Julie Fahnestock's blogshttp://www.justmeans.com/editorials/corporatesocialresponsibility/4.htmlSun, 19 May 2013 03:21:11 GMThttp://www.justmeans.com en hourly 1http://www.justmeans.com/A-Farm-Worker-Speaks--Fair-Trade-Makes-a-Real-Difference/59240.htmlThu, 09 May 2013 10:53:27 GMTJulie Fahnestock After fair trade certification of La Revancha, Fair Trade USA is hopeful that salaries for farm workers will increase up to 50% over time, as they have seen in banana and tea, fair trade certified estates. However, wage increases are at the discretion of the farm owner and ultimately,are based on sales. Fair trade does require estate owners to meet the minimum wage standards of the country. Leonardo told me that his boss is, at the least, currently meeting these standards.But perhaps more than h Read Full Article ]]> After fair trade certification of La Revancha, Fair Trade USA is hopeful that salaries for farm workers will increase up to 50% over time, as they have seen in banana and tea, fair trade certified estates. However, wage increases are at the discretion of the farm owner and ultimately,are based on sales. Fair trade does require estate owners to meet the minimum wage standards of the country. Leonardo told me that his boss is, at the least, currently meeting these standards.But perhaps more than higher wages, Leonardo is very excited about the fair trade premium. When I asked him what his farm would do with the premium his eyes lit up and in less than twenty seconds he rambled off a long list in Spanish,the priority being more access to water on the farm. "We need to invest in clean water. We don't have access to water when we need it. In the fields we sweat like pigs. We want the farm to distribute water to different sources. They are building more places for water." "We also want water to distribute to each house. People bring the water from a central location. People want water in their homes."Just as in fair trade certification for cooperatives, farm workers, even temporary farm workers, democratically elect a fair trade committee. The committee then decides how to use the fair trade premium. There is no intervention by the owner on this decision. Leonardo was elected to be part of this committee and specifically as one of the two people to manage the premium. "Now and in the future, I'm going to be a witness and share if the premium arrived or not at La Revancha."After more water access, he wants to see the premium used for educational and health care needs. "Children need books, pens, backpacks for schools. Teachers need training materials. And we have no center for medicine. The hospital is very far from farms. We walk two hours to the hospital. We also need vitamins."I asked Leonardo if he was part of the decision-making process in regards to La Revancha beginning the fair trade certification process. "Yes, I thought fair trade was a good way to give us the power. I think fair trade will give me tools and freedom to work with more respect, more peace, more rights. It wasn't just before for us. If the boss buys bad food, we can't say, "I don't like it." If they treat us with injustice, I know things have to change now. Yes, if there is a problem with injustice I know I can contact Fair Trade USA. I trust in Fair Trade USA. This is evidence here that fair trade is helping us, my people. I hope that someday they will be here. We are changing our condition. We are improving our conditions. I want to come back to tell you if it's working or not.""Do you think fair trade will raise your living conditions?" I asked him. "I have faith that it can bring us out of poverty, but it depends on you," he answered me with a big grin.And in some ways Leonardo's right, isn't he? We, the consumer, are an essential part of the equation. The more of us that commit to purchasing only fairly traded coffee the higher the sales and essentially, the better the chance his small town of La Dalia has of receiving water access in their homes. La Revancha is still in the auditing phase of fair trade certification, but Fair Trade USA hopes that within the next few months they will receive their certification and be on their way to selling 100% of their productions as fair trade. They will be the first fair trade estate in Nicaragua and the 6th of twelve pilotprojects to obtain fair trade certification. Through third-party auditors, like the Sustainable Food Lab and SCS Global Services, Fair Trade USA will monitor the pilots, measuring impact with strategic indicators over the next two years. After the two-year period,Fair Trade USA hopes to assess whether or not they are headed towards their goal of 'fair trade for all.'Many thanks to Leonardo for sharing his story with me. I celebrate you and the many, hard working, farm workers you represent this World Fair Trade Day.Stay tuned for the second part of this piece- a deeper look into the impact of fair trade on plantations and the impact this is or isn't having on cooperatives.]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Ben-and-Jerry-s-Commit-to-100--Fair-Trade-Sourcing/58780.htmlTue, 09 Apr 2013 09:11:09 GMTJulie Fahnestock By the end of 2013, Ben and Jerry's will source 100% fair trade ingredients.This is the big, hairy and audacious goal that Ben and Jerry's made in 2010. And they have almost reached it. Fifty-eight flavors and hundreds of ingredients. Yet they are determined to certify every flavor, every small ingredient. For a company who is now owned by the billion-dollar conglomerate, the small economy that is Unilever, this decision equates to huge, global impact. And lots of fairly trade, Cherry Garcia bli Read Full Article ]]> By the end of 2013, Ben and Jerry's will source 100% fair trade ingredients.This is the big, hairy and audacious goal that Ben and Jerry's made in 2010. And they have almost reached it. Fifty-eight flavors and hundreds of ingredients. Yet they are determined to certify every flavor, every small ingredient. For a company who is now owned by the billion-dollar conglomerate, the small economy that is Unilever, this decision equates to huge, global impact. And lots of fairly trade, Cherry Garcia bliss.*According to Vice President of Public Relations, Sean Greenwood, it's the biggest sourcing transition Ben and Jerry's has ever made. "We've committed to change our sourcing to 100% fair trade by the end of the year and when you count the hundreds of ingredients that we have that make up composite products that makes it a huge challenge."Take the jammin' Phish Food, ** for example. Greenwood described the breakdown to me. First there's the chocolate ice cream or chocolate yogurt, caramel swirl, marshmallow, and of course the chocolate fish. The chocolate fish are made up a different cocoa powder base than the other chocolate chunks. And the chocolate fish are made of seven different ingredients. Every swirl, every unique sugar or extract must link to a fairly traded, supply chain."You continue to drill down into these minute details and it becomes this incredible spreadsheet. I think there's a real popular and sexy appeal of Ben and Jerry's employees who get to play with the flavors, but if people saw the Excel spreadsheet, they have to work with hundreds of ingredients. But we do it because we believe in making a difference in sourcing our ingredients."The fair trade certification of the last, final ingredient will be a huge accomplishment for Ben Jerry's. And for Unilever."We've increased our global reach because of Unilever's ability. We are undoubtedly at the best point we've ever been from 2000 until today in terms of