Big Business, meet small farmer

 For most small farmers in the under-developed world the only maket they had access to was local. The fair trade movement began a process that helped small farmers gain access to worldwide markets. When it works right, it is supposed to be a win-win for the farmer and the market. The farmer should be able to sell more, and the world has another source for food.

What many are wondering is what this relationship would look like when big agri-businees begins to invest in the small farms of the under-developed world. Would the small farmer impove financailly, or would they be exploited? From the Guardian, writer Matthew Newsome attended a conference that covered this subject.

This month more than 500 private-sector representatives, government officials, donors, civil society representatives, farmer organisations and academics met in Ethiopia for a conference organised by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation. They discussed the role of the private sector in upgrading smallholder agriculture to meet demand from foreign and emerging markets in developing countries. Investment interest is underscored by the IMF's forecast of 5.7% economic growth in 2013 for sub-Saharan Africa, which is being driven by rising commodity prices.

Rising food prices suggest global demand is still outpacing farmers' productivity, and resource-constrained smallholders need greater market access, training and technology to increase their agricultural production, according to the experts at the meeting in Ethiopia.

Development organisations are promoting the merits of a mutual partnership between large corporations and small farmers. John Moffett, director of policy and strategy for Self Help Africa, has been working with small-scale cashew nut farmers and those who commodify the nut in Benin, with support from PepsiCo, to supply Europe's markets. "Strengthening smallholder value chains is really about helping farmers to move from being subsistence based to enabling them to make a better profit," says Moffett.

Moffett says the role of NGOs is starting to change: he sees them playing more of a temporary role in facilitating trade between small-scale producers and the private sector. Once the supply chain links are in place he says, "the NGO will shift to being a watchdog".

"Development is now really focused on the economic development of Africa through trade," Moffat adds. "It is moving away from the constant injection of aid funding into Africa and focusing on something which, over time, should be more sustainable." Africa's population is expected to reach 2 billion by 2050, so some argue it cannot afford to be short-sighted when dealing with investors.

New fair-trade gold introduced in the UK

Beginning today, gold buyers in the UK can be certain of where the precious metal comes from. Fair-Trade certified gold will be available in the UK, and we hope it arrives in the US soon.

Gold has helped to fund wars and treat miners inhumanely. Barley clothed workers dig into the mud panning for gold, sometimes the workers can be children as young as five years old. Extraction of the gold often uses chemicals that can be dangerous for the workers and the environment.

The problem for the industry is that it is very difficult to track if the gold was brought in from a humane mine or one not-so humane. With Fair-trade gold, the company selling it will know exactly who mined the metal and how those workers were treated.

From the Guardian, writer Kate Carter takes a look at the new product.

"You are selling a high-value, aesthetic, aspirational, emotional product, which is pitched as the epitome of luxury, but the source is butt-ugly," says Greg Valerio, a jeweller who has spent more than a decade energetically haranguing his industry to focus more on human rights. "It's brutish, it's horrible. The gold you are buying could be from a completely reputable mine - or it could be from one whose security guards are institutionally raping local people. You just don't know."

Gold is one of the most potent symbols of wealth, power, glamour and - today of all days - of romance. But the industry is often secretive, exploitative and highly unregulated. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, gold and other minerals are funding a war where five million people have died since 1996, yet there is no global campaign to ban trafficking of blood gold. It is often extracted by the most vulnerable and disenfranchised - in Ivory Coast, for instance, the UN has reported how five-year-old girls are sent down pits - yet few seem to realise. It causes enormous environmental damage, with mercury and cyanide often used in the extraction process, but these issues are rarely thrust into the spotlight.

And then there's the issue of traceability. Talk to anyone about ethical gold, and the first thing that will be mentioned is traceability. Gold comes out of mines, goes through the hands of middle men and melts magically away into a refinery. Try and trace this back, and a stumbling block immediately appears.

"There's no international legislation which compels mining companies to disclose their source," says Valerio. "That's how it works. The jeweller is put into an untenable position. They just don't know. I think that is morally unacceptable. There is legislation coming into place in America, in particular, looking at minerals from eastern Congo and eastern Africa. But lots of mining companies are resisting - they don't want traceability. They don't want people knowing what they are doing."

Today something will change, as the world's first Fairtrade and Fairmined hallmark for gold is launched in the UK. This will ensure customers buying jewellery can, for the first time, know exactly where it came from. Like other hallmarks, this mark will be a physical stamp, and each piece will be fully traceable and come with its own certification.

It's only a start, but it already has the support of some influential players in the industry, including Stephen Webster, who has created one-off pieces for the likes of Madonna, Kate Moss and Jennifer Lopez, and is now the creative director at the world's oldest jewellery firm, Garrard. "We intend to quickly grow the volume of business we conduct using Fairtrade gold," he says. "One day I want it to be 100% of the gold we sell. Even though the cost to us for such gold is over 10% higher we will be absorbing this premium. We don't want price to be the reason not to choose a more responsible product."

