All's Fair in Love and...Coffee?

What's so Fair about Fair Trade?

By Kevin Raub
Published: Jul 03, 2008

Unless you were brought up by wolves, you've likely heard a parent, a boss or a bureaucratic government worker utter those exasperating words, "Life's not fair," as a defense to justify something they are likely doing that doesn't exactly put a smile on your face. Well, they are right. Life isn't fair most of the time. Hell, I was just on jury duty on a case involving a stolen car. The police actually found the victim's car, but they towed it before calling him, and he had to pay to get it back. It wasn't brought into evidence, but I can imagine the towing company's excuse, "Hey man, life's not fair!" And so it goes. But a movement known as Fair Trade is trying to do their part to change all that. For those that are aware or aren't sure what Fair Trade is, in a nutshell, it allows the small boys to compete with the big boys are a global scale. Of course, there is a fancy definition too. Breath in: "Fair trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, which seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers - especially in the South. Fair trade organizations (backed by consumers) are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade." Breath out. Fair Trade advocates fair prices for exported goods from developing countries - coffee, bananas, sugar, tea, cotton, honey, handicrafts, etc. - in an effort to help alleviate global poverty and promote sustainability. So, when you travel, you can pick up indigenous musical instruments or Alpaca throws or Mayan handspun pottery and not worry that it's been spit out of an assembly line in a massive factory run by exploited workers . It means, to use another example, that companies like Cafe Bom Dia, for instance, a 100-year-old family-run Brazilian coffee company, can compete with Starbucks, on the playing field of the world's largest coffee producer (Brazil).

As Brazil's largest exporter of Fair Trade Certified coffee, Bom Dia secures and purchases coffee beans at a minimum price from over 3700 small coffee farmers throughout Brazil. It roasts at origin (the first company in the world to be licensed by TransFair USA to do so), which increases its export value four-five times over raw coffee beans (and, since this is a green column, it would be remiss not to mention the fact that they use a retrofitted roaster that uses biomass fuel instead of fossil fuel). In short, it's a small company doing big things and Fair Trade keeps LavAzza or Illy from undercutting them into bankruptcy.

But Fair Trade is not without its critics. Opponents say that Fair Trade sets a price floor well above the market value of a given product, which than inspires a flurry of production that ends up saturating the market. Organizations like Fairtrade Foundation, the U.K. company responsible for dishing out the coveted Fair Trade mark on packaging as well as certification through it's parent company, FLO International, counters that Fair Trade doesn't set a floor but rather simply a minimum designed to keep production afloat should the market values suddenly tumble.

Regardless of which side you are on, Fair Trade finds success by playing an age-old emotional card - it's always nice to help out the little guy. As Americans - I can't speak for others but I imagine it's international in scope - we appreciate getting to know the person from who we buy our produce or flowers, as opposed to the informal experience we get at a Safeway or ordering through FTD. It's an odd thing then that Bom Dia coffee is predominantly found in Wal-Mart, a company that has shut down more little guys than perhaps any country in U.S. history.

Hey man, life's not fair.

Kevin Raub is a freelance travel and entertainment writer who contributes regularly to Travel+Leisure, Town & Country, American Way, and Organic Spa, among others. He has been slowly and methodically going green since a wise old acquaintance once pointed out that coffee filters were white because they were bleached, adding, Do you like bleach in your coffee?

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