walking the talk for what we think Ben and Jerry's should be doing and returning a reasonable profit. They [Unilever] are like a huge battleship that trying to turn takes an enormous effort and time but when it is going in the right direction you see the impact it can make," Greenwood commented.In fact, Unilever was recognized for its transparent sustainability reporting at PwC's Building Public Trust Awards in November 2012. Most recently they won the Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development by the World Environment Center. And slowly but surely, the battleship is turning around. Ben and Jerry's commitment is a strategic move in that change.Ben and Jerry's has also decided to change their fair trade labeling- from Fair Trade USA to the newly established Fairtrade International USA. Their decision was not about "politics" but rather about working with a certifier who is more closely aligned with their social, economic and product mission."Because of our mission, our vision and model, it made most sense to transition to work with FLO USA moving forward. By no means does it mean that we wasted five years with Fair Trade USA. It's not a judgment on them. Our DNA has been to small family farmers which we think are the backbone to agriculture throughout the globe. But it doesn't mean there's any judgment if you work with larger folks. We totally respect what Fair Trade USA is doing today. They are taking a path that they think is right to support these farmers in developing countries. And for us, it's a great time in our country's history. There have been many decades where companies have taken advantage of small farmers and for Fair Trade USA to say, "We think we can help farmers this way" and for FLO USA to say, "Well, we think we can help farmers this way." That's a tremendous place. I think we're all trying to do the right thing. We have nothing but respect for Fair Trade USA for them to go boldly in the way they think is the right one," explained Greenwood.From a supply chain management perspective this decision makes a lot of sense. Ben and Jerry's works with FLO in Europe and to reduce any redundancy or intricacies in the supply chain saves time and money.I asked Greenwood if he could offer any advice to companies who are exploring fair trade certification. With two US-based NGO's to choose from, I asked Greenwood, how does a manufacturer decide which one is right for them?"I think if you ask anybody, you need to weigh what's most important to you. They both have their own challenges, their own expertise. It's not that one is right and one is wrong. It's about which one is the best match with your company. For us what we did with Fair Trade USA in the US market was to grow awareness around fair trade and I think we did some really good things together. For manufactures, you need to be fully informed and decide where your company best matches. Like for a company who thinks there's no way they can hit the 20% mark [of their product to be certified as fair trade]-well, now there's an opportunity for them. I'd argue that it's a lot better than not pursuing thatespecially any time we can provide multiple organizations to look out for and help small producers as well as provide multiple options for consumers and manufactures."I suggested to Greenwood that Ben and Jerry's should offer training to other companies who want to make this same 100% fair trade switch but don't know where to begin.He said, "Like Scoop University?"Yes, exactly. Scoop University: where you learn the scoop on fair trade sourcing- and where every lecture begins with a scoop of Chunky Monkey, Chubby Hubby or Late Night Snack. *** Clearly, I've been studying at home*Several pints of Cherry Garcia, Fro-Yo Half Baked, and Greek Yogurt Banana Peanut Butter were consumed during the writing of this article. Research is everything.** Several interventions were made by friends, encouraging me that I'd done enough research and that it was time to put down my spoon.***Several spoons were thrown at friends as a way to ensure them that indulgence was necessary in order to conduct this research.]]>http://www.justmeans.com/-Fair-trade-is-a-blessing--/56799.htmlFri, 16 Nov 2012 09:08:24 GMTJulie Fahnestock Felipe, a banana producer from Colombia who works withboth Fairtrade International (FLO) and Fair Trade USA. Finally. The fair trade movement united. Hosted by Fair Trade Towns USA and underwritten by Fair Trade USA, students, community organizers and activists gathered in Chicago the last weekend of October to celebrate National Fair Trade Month. After such heated tensions earlier this year, I wanted to see collaboration in the movement firsthand. And collaboration was exactly what I saw. A div Read Full Article ]]> Felipe, a banana producer from Colombia who works withboth Fairtrade International (FLO) and Fair Trade USA. Finally. The fair trade movement united. Hosted by Fair Trade Towns USA and underwritten by Fair Trade USA, students, community organizers and activists gathered in Chicago the last weekend of October to celebrate National Fair Trade Month. After such heated tensions earlier this year, I wanted to see collaboration in the movement firsthand. And collaboration was exactly what I saw. A diverse representation of fair trade movers and shakers were present including FLO Canada, Equal Exchange, the Fair Trade Federation and Catholic Relief Services. In the past, these voices have clashed with Fair Trade USA in regards to innovation and implementation in the movement. But at this conference, conversation was anything but political. It was all about learning to be a blessing to the farmers. As part of the Fair Trade University and Fair Trade Towns campaigns, dozens of student and city leaders came to share their experience in their push for their campus or community to earn the title as a "Fair Trade University" or "Fair Trade Town." The Fair Trade Towns USA (in partnership with Fair Trade USA) campaign is based on principles and guidelines set forth by Fairtrade Towns (in partnership with FLO) in the U.K., where the first Fair Trade Town, Garstang, Lancashire, was recognized in 2000 (fairtradeusa.org). There are currently 30 official Fair Trade Towns including San Francisco, Boston, Media, PA, Winter Park, FL and Madison, WI and 12 Fair Trade Universities such as Siena's College, University of California San Diego, Manhattan College and Penn State Brandywine. "Fair trade bit me, "said Joan Harper from a group of organizers with Fair Trade LA. "It's so practical." Harper humorously described how organizing in Los Angeles began. "In 2005 I found myself sitting at my kitchen table with a Jew, an Atheist and three Catholics talking about small farmers and how we could support them." After a trip to India, Harper experienced the impact of fair trade on the lives of women who had previously worked in the red light district:"Fair trade changed their lives. Their sisters don't have to work in prostitution. They tell us- tell your friends so we can hire more women and pull them out of prostitution." A group of student organizers from Keene State College have paved the way on their campus for fair trade. They have taken great initiative to tie fair trade into campus and community events. For example, during Keene's annual Pumpkin Fest, the students hosted a fair trade coffee bean "corn hole" game. They have also engaged with their campus food service provider, requesting fair trade options such as coffee and bananas. Many of the colleges who attended are pushing for fair trade chocolate, bananas and uniform