The response from Signet, the company behind H Samuel and Ernest Jones, has been more cautious. "Signet takes great interest in opportunities to improve our operational business, product offering and customer-facing reputation," it told the Guardian. "We are fully aware of Fairtrade gold and our membership of the Responsible Jewellery Council means that we subscribe to making all parts of our business and supply chain conform to and develop ethical standards.

"As a major retailer who does not manufacture our own jewellery products, we are several stages removed from stocking bullion which is one of the initial basic stages of the supply chain. However, when the supply of Fairtrade gold can meet the demands required by our business and we are presented with appropriate products at prices suitable for our customers, we may consider selling a range."

Signet's approach is not untypical. Most jewellers make a nod to the social and environmental issues around gold - Cartier and Tiffany, for instance, are supporting members of the No Dirty Gold campaign - but without traceability in the supply chain, all sorts of nefarious practices continue despite the industry's best intentions.

A fair trade story from Japan

Rie Ozawa of Japan has started a business selling Rwandan crafts. Not only is running the business building wealth for herself, but it is also helping the craft makers in Rwanda.

Fair trade is the concept behind this business model, as craft makers and farmers in the under-developed world are provided a fair wage for their work. In the case of Rie Ozawa, she purchases the crafts from a co-operative in Rwanda and sells them in shoppes throughout Japan.

From Asahi, writer Takeshi Kamiya tells us more about fair trade in Japan.

Younger generations of Japanese have long been criticized as being self-absorbed navel-gazers, never looking beyond Japan and lacking a spirit of challenge.

But Rie Ozawa, a 38-year-old mother of two boys, is not among them.

Ozawa is president of Ruise B, a company she established in Shizuoka in early 2009 to import and sell "agaseke"--traditional handmade sisal hemp baskets in Rwanda--and other basketry.

The finely woven products are sold in 50 outlets, including department stores and interior decor shops, across Japan.

Last month, the company sold 370 agaseke and other baskets.

"I am happy (when I see one basket sell) because that allows me to order one more from the (Rwandan) women," she said.

She first came across the lidded gourd-shaped baskets, which come in shades such as red, white, black and natural hemp, at an African festival and trade show in Yokohama in May 2008.

Ozawa, a native of Shizuoka, opened up a shop to sell products from her family's furniture company after graduating from an interior design professional school. She decided that she wanted to add African goods to the store's lineup.

She was mesmerized by the agaseke, which were originally used to carry gifts to royal families in the country. The basket's motif is used on the Rwandan national emblem and bank notes.

"They were exceedingly beautiful, both in shape and design," Ozawa recalled.

"Pants Bond" a different form of ethical investment

A fair trade clothing company from the UK is selling bonds to help bring in investment money. Pants to Poverty is selling a unique set of bonds that will give buyers a different type of return for their money.

From Civil Society, we learn more about the new ethical investment.

Each ‘Pants Bond’ has a value of £2,500 and Pants to Poverty has already sold 11. Investors can get their money back after six months, giving three months’ notice and will also receive interest payable in “fair-trade, organic pants and a donation to charity”.

It is a ten-year bond with an annual coupon rate paid at 8.65 per cent. This interest will be paid in quarterly instalments comprising 12 pairs of fair-trade and organic underwear, £43 paid in cash to offset tax at source, and £14 donated to the Pi Foundaton, a charity set up by Pants to Poverty to help develop sustainable business models in the fashion industry.

Pants to Poverty was set up in 2005 as part of the Make Poverty History campaign to devise an ethical new business model for the fashion trade. It has reached the point where it is poised to launch as an ethical and fair-trade fashion brand next Easter in high-end department stores in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. Australia and Japan will follow in time for next Christmas.
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Ben Ramsden, founder of Pants to Poverty, said he hoped the bond would “help transform the debt financing market for social enterprises”.

“Rather than disappearing as a donation to charity, this money will return to the investor once the bond is redeemed so that it can then be recycled again to support other forms of social enterprise,” he said.

“It’s an adaptation of a conventional financial tool that will bridge the gap between start-up capital, which is reasonably easy to come by, and angel capital which tends to tie you into long-term partnerships and generally means you have to relinquish a lot of control.

Report calls for end of US and European cotton subsidies

The FairTrade Federation issued a new report that calls for the removal of subsides that the US and European governments pay to their cotton farmers. FairTrade says that cotton farmers in West Africa could earn ten percent more if subsidies in the US were removed. The report says that 1 billion dollars in subsidies are payed out every year.

From the BBC, writer Mark Doyle details the report for us. The entire study can be viewed at this link.

Trade negotiators for the so-called "Cotton 4" West African states - Chad, Mali, Benin and Burkina Faso - believe that removing US cotton subsidies alone could boost West African cotton farmers' income by up to 10%.

