds" - how is that different from what the market price does?

It is no answer to say that the fair price is "the final wholesale or retail level" because your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to specify the difference between the market price and the fair price.

The fact is, the reason why the fair price cannot be distinguished from the market price is because the concept is meaningless, or purely subjective. The market price, being based on consent in voluntary transactions, is the fair price.

Oxfam Fair Trade Clips