programs across their campuses. The students at Penn State Brandywine, who became an official Fair Trade University on May 12th, recognized that supply chain changes on a college campus must be a holistic, institutional change. "It was really important for professors to begin teaching about fair trade. We pushed for fair trade to be incorporated into environmental classes," a student leader, Sarah Demartino said. The same collaborative approach has been proved effective in community advocacy. During a session on effective campaigning, Courtney Lang, National Organizer of Fair Trade Towns USA, reminded organizers to partner with, not become the adversary of local businesses. "By pointing out what local stores and grocers are already doing well and using appreciative inquiry you are building partnership. Then you can help educate them about the reasons for the difference in price between the $3/lb. apples from Washington State and the $.55/lb. bananas from Costa Rica." The conference ended on a high note as we heard from a panel of fair trade producers. They spoke about their day to day lives and their appreciation for fair trade. When posed with a question about the impact on producers because of the split between Fair Trade USA and FLO, Felipe (quoted above) galvanized the audience with this statement: "The different approaches are good for us. It provides competition for us, for my country. It's very good we have the demand. Both groups are doing good for people. I don't know if there will be a problem, but for now I see it as an opportunity for more people to become conscious about the importance of fair trade." Collaboration is happening in the movement and I was inspired to see it firsthand. As long we continue to link arms and stand together in our common ground, I believe that fair trade will indeed be a blessing to the farmers it serves. Just as it was intended to be.Many thanks to everyone who shared their journey with me at this conference.Special thanks to David Funkhouser.Photography courtesy of Vishal Kasliwa.]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Questions-and-Answers-with-Caroline-Hickson--Director-of-Brand-and-Communications--at-Fairtrade-International--FLO-/55555.htmlThu, 16 Aug 2012 09:21:33 GMTJulie Fahnestock My apologies to Fairtrade International for the following mistakes in my recent interview with Caroline Hickson.In my interview with FLO, I wrongly stated that "75% of the small farmer organizations in Fairtrade are in cooperatives." This statement should have read: 75% of all small producer organizations are cooperatives"Additionally, FLO does not work only with small producers but also with plantations employing workers for certain products. FLO would also like to clarify their opinion on Fair Read Full Article ]]> My apologies to Fairtrade International for the following mistakes in my recent interview with Caroline Hickson.In my interview with FLO, I wrongly stated that "75% of the small farmer organizations in Fairtrade are in cooperatives." This statement should have read: 75% of all small producer organizations are cooperatives"Additionally, FLO does not work only with small producers but also with plantations employing workers for certain products. FLO would also like to clarify their opinion on Fair Trade USA's departure from FLO: "Now it is simply about two organizations with a similar vision but different ways of achieving it". This is fundamental to their outlook. After myprovocativeinterview with Paul Rice from Fair Trade USA, I promised you'd hear from the "other side" of the movement too, so here you have it! Caroline Hickson, Director of Brand and Communications, at Fairtrade International (FLO) sheds light on their model, pilot projects and plans for innovation. (Please note: the fair trade movement is a dynamic system, continually changing. For the most up-to-date information on the movement, please refer to the Fair Trade Resource Network: www.fairtraderesource.org) Q: Thanks for your time today Caroline! Let's get right into the juicy stuff!According to Fair Trade USA, one of the main reasons they departed from FLO was because they wanted to expand their work beyond the cooperative model. Does FLO believe that fair trade only works in the cooperative model? A: No. The vast majority of our producers, 75%, work in cooperatives, but this is not a rule. We ask that they be organized in some way shape or way. We believe the collective empowers producers, rather than working as individuals. We work with collective producers, small producers. We feel we started here and that's where the work is needed. We still have a huge number of producers to meet. That's where our focus needs to be. Q: Paul Rice reiterated to me over and over that the cooperative model excludes the poorest of the poor. Families without land. Families with land, but not enough land to support their entire families. Do you believe this is true and if so, how does FLO use fair trade to empower the poorest of the poor?A: We are looking at these questions. How do we get to the very poor? We started pilot projects called "producers diversity." How do we include different types of producers? Different non- cooperatives? There are really interesting groups in the Amazon, wild collectors of nuts. How do we certify them? Or indigenous groups in Colombia. How do we get involved with those groups? We have several pilot projects testing our model with new groups. Q: How does FLO pick the pilot projects?A: In the case of the producer diversity project, in 2010, Fairtrade International put out a call for pilots to our members (national Fairtrade organizations and regional producer networks). The project manager, Charlotte de Vroey, interviewed various people from the global product management team, producer services team, and the producer networks to find out if they knew of producer groups who were interested to join FLO but hadn't been able to gain certification because they didn't meet our current requirements. The producer networks review the list of possible groups (around 30) to select the final pilots. If the market is right and producer groups wants to join, then we finalize these decisions. Q: Do you think the fair trade movement, as the cooperative model, splits families down the middle? Some working on fair trade certified cooperatives, others being forced to work down the street at the large plantation? Have you seen that?A: Quite the opposite! Fair trade has, on the whole, had a positive influence on farming families. A study of all the academic impact studies on FLO over 10 years found "strong evidence that FLO provides a favorable economic opportunity for smallholder farming families." Especially those who are able to form producer organizations and provide products that fit the market. And the premiums too. They benefit the entire communities. There are studies that show that FLO certified farmers raise the economic status of non-fair trade farmers as well. In small-scale farming families, normally the whole family contributes. If they can't make a living one of the parents may have to find temporary work elsewhere. Fair trade helps support farming families to make a sustainable income off their land and prevent the need to migrate elsewhere for work.Q: I read this statement on your website: "Producers are co-owners of the Fairtrade system. Fairtrade certified producers jointly own and manage Fairtrade International. Through the Fairtrade International's Board, its Committees and consultation processes producers can influence prices, premiums, standards and overall