A report published by the Fairtrade group - which pays premium prices for organically-produced agricultural goods to stabilise incomes in poor countries - says an increase of this magnitude can make a huge difference.

Working with co-operatives in Mali, Fairtrade says the extra money generated by the premium prices it pays has boosted school enrolment for farmers' children and allowed them to build a basic health clinic.

In parts of southern Mali, the report says, the extra money generated by organic cotton farming has boosted school enrolment to 95%, compared with a national average of 43%.
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Cotton producers in the United States, represented by the National Cotton Council, counter that subsidies have helped them to establish a stable income for more than 340,000 people employed in some of the poorer southern states of the country.

They add that many more jobs have been created in ancillary industries, such as those producing crop-protection chemicals and machinery.

European Commission officials make similar points - saying the subsidies help farmers in Greece and Spain, some of who are relatively poor by European standards.
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In 2001, a new series of multilateral trade negotiations began, known as the Doha Round.

One of the aims of the Doha round was to set new global trading rules which would stimulate growth and wealth in underdeveloped countries. One way of doing this would be to reduce tariffs and subsidies, so creating a "level playing field".

Think tank report on fair trade creates controversy

The recent report saying that fair trade does little to help small farmers is creating quite a stir. The controversy is especially loud in the UK where free trade has flourished. As we linked to yesterday, a free market think tank said that large corporations do more to help small farmers than fair trade businesses can.

From the blog Just Means, writer Sarah Brown has this pro fair trade response to the report.

In a statement responding to the IEA's report, the Fairtrade Foundation points out that as a result of the premium paid to their farmers in Mali 95% of farmers' children go to school.

The truth is that Fairtrade is a consumer-backed movement. Attempts by organisations such as the IEA to discredit it for commercial reasons are malicious, but hopefully will ultimately fail due to the strength of public feeling on this issue.

Consumer-facing businesses need consumer goodwill and their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) strategies are partly based around ensuring that happens.

The trouble with such reports comes when they sow the seeds of doubt in the public's mind by subtly misusing data. The IEA report states 'The certification charge [for Fairtrade] starts at £1,570 in the first year' and points out that this is a huge amount of money for a poor farmer. What it fails to mention, however, is that the way Fairtrade works with farmers is via co-operatives, of around 50 farmers each - so just over £30 per person. In addition, the charity points out that it also has a fund to help pay for 75% of the cost of certification for eligible farmers. So Fairtrade turns out to be not quite so unaffordable after all.

Free market think tank critiques fair trade

A free market think tank says that it is still unproven if fair trade helps poor farmers more. The Institute of Economic Affairs says that big companies do more for the small farmer than fair trade. The Institute points to fair trade's insistence that farmers avoid using genetically modified seeds as evidence that fair trade does more to appease those in the west than help the farmer.

From the Guardian, writer Simon Bowers details the report and a response from the FairTrade Foundation.

The report specifically attacks the Fairtrade Foundation's refusal to accept child labour and genetically modified technology, suggesting these strictures represent "the whims of western consumers" rather than the needs of farmers.

Consistent with the IEA's broader free-market agenda, the paper claims that open, subsidy-free international trade is the best way of advancing the interests of the world's poorest regions.

"Fairtrade rhetoric is often seen as an unreasonable smear campaign against high-end marketeers and retailers who resist the Fairtrade model," says the report by Dundee University lecturer Sushil Mohan.

"In 2000 activist groups … launched an attack on Starbucks for exploiting farmers. Yet, given its size, Starbucks is likely to have done far more than Fairtrade to improve the lot of coffee growers in the countries from which it purchases."

In response, the Fairtrade Foundation said the report was a "flawed, partial analysis". It added: "It is wrong to suggest Fairtrade does not offer a long-term strategy for development.

"In Mali, Fairtrade cotton farmers are earning 50% more than conventional farmers. Some 95% of the children of Mali's Fairtrade organic farmers go to school because farming communities receive more money. This is more than double the national average in the fourth most deprived nation on earth."

A fair form of poverty tourism

There has been a lot of talk about poverty tourism on the internet lately. An article posted today at All Africa talks about a tourist stop that actually helps people in poverty by selling crafts that can give them a decent wage.

From this Namibian article that we found at All Africa, writer Sukaynah Alkatib tells us about the Namibia Crafts Centre.

THE Namibia Crafts Centre (NCC) in Windhoek is a vibrant tourist heaven packed with gifts and souvenirs such as baskets, printed fabrics, stationery, carved wooden animals and ostrich egg-shell jewellery, to name a few.

And although there is a lot to look at, there is even more to see behind the curtains.

Mark Holker, who has been volunteering as the centre's Business Development Manager for the past three years, says:

"We have a network of around 800 rural craft producers throughout Namibia.

But we don't just buy their goods, we pay them fair prices, support them through continuous artistic and business training and help them to keep ahead of the competition by developing new products."

