Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

Free trade is the problem. Fair trade is the solution. Currently world trade is dominated by the ideology of economic globalization -- the creation of a single global economy with universal rules set by big businesses for big businesses in which a seamless global consumer market operates on free-market principles, unfettered by domestic or international laws or standards. [...] And it is creating deep and entrenched inequalities in its wake.

The combined sales income of the world's top 200 transnational corporations amount to almost twice the annual income of the bottom four-fifths of humanity. Eighty countries have lower per-capita incomes today than they did a decade or more ago and 200 million more people this year are living in absolute poverty (on less than $1 a day). The world's 225 richest individuals have a combined income equal to the annual income of half of humanity. The world's three richest men -- Bill Gates and his two partners in Microsoft -- have a combined annual income greater than the combined income of the 48 least developed countries!

— Laure Waridel, Coffee with Pleasure: Just Java and World Trade

My latest hair-brained scheme is to look in to starting a fair trade coffee co-op in Haiti. Anyone know anything about fair trade? Contacts? Resources?

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

None, but I'll ask around, and would totally buy the coffee. I get fair trade Guatemalan and Costa Rican from my coffee shop these days. If you shipped it green to small roasteries, you might get them to donate a portion of the proceeds back from sales.

[seajay06.livejournal.com]

"The worlds 225 richest individuals have a combined income equal to the annual income of half of humanity."

!!!! Profoundly disturbing.

I don't have any personal contacts/resources, but Alterra Coffee is a local company that roasts wonderful fair trade coffee. http://alterracoffee.com/

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

I know that groups like Citizen Action in the US are trying to promote "fair trade, not free trade" policies, but I don't know if they'd have the information that you're looking for. Perhaps your local Green Party folks would be able to point you towards resources?

Offhand, some of the things that I know about fair trade is that the workers are supposed to be paid a livable wage, and there are other standards related to working conditions as well. I'm not very clear on the specifics, however. Nor how they would relate specifically to coffee-growing cooperatives.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

The book I quoted actually cites a number of standards related to fair trade organizations. (Including the minimum prices with which the coffee is bought from the producers). I know nothing, unfortunately, about the coffee trade, in general.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

The big fair trade certification in Canada is TransFair (http://www.transfair.ca/). They have info for startup importers, a list of licensed companies, and ... their website seems a bit topsy-turvy at the moment with some broken links, but there's contact information.

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

The nearest I've come to this is a jar of coffee at NUSA at uni marked "Fair Trade Coffee". You have been to http://www.witherspoonsociety.org/2005/fair_trade_haiti.htm haven't you?

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

Ah, in that case, I guess I'm not of much help. I don't really know anything about the business of growing coffee, unfortunately.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

That's a good link. Thanks for that.