strategy." How is this materialized?A: Producers representatives serve in our governance and have a voice in all major decisions. In October it was agreed that producer representatives would have 50% of the vote in our General Assembly, the highest decision-making body in FLO. Producer representatives serve on the Board of Fairtrade International, on Fairtrade's global executive team, and on the Standards Committee which decides on all important changes to our Fairtrade Standards.The producer representation is from three regional producer networks. Producer networks are regional associations that Fairtrade certified producer organizations may join if they wish. There is one producer network per continent, Fairtrade Africa (FTA), Network of Asian and Pacific Producers (NAPP) and Coordinator of Fairtrade Latin America and the Caribbean (CLAC - Coordinadora Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Comercio Justo). They represent small-scale producers, workers and other producer stakeholders.Q: How do you respond to this comment by Paul Rice: "If fair trade continues to stand on the model of excluding the poorest of poor, excluding the majority of people in product categories in industry- it's really on moral thin ice. Fair trade has to be more inclusive."A: We agree that fair trade must be inclusive but we take a different approach of implementation. We are working to include more vulnerable producers and workers within FLO's system, but working closely with the producers themselves as part of our decision-making and governance to make this happen.Our producer diversity project is a collaboration between FLO and the three regional fair trade producer networks to find innovative ways to include producers who currently cannot participate because they do not fit our current model. The project will explore which specific requirements are creating barriers to prevent farmers from joining and how these may be adapted or other solutions found. Its bottom-up approach will test new approaches in a few selected case studies.Q: How does FLO define innovation as the fair trade movement progresses? A: Innovation comes from really knowing and understanding the context you work in. Hearing the voice of the producers. What they believe is needed, what they think is good. This is innovation. I'm not a believer in that you set up an innovation committee. Instead, you are on the ground. You are hearing the voices of people themselves. It's not all about scale. It has to be about impact. You have to go to scale in a way that keeps your integrity. Fair trade does seem to be in a movement of change. It's changing norms. If you look back 25 years ago when it started in Holland, who was thinking about what was happening in their supply chains? This is a testimony to how we've changed norms. When you do have something that changes, you are going to have tons of opinions.I think it's sad that it got to the point where Fair Trade USA left. If we had continued conversation we could have come together. It happened suddenly. It's not unusual that you will have situation where there are lots of different opinions, debates. A relatively healthy evolution. It's sad that a member left. We are trying to get away from the he said, she said. But it's important that we keep standards high as a movement. It's about us looking at our standards. We were the original standard setter. We hope to be the gold standard.]]>http://www.justmeans.com/FLO--Fair-Trade-USA--and-Starbucks---A-Critique--Part-6-/54195.htmlWed, 30 May 2012 12:53:56 GMTJulie Fahnestock "When the dragons started coming in, the label changed. The farmers are also frustrated with the different types of standards. When Transfair [Fair Trade USA] announced its departure from FLO, farmers denounced this move,"Dean Cycon, Owner of Deans Beans. Both a piece of contention and applause is the support and impact both FLO and Fair Trade USA have made in big businesses. They have pushed big businesses to re-think the way they relate to their producers. Many accounts describe the fair trade Read Full Article ]]> "When the dragons started coming in, the label changed. The farmers are also frustrated with the different types of standards. When Transfair [Fair Trade USA] announced its departure from FLO, farmers denounced this move,"Dean Cycon, Owner of Deans Beans. Both a piece of contention and applause is the support and impact both FLO and Fair Trade USA have made in big businesses. They have pushed big businesses to re-think the way they relate to their producers. Many accounts describe the fair trade system in the United States as a largely successful story of the use of standards and certification to dramatically expand an alternative or ethical market, reaching a mainstream consumer base through mass-market retail channels, and redistributing capital to disadvantaged Southern producers through minimum prices, (Jaffee, 272). Fair Trade USA recently faced an insurmountable amount of negative feedback for their previously lower standards, mainly for the fear of "fair-washing" consumers and becoming just another marketing scheme. The fear of fair-washing by big corporations leads to bigger questions of sustainability for the movement: Do big corporations water down fair trade standards? Can fair trade maintain its integrity and purity with the involvement of Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters? Is Fair Trade USA perpetuating the problem by labeling products with several different labels and confusing consumers? Lastly, will the fair trade movement fall apart if it goes main stream?Many movement activists including Albert Tucker, former board member of FLO, see big business as a threat to the guiding principles of Fairtrade. "We cannot let our radical vision of a completely different way of doing business be watered down by opportunistic transnationals," writes Albert Tucker. "The fair trade mark should be regarded as a 'badge of honor,' not just a brand of food that demonstrates you are paying a little more to desperate farmers ... if any transnationals are involved, they must negotiate with poor farmer businesses on an equal basis, having signed up to stringent standards across their entire operations," (Jaffee, 273).Dean Cycon couldn't agree more."When the dragons started coming in, the label changed. The farmers are also frustrated with the different types of standards. When Transfair [Fair Trade USA] announced its departure from FLO, farmers denounced this move." Dean and other purists in the fair trade movement are afraid that fair trade will lose its credibility when corporations like Hershey enter the market on the basis of Fair Trade USA's standards. Certifying only the cocoa solids, but not the vanilla, sugar or cocoa butter in chocolate should not make it eligible for the Fair Trade mark, the purists argue. FLO and Fair Trade USA need to critically think about their relationship with mainstream and under the impact it will have on their producers if they are to remain influential (Tallontire, Challenges, 13).With so many different fair trade labels and standards and the ability for anyone to create a labeling organization, not only do FLO and Fair Trade USA lose their credibility, but the entire fair trade movement loses its credibility. To confuse consumers even more, Fair Trade USA will continue to accept producer groups certified by FLO-CERT (fairtradeforall.com). The black and white label which belongs to Fair Trade USA will label their products and those of FLO's, which have very different standards. The consumer will not know if a