These ideals have earned them a place as a member of the International Fair Trade Association - which promotes poverty alleviation and partnerships as core values alongside sound business principles for companies and social enterprises alike.

"The NCC is a charity so we are often criticised for selling at twice the cost of production, but what people don't understand is that we put a lot back into the communities that supply us and we have many overhead costs in terms of sales promotion, course training, marketing, rent and electricity" explains Holker.

"There is no point in starting a project if you cannot sustain yourself and continue to improve peoples' lives. Sustainability is the reason why we are still going strong 18 years after we were first established."

Fair trade clothing

You may be aware of fair trade coffee, but now some products clothing manufactures are ensuring fair wages and development help for growers of cotton. Transfair, a leader in fair trade certification; is now going to certify clothing products. A couple of companies products have already received the label at Tompkins Point Apparel, and HaeNow.

From Triple Pundit, writer Leon Kaye tells us what the certification does for the suppliers.

Farmers: Cotton farmers in countries including Mali and India can earn up to 30 percent more on Fair Trade sales while collecting a premium for needs such as schools and medical centers. Farmers also must follow stringent environmental standards, and cannot raise genetically modified plants or use toxic chemicals during production

Workers: Garment workers earn a premium of up to 10 percent of the cost of the garment for community investment or a cash bonus. Factories must meet strict workplace requirements based on the International Labor Organization’s conventions.

Companies: Transfair’s label certification process motivates firms to invest in the farmers and workers from which they source, and to communicate their commitment to environmental and social responsibility to consumers at the point of purchase.

Consumers: For each Fair Trade purchase, farmers and factory workers earn a percentage that allows them to fund social development projects while solving poverty in their communities.

Read more: http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/07/fair-trade-certified-clothing-arrives-in-the-usa/#ixzz0uJLceODa

Fair trade in UK sees large growth in past decade

Spending on ethical products ranging from fair trade to eco-friendly products has tripled in the past decade. A survey on ethical spending was conducted by the Co-Operative Bank of the UK.

From this Press Association article, we read more stats from the survey.

The annual Ethical Consumerism report showed the total market for sustainable goods and services was worth £36 billion in 2008, up from £13.5 billion in 1999.

The rate of increase in household spending on ethical products outstripped the growth in overall consumer spending, which increased by 58% over the decade.

But the market for goods which were environmentally-friendly, sustainable or supported poor people remained a small percentage of the £891 billion spent by households last year.

Some sectors saw phenomenal growth, including Fairtrade goods which pay a premium to farmers and producers in poor countries in a bid to help them work their way out of poverty, according to the survey.

The Fairtrade market, which now covers products from developing countries ranging from coffee to cotton, was worth just £22 million in 1999.

Last year sales of Fairtrade products had grown to £635 million and the Co-operative is predicting it could break the £1 billion barrier in 2010.

World of Good still doing it through the recession

The global recession hasn't avoided fair trade businesses. World of Good has had to cut back on staff here in US, but they have avoided any cutbacks in purchasing from their artisans across the globe.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, reporter Carolyn Said has this profile on the fair trade company.

For Indian beadworkers who craft intricate necklaces and earrings, Haitian metalworkers who recycle oil drums into sculptures, and Guatemalan weavers who make rainbow-hued tapestries, the economic downturn that has choked off consumer spending could mean a devastating plunge back into poverty.

Priya Haji is determined to stop that from happening.

As CEO and co-founder of World of Good, a small Emeryville company that creates market opportunities for craftspeople from the developing world, Haji has acted nimbly to respond to the recession without slashing the orders her far-flung workers depend on.

"Other retailers can quickly turn off their factories to reduce excess inventories, but fair traders can't do that," said Haji, 39, whose calm demeanor belies her fervent sense of purpose. "We have a commitment to pay a fair price and fair wages to producer groups."

Thousands of artisans in 70 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe fabricate the handmade jewelry, clothing, housewares and art that World of Good sells online and in stores.
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Don Shaffer, CEO of San Francisco's RSF Social Finance, which provides financing to World of Good, said he appreciated that Haji refused to cut corners at the expense of her artisans. RSF expanded its loans to the company so it could continue to prefinance its inventory.

"They have stuck to their commitments through good times and bad, which a lot of other folks wouldn't do," he said. "World of Good is a shining example of a fair-trade organization functioning at a very high level as a business and having a tremendous social impact."

Some coping mechanisms have been painful. Haji said she had to trim staff, bringing the Emeryville workforce to its current size of about 25 people.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/09/MNE71AF93P.DTL#ixzz0WNHJxzJW

A fair trade campaigner visits a coffee co-op in Uganda

From a UK paper we find this story of a fair trade campaigner visiting one of the coffee cooperates he advocates for. Jim Thomas visited the Peace Kawomera Co-operative in Uganda, a co-op that includes 25,000 farmers. The farmers have been able to put their children through school and save a little money thanks to the co-operative.

From the Bexhill Observer, we find this interview with Thomas.

"Sussex Downs College has been making links and working with communities and projects in South Eastern Uganda for over four years now.

"The college has organised study tours for students that allow them the opportunity to witness development work, as well as giving them a glimpse of what life is like for so many people in Africa and all over the world – a life trapped in poverty.

"Still, through all of the struggles and suffering we saw, there is hope. I spent seven weeks at a project called Bungokho Rural Development Centre (BRDC] and was privileged enough to go out to visit communities being trained through the centre's outreach work.

"The centre approaches vulnerable people and communities and forms a relationship. They then ask the people what problems they face, and cooperatively, as a group they try to find solutions. It is all about empowerment.

Since its establishment in 1995 BRDC has helped over 20,000 people through outreach work alone. BRDC offers knowledge and advice and does not give handouts. In the community they advise people on many issues ranging from getting safe water and making good compost for their crops to generating income from selling vegetables, etc.

"At the centre they give training in practical skills such as carpentry, building, tailoring and agriculture.

Searching for Good

A search engine will give a penny to your favorite charity each time you do an internet search. Goodsearch.com has over 81,000 participating non-profits, who are not charged anything for their participation, they simply receive a check each year.

From this description that we found at Examiner.com, writer Tracy Aiello tells us more about the search engine. Tracy's article contains some other good fair-trade and charitable ideas.

Searching for Good: Mother Teresa didn’t search the latest Hollywood gossip, but I’m sure she’d bless the result. Goodsearch.com, is the simplest answer to giving back – let your web browser do it for you. Launched by a brother and sister team in 2005, Goodsearch, powered by Yahoo!, donates about a penny to a non-profit of your choice for every search executed. The site has more than 80,000 non-profits and schools registered, but if your favorite isn’t on the list, just add it, and search away. Think of it, search for quotes on Gandhi, AND give money to the Youth Federation for World Peace. Nonprofits aren’t charged to be part of the program, they just receive a check every December, which founder JJ Ramberg says is “the most fun day of the whole year!”

After realizing that their idea worked, the do-gooding family launched GoodShop.com, an online shopping center that adds to the pennies, donating a percentage of online purchases to the charity or school of your choice. There are more than 1,000 popular online merchants participating and coupons and discounts to add to the fun.

Drawing attention to endosulfan

The fair trade underwear company Pants to Poverty is organizing protests to warn about the use of a chemical in cotton processing. Pants to Poverty is organizing the protest in 16 different countries, and is getting help from celebrities from the UK and Bollywood.

From the Ethiopian Review, we read more about the chemical that is getting the attention.

They are calling for a ban on the use of the harmful pesticide endosulfan, used in underwear production.

It can cause cancer, birth defects, respiratory problems and sterility among cotton farmers and their families.

Pants To Poverty, a Fairtrade underwear company, says toxic cotton pants containing traces of the chemical are being sold on the UK high street.

Just one pair of non-organic cotton pants can use 10ml of the chemical – enough to kill a person if directly exposed.

Ben Ramsden, founder of Pants To Poverty said: "Using pants as our metaphor, this campaign explains both the good and the bad about the cotton industry and points towards a brighter future."

Laboratory tests on 1,000 pairs of pants from UK shops showed one in 50 tested positive for the dangerous pesticide.

It has been banned in 62 countries due to its high toxicity, but its use is still permitted in India and other developing nations.

Some fair-trade cosmetic products

Sure there is coffee, tea and cocoa, but there are fair trade beauty products as well. The cosmetics use natural plants or oils from the under-developed world, and give the farmers a decent wage for supplying them.

As we see in the below snippet, the benefits to the farmers go beyond just more money. For the extra cash is invested back into the farmers villages. Sometimes the cosmetic companies will build other benefits for the villages such as new farms, or schools.

From this Redbook magazine article, writer Krista Bennett DeMai tells us about the products in particular.

During travels in the 1980s, the late Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, learned that many of the communities she visited were not getting paid fairly for their ingredients or goods -- often not enough to cover the cost of production or wages. Inspired by the early fair-trade movement happening with coffee and tea, Roddick started a Community Trade program -- working with undeveloped countries that were otherwise powerless in securing a fair price for their products. Twenty-one years later, The Body Shop spends more than $12 million buying ingredients as well as gifts and accessories, like wooden massage tools and tote bags, from suppliers in more than 20 countries. One of those suppliers is a cooperative of sesame farmers in Achuapa, a village in Nicaragua. When Roddick met the farmers in the 1990s, they were struggling to make a living by exporting sesame oil. Roddick worked out a fair price for the sesame oil (now used in more than 40 Body Shop products, including the Moringa Milk Body Lotion, $16) by calculating how much it costs to grow, as well as the community needs: the cost of living, the cost of education, etc. The cosmetics company then gave the farmers a forecast -- somewhat of a contract -- that projected how much sesame oil the company would purchase over the course of, say, a year, giving the farmers a newfound sense of stability and the ability to invest in their community. "We're not about charity," says Graham Clewer, global head of ethical trade at The Body Shop. "A hand up is always better than a handout."