product has been certified by SCS or by FLO-CERT and according to Larson at Fair Trade USA, "the reality is that the average consumer doesn't even know the difference." If standards are not clearly defined on the label so that the average consumer can know the difference, will the fair trade movement be sustainable? Should the labeling organizations be held accountable by a larger governing body? Simply put, the answer is yes. FLO and Fair Trade USA should be held accountable. Currently there is no governmental standard for fair trade certification, the same situation as with "organic" until a few years ago (Downie). Fair Trade USA is accountable to the firms who buy their seals and to the SEC who audits and monitors them, but is this enough? FLO is accountable to ISEAL which is accountable to the ISO standards, but they would also do better with a more formalized fair trade governing body to maintain their credibility. Private or public, a trusted authority should be in charge of regulating fair trade organizations' standards, outcomes and practices. Equitable prices for small farmers with limited access to the global market are too important not to protect. The last thing fair trade advocates want to happen is for the movement to become a profit-driven, marketing scheme. This would be pure injustice. A governing body is needed to protect the farmers and uphold the movement. FLO and Fair Trade USA have a long way to go in order to truly revolutionize trade for smaller farmers. More transparency, more scalability, and commitment to the highest of standards are required of them if they desire to develop the Third World and pull the poorest of the poor out of poverty. Decisions about development vs. trade development need to be made. Marketing of standards needs to be clear. Global standards need to be created and upheld. And a governing body needs to regulate the movement. The fair trade movement will only be as sustainable as the most influential labels make it. Sustainability will be their choice and this choice only seems fair to the millions of farmers behind the labels.Thanks to all my readers for following this series and to all of you fair trade advocates out there. Let's keep striving for unity as we push through some of the growing pains right now.Stay tuned for next week's interview with Fairtrade International. And coming soon, a Q &A with Rodney North from Equal Exchange.(To obtain a copy of the citations, please contact Julie directly)]]>http://www.justmeans.com/FLO--Fair-Trade-USA--and-Starbucks--A-Critique--Part-5-/53956.htmlThu, 17 May 2012 12:17:19 GMTJulie Fahnestock Note from the author: I hope you've enjoyed this series thus far. Many thanks to those of you who have posted very engaging comments and questions. It's so great to see the energy around this movement. I love being part of it and it seems that millions of others do too. And, I think the debate and disagreement is healthy. It's a good sign that fair trade matters to us. Part 5 of this series offers the opinions of NGOs outside of the fair trade movement. Some don't think it's having much impact. Read Full Article ]]> Note from the author: I hope you've enjoyed this series thus far. Many thanks to those of you who have posted very engaging comments and questions. It's so great to see the energy around this movement. I love being part of it and it seems that millions of others do too. And, I think the debate and disagreement is healthy. It's a good sign that fair trade matters to us. Part 5 of this series offers the opinions of NGOs outside of the fair trade movement. Some don't think it's having much impact. Others think it actually traps people in poverty. I personally think fair trade is having impact and that it does pull people out of poverty, but it's good for us to be challenged by those outside the movement. I hope you've enjoyed this series thus far. Many thanks to those of you who have posted very engaging comments and questions. It's so great to see the energy around this movement. We become better advocates for that which we believe!Enjoy this posting and stay tuned for a Q &A with Fairtrade International!Since its beginnings, FLO had sales of bananas, chocolate, coffee and other products under its banner had climbed to 1.17bn (Milmo). In general, the fair trade movement in Europe is about a decade ahead in public awareness of the label. On average, Britons, for example, on a daily basis consume 9.3 cups of tea and 3 bananas stamped with the FLO mark (Milmo). The market in the USA is much smaller as compared to the European market. The Fairtrade Foundation's Executive Director, Harriet Lamb, said, "Sales could break 2bn next year if the momentum continues. Fairtrade is going from strength to strength because the public want it, it makes business sense, and most importantly because it's working for the millions of farmers, workers and their families who see Fairtrade as their lifeline in these tough times. They'll be cheering to know that UK shoppers and businesses still care," (Milmo). As previously mentioned, big businesses have also caught on to using both the FLO and Fair Trade USA standards and this has given both organizations more publicity. For example, all the espresso served at the 5,400 Dunkin' Donuts stores in the United States is fair trade and the McDonald's stores in New England sell only fair trade coffee, (Downie). The impact on small farmers in developing nations is also unparalleled to the efforts of other NGO's and development agencies. New data from Fair Trade USA's recently released 2011 Almanac reveals that more than 138 million pounds of Fair Trade Certified coffee were imported into the United States, a 32 percent increase over 2010. According to FLO, there are now 827 Fairtrade certified producer organizations in 58 producing countries, representing over 1.2 million farmers and workers and approximately 52 million was distributed to communities in 2009 for use in community development (fairtrade.net). The fair trade premium provided by both FLO and Fair Trade USA has created schools, water systems, new jobs and is ever so slowly pulling farmers out of poverty. According to the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK, Mali 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," (Bowers). No one will dispute the fact that both FLO and Fair Trade USA have made an impact because of their standards. What critics do dispute however, is the efficiency and transparency of each model and whether or not fair trade gives farmers a crutch which creates Western dependency. Is fair trade just another form of charity? Anne Tallontire, an expert in systems of fair trade and a senior lecturer of 'Business, Environment & Corporate Responsibility' at Leeds University in the UK asks these questions: [There are] questions about accountability, legitimacy, representation and participation and other dimensions of governance: who is accountable for such standards? What makes them legitimate? Who decides who is involved or not? What say do less powerful groups have? Do they undermine democratic governance? These models are largely untested," (Tallontire, CSR and Regulation, 779). Tallontire also expresses a need for FLO to decide whether it wants to develop the systems of trade or provide development through trade. Through her studies, Tallontire has found that the unintended consequences of either sides of the coin are highly unknown. She states, "Dependency and the extent to which fair trade may subsidize otherwise inefficient or sub-standard producers have been raised as potential