Since this relationship began, the co-op has built eight primary schools that educate 400 children. And it's currently building a boarding house in Achuapa so 40 kids (mostly children of single moms or those who live in neighboring communities) can attend secondary school. There have been other improvements as well: 13 sanitary water wells built; an acupuncture and natural medicine clinic opened by a single mother of six; a bank, which offers low-interest loans and encourages community members to save money; a model farm, to test organic farming methods; and even family workshops to educate the community on complicated social issues like gender equality and domestic violence.

A lipstick is always a quick pick-me-up, but Aveda's Uruku Lip Pigment, $14, helps lift the spirits of millions. Fifteen years ago, Aveda's founder encountered the Yawanawá tribe in Brazil. The tribe was dispersed after losing much of its land to rubber plantations, explains Chuck Bennett, vice president of earth and community care at Aveda. "Culturally, they were on the verge of extinction." To support the tribe, Aveda began purchasing urukum seed from the tribe. The antioxidant-rich seed is used for the tribe's body-painting rituals because of its vibrant red pigment, which Aveda now uses in its Uruku makeup line. Aveda has also initiated local social projects and school development and has provided equipment for urukum production. The goal: "We're working to move beyond the charitable relationship so they can become a fully sustainable community," says Bennett. The tribe has recently secured the rights to 125,000 acres of sacred land (for a total of 450,000), reestablishing their sense of community.

The Las Cruses Chiapas Connection

A New Mexico State University professor is working on a book that profiles the struggle of the poor in Mexico's southernmost state.

Professor Christine Eber travels to the Chiapas for anthropology trips, during her time there, she became friends with Flor de Margarita Pérez Pérez. Perez has been a struggling to survive through most of her life, going from one craft co-op to another to sell goods for money.

Eber has also started a charity that helps to find markets for the crafters in Perez's community, called the Las Cruses Chiapas Connection.

From the Silver City Sun News, writer Daniella De Luc interviews Eber about the book and it's subject.

"After knowing Margarita for over 20 years, I have had the opportunity to see the changes through her eyes," Eber said. "With this book, we would like to reach a broad audience and help them understand the conditions of life in Chiapas for indigenous people."

As part of these efforts, Eber recently had her first book translated into Spanish. Eber intends to make a bilingual edition of the life story called "Restless Spirits: The Journey of a Tzotzil-Maya Woman." She will submit the manuscript for publication in fall 2009.

Chiapas has a tumultuous history including long-standing inequalities in access to land and resources, disease and poverty and non-existent health and educational facilities. To combat these setbacks and to support their families, indigenous groups in Chiapas have formed cooperatives that build upon local knowledge and skills in order to market coffee, weavings or other artisan work, Eber said.

"Margarita has been involved in many cooperatives and social movements since she was a teenager. Through her life story, we would like to give a glimpse of the struggles her people go through, and how life has changed in highland Chiapas since the 1960s," Eber said.

When the armed uprising of the Zapatista movement took place in 1994, Pérez Pérez said she was unsure what it was, but thought that the Zapatistas were going to help change the way of life for the better for indigenous people in highlands Chiapas. She is still committed to the struggles of social injustices but doesn't see change happening overnight.

"Although I was very excited at first, later as they were saying, 'We're going to win, we're going to win a better life.' As the years passed, I didn't see any triumph. I began to think, 'Ah, the triumph will not come now.' All we can do is to struggle and struggle more and not give up," Pérez Pérez said.

"I could die in a week, or in a few months, so it's better that I not focus on triumph. It's better just to struggle so that something might change in the future," she said.

Book Review: Daniel Jaffee’s Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival

A book on fair trade coffee is very critical of the practice and questions the claims that it improves life for coffee growers. Writer Daniel Jaffee is very critical of the corporations that purchase the coffee and stick a fair trade label on it, saying it's just a way to make a profit that may make a few people feel good.

From the Mother Nature Network, reviewer Nathalie Jordi explains the book's views in this article that was originally published in the magazine Plenty.

If you find your morning java fix at Starbucks expensive but justifiable because, you trust, at least your money will be ethically spent, think again. Sociologist Daniel Jaffee’s Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival explores the benefits, limits, advances, and contradictions of fair trade—and finds it wanting. Hopscotching among alternative coffee shops, rural Oaxaca, nonprofit offices, and corporate headquarters, Jaffee’s work of ‘multi-sited ethnography’ is impassioned, systematic, and profoundly researched.

Is fair trade a challenge to the capitalist system, or just a lucrative niche market with good image-enhancement potential? Is it a market breaker, reformer, or simply a market access mechanism?