short-comings of fair trade in relations to other approaches to enabling small producers to enter export markets," (Tallontire, Challenges,3). Tallontire suggests that FLO have exit strategies and capacity building programs for all farmers. Oxfam, one of the first organizations in the world to participate in fair trade practices before it came formalized, did a study to see if they truly were creating a dependency from the farmers. The study showed that 44% of the groups studied sold at least half of their produce to Oxfam and where groups had become less dependent on Oxfam they tended to diversify sales to other fair trade buyers (Tallontire, Challenges, 5). Critics of fair trade agree that ultimately it makes it very challenging for farmers to become self-sustaining. Dependency on fair trade organizations, particularly FLO in this case, not only limits the farmers' ability to sell to other groups, but according to Steve Daley of the Worldwrite Charity in the UK, fair trade is a poverty trap.""How can a few extra pennies a day from Fairtrade be celebrated as an outstanding achievement? Many tens of thousands of people escaped poverty last year, most of them in India and China, but that was done through real market developments rather than small-scale fair trade deals. They were lifted out of poverty because they could sell their products on the open global market, rather than being sectioned off in the fair trade market," (O'Neill). The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is another, quite vocal critic of FLO. The IEA describes fair trade as "costly, opaque and substantially unproven." A 130-page report confirms their skepticism. The report states: "Fairtrade requirements [on farmers] may well reflect the subjective views of western consumers and not the real needs of poor producers," (Bowers). The IEA believes that supporting FLO's efforts is simply supporting the work of charities, the extra $2 per pound of coffee used to build wells, for example. Other economists agree with IEA. The Adam Smith Institute says that FLO makes farmers dependent and "prisoners to our market," (O'Neill). This may be one way of looking at it, but philosopher and professor, Peter Singer, thinks that the Fairtrade premium also ensures better quality. "The growers know that they have to provide a product that consumers like, both for its taste and for the way it is grown. If their product sells well, they can take pride in having produced something that is sought after around the world. From the growers' perspective, receiving a premium by selling a Fairtrade product is preferable to receiving a charitable handout that they would get whether they worked or not and regardless of the quality of what they produce," (Singer). Other supporters of FLO include Trade Aid Importers of New Zealand. They have seen, first hand, Fairtrade promote autonomy and independence among farmers in developing nations. Justin Purser, the Commodities manager for Trade Aid gives an example of Prodecoop, a coffee cooperative in Nicaragua: "Prodecoop has grown, with the aid of a longer history of fair trade sales, to the size where it is now constructing wet mill facilities for its smaller member co-ops. And to help them along, Trade Aid is supplying an additional US$7,000 in funding this year," (O'Neill). (To obtain a copy of the citations, please contact Julie directly) ]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Question-and-Answer-with-Paul-Rice--President-and-CEO-of--Fair-Trade-USA--Part-2/53822.htmlThu, 10 May 2012 12:34:09 GMTJulie Fahnestock "Don't we want to democratize fair trade? Don't we want fair trade to be more than a white,middle-class movement? Don't we want consumers, no matter where they shop,to have access to great products that also do right in the world?"If you missed the first part of my interview with Paul Rice, do not fret.Click here to read Paul's explanation of why Fair Trade USA left Fair Trade International.Innovation. Innovation. Innovation. Innovation is what pushed Fair Trade USA to leave Fairtrade Internatio Read Full Article ]]> "Don't we want to democratize fair trade? Don't we want fair trade to be more than a white,middle-class movement? Don't we want consumers, no matter where they shop,to have access to great products that also do right in the world?"If you missed the first part of my interview with Paul Rice, do not fret.Click here to read Paul's explanation of why Fair Trade USA left Fair Trade International.Innovation. Innovation. Innovation. Innovation is what pushed Fair Trade USA to leave Fairtrade International and prioritize the certification of estates. Paul Rice, President and CEO of Fair Trade USA, wants to reach small farmers and this, he thinks, "will serve the billions of people around the world struggling with poverty." But can the independent, farm worker truly be served without the protection of a cooperative? And why did they begin their new, "innovative" journey with such low standards? All this and more in to follow.Question: "How will producers be represented in Fair Trade USA's future? Will producers have a voice in your standards?"Paul: "Most of our opponents frequently suggest that we aren't involved in stakeholder engagement, so I'm so glad you asked this question so I can set the record straight. From day one, (laughing), frankly in our DNA as an organization, we've believed in stakeholder engagement. It's at the very core of our organization and our process in terms of how we do business. We've always had a multi-stakeholder platform that allowed for multiple voices and perspectives. We don't serve just one constituency, the farmers and farm workers around the world. And that's why we're here, to help lift them out of poverty. But we do that in partnership with the industry, with companies, importers, brands, retailers which are second. Third, is the consumer. If consumers don't buy fair trade products then the whole thing fails. But, yes. Absolutely. We firmly believe in engaging with producers. We've had a coffee farmer on our board for many years. We added a second leader from our coffee producers in Columbia. We also have NGO leaders, labor rights lawyer on board, social entrepreneurs on board, and Oxfam leadership council. And we just recruited Erik Nicholson from United Farm Workers. The point is we want to hear from all sides as we craft new standards, as we craft new strategies and we believe that's the strongest way to develop our new program--is to include collective wisdom from various constituencies.Question: "Are you hearing from individual workers? Will the voice of the producer be heard? Will it be the loudest voice? You mentioned two of them on your board."Paul: "We are using all the ways you can to hear from producers. From assemblies, to small group meetings, to emails, to one-on-one, to our Coffee Council. We are using them all. There are a lot of ways to reach out to people and as you might guess, some people in the fair trade coffee producer world are more equipped to be a voice. We know who those luminaries are. We created the Coffee Producer Advisory Council made up of 11 of the best and brightest from the coffee co-op world. We have co-op leaders from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Columbia, Sumatra, Brazil, and Ethiopia. We've selected the best and brightest from around the world. The council formed 5 or 6 years ago and has been chewing on every major policy and strategy issues we've encountered over this period. They are our panel of experts. We go to all of the members of that council to get the feedback on the standards. Not everyone thinks alike on the council. Not everyone is whole heartedly open to opening coffee to estates, some have their concerns and they are legitimate. To your point, we are absolutely seeking and taking into account the input of the growers, but again, frankly, leaning more on the luminaries in the co-ops in the movement who have so much to contribute. They've been running co-ops for 30 years and their co-ops aren't little funky, village co-ops. Their co-ops are $40 million dollar businesses. Carlos Vargas from Costa Rica was literally born on a coffee farm, picked coffee, became president of a co-op at 19 and now he's in his 50s. He is one of the men who knows his shit. He's not a technocrat. He's rooted in reality. He leads the Coffee Producer Council and sits on our board.Question: "Switching gears, what was the reasoning behind certifying products that weren't 100% fair trade? I was appalled when I saw a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans with only fair trade certified chocolate, not the espresso beans, the vanilla, sugar or cocoa butter. I felt so deceived! I want to know that everything that can be certified is certified. I don't want to be fooled because otherwise it feels like a marketing scheme. So, why were the standards so low? How did you respond when stakeholders complained?Paul: "The logic behind our multiple ingredients product policy was to maximize impact for farmers.In the past two years, Fair Trade USA's partners have delivered over $3.4 million in community development premiums to farmers via sales of Fair Trade Certified multiple ingredient products.Our standards are higher now than they have ever been. In order to use the full Fair Trade Certified label, the product must be 100% Fair Trade Certified. For the new "Ingredients Label," the product must contain at least 20% Fair Trade Certified ingredients. Previously, a product containing 25-100% Fair Trade Certified ingredients could use the full label. The majority of companies we work with strive to include as many Fair Trade Certified ingredients as possible - and we help them with this journey.In the case of the chocolate-covered espresso bean, both the chocolate and the espresso bean would need to Fair Trade Certified because our policy states that "100% of the ingredient (in this case ingredients) commonly associated with the product must be Fair Trade Certified." However, you might find a chocolate bar that contains Fair Trade Certified cocoa and non-certified sugar. Why? Because Fair Trade Certified sugar is not readily available at the quantities, qualities or price points that brands require. As we work to resolve this supply issue, we want to be able to help cocoa farmers right away. We also want to make it clear to consumers that the bar is not 100% Fair Trade Certified - in this case, the bar would bare the Ingredients Label. We are very proud of our impact on cocoa farmers as a result of this policy. We see sugar as a big area of opportunity and impact, and we have a team working on the supply issues with producers.Fair Trade USA made this update in January in direct response to stakeholder feedback from a variety of sources, including producers, brands and consumers. We believe this policy strikes a better balance between producer impact and clarity around product labeling by encouraging more companies to use more Fair Trade Certified ingredients in their products and by increasing transparency through better defined labeling and website disclosure requirements.Question: Do you think that companies are "fair-washing" consumers and are using fair trade as a marketing scheme? Is fair trade just another piece of their CSR plan?Paul: That's a great question. I think the fears of green-washing are legitimate and I certainly don't consider myself a green-washer, far from it. I think we have actually raised the bar of fair trade by being more inclusive. Embracing the entire family, the entire community is actually a higher bar in my mind than staying with this narrow, privileged group that have exclusive rights. The threat of green-washing exists in all labeling. It's a legitimate part of the conversation in this movement. But am I afraid that we will be used by companies? No. Absolutely not. And here's why:Dunkin Donuts for example. Do some research. Go into a few Dunkin Donuts. Or Starbucks. Or Brueggers. Go into any store you can imagine that has fair trade products and look at the level of advertising and promotion and celebration of fair trade relative to what else is going on in that store. I think what you'll find is that it is very understated. The visibility of fair trade is actually commensurate with the activity. In Dunkin Donuts it's very hard to find. It's very understated. So is Dunkin Donuts green-washing? Absolutely not. I don't think that's green-washing. Why don't they do more? That's a complex business decision and we cannot force the pace.Question: "Does Fair Trade USA feel isolated in the movement? Do you feel like you are working alone?"Paul: "No! So much of what we're doing now is in response to what our closest stakeholders have been asking us to do for many, many years. Whether its social, justice organizations who are concerned about the farm worker situation and don't understand why we don't work with them or it's from mission driven companies who don't understand why they can't certify all of their coffee because they buy some of their coffee from co-ops and some from larger farmers, to co-op leaders themselves.To me and to the vast majority of the 800 companies and the numerous NGO's we work with, when you ask us, what is fair trade, fair trade is social justice. Fair trade is a market based approach to alleviating poverty. Fair trade is empowering consumers and empowering producers to improve their lives. Now notice, I didn't mention cooperatives in any of that. Cooperatives are a means to an end. Cooperatives are one tool. As a co-op organizer myself, I can tell you that it's not the only tool. So I would argue that those who have limited vision that fair trade equals co-ops, they are missing the boat. I don't think that fair trade is or can be that narrowly defined. Fair trade has to be more inclusive. Back to Santiago and Armando: We have to include the whole family. We can't discriminate within the community. And that doesn't mean we are going to solve everyone's problems all at once. I'm not that stupid, right. We aren't going to solve the world's problems overnight. It's going to be a long march, taking generations, but I think in principle we have to be open to embracing the entire community and not just a portion of it.And in terms of the strategy, I don't believe small is beautiful. We have realized that there are so many poor people out there who need our help and for whom fair trade could be truly meaningful. Our model is not built to reach them and if we don't innovate and change the model and by the way, everyone is innovating. Look at Apple, everyone. Why can't innovation be part of the fair trade movement? It baffles me that somehow innovation in our movement is unacceptable. In any event, our approach, we believe, is that we have to engage. That's our key word. Engage, engage and engage. If I can engage with mission driven companies then I want to because I love them and they are doing God's work. But if I can engage with the big companies, on my terms, then I want to engage with them too. If I can engage with conscious consumers, the kind of folks who are shopping at co-ops and are tuned into social and environmental issues, I definitely want to engage with them. If I can engage with the "light-green" consumers, people who don't have time to get involved, but want some reassurances that there's no slavery in their chocolate bars and no worker pesticides poisoning on their flowers, I want to engage with them too. And they don't all shop at co-ops. Some of them shop at Wal-Mart and Costco. Some of them drink latts at Starbucks, others drink coffee at Dunkin Donuts. Don't we want to democratize fair trade? Don't we want fair trade to be more than a white, middle-class movement? Don't we want consumers, no matter where they shop, to have access to great products that also do right in the world?Many thanks to Paul Rice and Katie Barrow for answering my tough questions and for engaging in this discussion.Stay tuned for next week's posting where I pick up where I left off in my critique of the fair trade movement. And coming soon, we hear from the "other side:" Q&A with Fairtrade International. Click here to read Paul's explanation of why Fair Trade USA left Fair Trade International.]