And, in a question similar to the Big Organic vs. Beyond Organic discussion led by Michael Pollan, who will determine the future of fair trade? The idealistic founders of the once-alternative movement, the pragmatists willing to sacrifice certain standards for what they believe is a greater good, or powerful corporations for which, Jaffee notes sarcastically, “fairness is merely one flavor” in a carefully considered lineup of niche products?

So far, the corporations seem to be fiercely maintaining their hold on the upper hand, even though the ‘Big Five’ coffee corporations that control 69 percent of the world’s coffee buy less than 1 percent through fair trade channels. This figure mirrors the proportion of fair trade to regular coffee in the world market, and is shockingly low when one considers that coffee is the world’s most successful fair trade product.

Consider that farmers reached rock bottom during the coffee crisis of 2001, while Starbucks posted a 41-percent jump in first-quarter profits and Nestlé’s profits increased by 20 percent. Consider that between 1975 and 1993, despite the 18 percent drop in wholesale coffee prices, the retail price of coffee increased by 240 percent. Consider that according to Oxfam Canada, when one takes inflation into account, families are earning less for their beans than their ancestors did a hundred years ago.

Over two years of interviews, observation, surveys, and statistical analysis in rural Oaxaca—Jaffee is nothing if not thorough—he
finds that fair trade has made a tangible difference in producer livelihoods. Fair trade coffee farmers spent more on education and showed a greater proportion of beds per family member and cooking stoves, for example.

But their overall economic bottom line was only marginally better. Although production costs have increased, the price for fair trade coffee hasn’t changed in 10 years, and most farmers’ profits are redistributed in the form of wages they have to pay the laborers they hire to cope with the additional work involved in growing organic beans, or even certification expenses (incredibly, farmers have to pay for their own organic certification; one of Jaffee’s recommendations is to provide subsidies).

Fair trade farmers made about 10 percent more than conventional producers, but had to work so much harder for the privilege that Jaffee concludes, “[fair trade] does not currently provide a sufficiently compelling alternative for many households, let alone constitute a solution to rural poverty, economic crisis, or ecological degradation.” In other words, fair trade does deliver many social, economic, and environmental benefits to participants, but nonetheless still falls far short of pulling the majority out of poverty, its avowed goal.

This book would be painfully long and technical were its reflections not as carefully considered. It’s worth glossing over the more evidential chapters in order to arrive at Jaffee’s distillations and recommendations: Adjust the base price of fair trade coffee; revisit the allocation of benefits; reduce entry barriers to trade; subsidize organic certification for deserving producers; address the balance of power within the fair trade supply chain; and protect fair trade against the threat of dilution and co-optation with which it is constantly barraged.

A visit to fair trade farmers in Mexico

A great before and after perspective of the benefits of fair trade comes from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle today.

Writer Joseph Sorrentino has visited a group of Mexican coffee farmers in the past. Now, the farmers in the Cuetzalan countryside have become organic fair trade, so Sorrentino has returned to see how their lives are different.

In Cuetzalan—a six-hour bus ride from Mexico City—I contacted Tosepan Titataniske (Nahuatl dialect for "together we will overcome"), a fair trade cooperative. Tosepan provided me with guides to take me to the villages. It's important to have guides because some of the villages are remote and all are indigenous. Campesinos don't always appreciate strangers—especially unaccompanied ones carrying cameras.

There's no denying that life in el campo—the countryside—is hard. Cuetzalan is covered in mist or light rain most days from November to March, and coffee is harvested from October through January. Mud is everywhere, and walking is tricky—especially on the many hills. When the sun does shine, it's hot and humid (though gorgeous). Throughout Mexico, campesinos typically farm just a couple of acres. And here, coffee plants are grown in the shade of tall trees and scattered among other plants, not lined up in neat rows. Harvesting is done by hand.

Bags of dried coffee can weigh 110 pounds. I asked one man how he got his bags to market. He said he took a bus to town. When I asked how he got his bags to the bus, he smiled and tapped his back. In other villages I visited, farmers carried 70-pound bags on their backs along a seven-hour hike through the mountains.

All of the campesinos I interviewed in the area belonged to the fair-trade co-op Tosepan, and all grew organic coffee. A study by researchers at Tufts University found that fair trade doubles a campesino's income; in Cuetzalan, in what was clearly a much less rigorous study, I estimated that fair trade pays campesinos between 40 and 60 percent more. Every campesino I met believed in fair trade.

"We're grateful to fair trade because it gives us a better price," said Martha Hernandez Julian, who grows coffee in Xalcuahuta. "Those working in non-fair trade are much worse off." There's also an appreciation for the idea of sustainability. "We live better because of Tosepan and fair trade because they're preserving the environment. We use only organics; it's better for us, our families and our children."
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I returned from Mexico convinced that fair trade can make a difference. I saw the improvements in people's lives. People proudly showed me their houses built with low-interest loans and stores opened with Tosepan's guidance.

The money alone might not be enough to completely lift campesinos out of poverty. But as David Blas of the fair trade Mexican Vanilla Plantation put it to me, "It's a start."

Coffee Kids; helping the coffee growers of Latin America

We were introduced to a fair trade coffee shop that takes things one step further. Not only so they give the farmers a fair price, they also provide health care, school improvements and gardens by partnering with other non-profits. So not only do the growers get more cash but their entire community receives more benefits to help lift the entire village out of poverty.

The on-line coffee shop is called Coffee Kids. An entire list of the projects meeting the other needs of coffee growers can be found on the project page of their website.

We learned of the fair trade concern by coming across an interview with Coffee Kids director Carolyn Fairman. In a story for newspaper the The Santa Fe Reporter, writer Charlotte Jusinski talks to Fairman about the nature of the coffee business.

Coffee farmers only earn 3 to 4 cents per pound. Why so little?
Coffee is one of those commodities that, even though it’s the second highest-traded legal commodity after oil, coffee farmers are about the only people who don’t get to say what the price is for their coffee. It’s a world-market price. The coffee cherry will rot in 24 to 36 hours if it’s not processed, so it’s a take-it-or-leave-it price.

So what does the world market mean for coffee?
Here’s an example—it depends largely upon what happens in Brazil. If Brazil has a frost or any kind of trauma to their coffee crop, the prices can go up, and the rest of the world’s farmers are happy. If not, there’s a glut of coffee, and the farmers don’t know what else to do besides grow more coffee to try and make more money. But that doesn’t really solve anything. That’s why Coffee Kids is about alternatives to coffee so that farmers can continue to harvest their coffee, even when prices are low. Because coffee farming is what they do—it’s their culture; it’s their passion.

What is it about coffee that is so unsustainable?
Coffee is harvested three to five months out of the year. Farmers are supposed to make enough money in those three to five months to feed themselves for a year, but they barely make enough to feed themselves through the harvest. So when Coffee Kids can provide alternative projects like microcredit [for funding gardens or small non-coffee businesses], people who haven’t had access to the local economy are contributing when there is no money from coffee. People like to talk about sustainable coffee, but there is no such thing as sustainable coffee. It’s sustainable communities.
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What’s it like to visit the farmers?
They often live in wooden shacks. They give you the one chair that they have in the house to sit in. And I learn so much from the coffee farmers when I visit. One woman, a member of a microcredit group in Veracruz, Mexico, in a very rural area, said to me, ‘You know, some days we have meat, and some days we don’t. We’re doing pretty good.’ And I still get teary right now saying it. Why is that OK? You really get a perspective on what poverty is.

I could use a cup of Ugandan fairtrade coffee!

A great description of how life can be improved through fair trade cooperatives is found in the Guardian today.

The UK has an event that begins today called Fairtrade Fortnight. The event hopes to build awareness of fair trade goods that are available. As a part of the event, the Guardian had Harriet Lamb write a commentary. Lamb is executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK. Her piece begins by describing an Ugandan coffee co-op that has dramatically improved it's village.

Last week I saw this in action in Rwanda. Just 15 years ago, the country was utterly devastated. They are now rebuilding their economy, with organised smallholders at its heart. Just 15 years ago, Maraba village was one of the country's poorest, their low-quality coffee was sold straight off the bushes for passing prices to passing middlemen.

Today, the Maraba farmers have organised themselves into a Fairtrade-certified cooperative, have four washing stations – the first stage in processing coffee – have trained the first generation of cuppers, or tasters, who are constantly improving quality, and are commanding record premiums for their prize-winning beans. They are roasting and selling their coffee all over Rwanda as well as exporting it through Union Handroasted to UK shop shelves.

These are the most innovative farmers I have ever met – constantly researching new ways to improve productivity, such as making organic compost, or to add value, such as roasting at a village level using traditional techniques. And they have sparked an economic revival that sees Maraba now as among the more prosperous villages in Rwanda, as evidenced by the bustling bank and choice of hairdressing salons, while the farmers are now building and running a nursery school.

It is an economic revival that, with the right support, smallholders could lead worldwide. Some 450 million smallholder farming households cultivate two hectares or less, and with their families they make up a third of all humanity. Increasing their incomes will therefore be vital to improving the incomes of the poor. Indeed, because smallholders tend to spend more income on local goods and services, they could be the impetus that stimulates virtuous economic circles in local economies.

Organised groups of smallholders can also play a catalytic role in stimulating wider progress – on the environment and on social issues.

And smallholders hold the key to increasing food production. Small farms produce the bulk of many developing countries' food: up to 80% of Zambia's, for example. Much evidence points to their productivity – if given the right support.

That support is needed now more than ever. In Uganda, some tea-growers today spend more than 50% of income on food, up from 30% in the past. Some estimate the price of maize will rise by 27% over the next 10 years.