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Question-and-Answer-with-Paul-Rice--President-and-CEO-of-Fair-Trade-USA---Part-I--Cooperatives-and-Estates/53682.htmlThu, 03 May 2012 13:14:55 GMTJulie Fahnestock "If fair trade continues to stand on the model of excluding the poorest of poor, excluding the majority of people in product categories in industry- it's really on moral thin ice.Fair trade has to be more inclusive."Your wait is over! It's finally here. The post I know you've all been dying to read:President and CEO of Fair Trade USA, Paul Rice, shares the reasoning Fair Trade USA's decision to leave Fairtrade International and their plans for "innovation." So sip on a cup of freshly brewed, fai Read Full Article ]]> "If fair trade continues to stand on the model of excluding the poorest of poor, excluding the majority of people in product categories in industry- it's really on moral thin ice.Fair trade has to be more inclusive."Your wait is over! It's finally here. The post I know you've all been dying to read:President and CEO of Fair Trade USA, Paul Rice, shares the reasoning Fair Trade USA's decision to leave Fairtrade International and their plans for "innovation." So sip on a cup of freshly brewed, fair trade coffee, grab a bar of chocolate (fairly traded of course!) and prop up your feet because this interview is rich and juicy.Question: "What was the biggest motivation in your decision to leave Fair Trade International?"Paul: "Leaving FLO (Laughing)...How much time you got?Fair trade desperately needs innovation in order to expand impact. The historic fair trade model is not scalable in our view and we are not content just serving a few million farmers a year while billions of people around the world struggle with poverty. And it's our belief that fair trade can be a relevant model for poverty alleviation on a grand and global scale. Out of that belief and analysis, that fair trade could make a bigger impact if it were simply innovated, we proposed an innovation agenda that FLO was not willing to support. It wasn't our first choice to leave FLO. It was our first choice to innovate, but when FLO decided they wouldn't come with us in that journey, separation from FLO became inevitable."Question: "Why the push for plantation certification? Why not focus on certifying more cooperatives?"Paul: "I've been organizing cooperatives since 1983. I can tell you for a fact that this polarized, 2- dimensional framing [of fair trade]--the small farmer in the co-op vs. the small farmer working on the estate-- is not the reality on the ground. We are talking about the same family. It's the same family.""There's an inevitable math at hand here. Most small farmers have 2 or 3 acres of land. If you have 2 acres of land and 4 kids, there's no way you can leave a land inheritance to all of them. Maybe 1 or 2"The story of Santiago and Armando:"My buddy Santiago Rivera is a classic, coffee farmer, a 4th generation farmer, owns 3 acres of land and lives on a mountain top in Nicaragua. He studied until the 2nd grade. He struggled to put food on the table his whole life. He joined a fair trade co-op in the '90s and started to make a little more money each year. His oldest son, Mercedes, who works on the farm will inherit the land. His oldest daughter, Rosario, married and moved away to her husband's farm. Santiago's youngest daughter, Yolanda- and this is a classic fair trade, success story--was pulled out of school at 6th grade because the family couldn't afford it. But shortly after her family became fair trade certified. The village set up a fair trade, scholarship program and Yolanda was the first person in entire village to finish high school. She went on to college and is now the co-director of a health center in the region. However, Armando, Santiago's youngest son, is 21 and is never good in school and didn't want to apply for the scholarship. He likes farming, but there is not enough land for his dad, his brother and him to farm. He works for $3 per day at a large coffee estate down the road. He's a farm worker. When I sat on their porch in December, we go back every year.I stay very connected to these communities I've known since the 80s. I talked to Santiago. Armando was there and it hit me on the head like a ton of bricks. These great ideological debates we have in the States- when you peel it apart- what we are talking about is Santiago, a fair trade farmer and Armando, a farm worker on an estate. I didn't pose the question but you can imagine what Santiago would have said if I had asked him "Santiago, does your son deserve fair trade too?" He's not going to say no, don't let the plantations in. He's going to say "yes. I want my son to be paid a fair wage and to have good working conditions.""For me, at the heart of it, if you look at it in human terms, the real communities we are talking about are the same people. The same families in co-ops and large estates. To draw an artificial line down the center of the community and say 'all people on this side are eligible and if you're on the other side of the line, you're not.It's unethical and unprincipled.'""Reach more small farmers in next few years than FLO could ever hope""Are we abandoning small farmers: No! We are going to reach more small farmers in the next few years than FLO could ever hope to because we are going to open up the model to small farms who aren't in co-ops. We are piloting in Columbia, starting with 1000 farmers, hope to include 5000 in the project. We are going to engage that network of independent smallholders and give them a path to organization, using access to the fair trade market as part of incentive.It's a pilot- I think it will work, I hope it will work. But if it doesn't work, we won't continue it. The point is we are absolutely committed to small farmers, we are committed to small farmers being empowered and getting organized and we are also committed to farm workers on large farms.""I would argue that this is broader, more inclusive model is the only way fair trade can maintain its moral authority. If fair trade continues to stand on model of excluding the poorest of poor- excluding majority of people in a product categories in industry- it's really on moral thin ice- this is where we found ourselves and this is why we felt so committed to innovating the model and, even when it led us to leave FLO. We feel very deeply and we aren't trying to convince everyone we are right. We are very committed to innovation for impact. We don't expect debate to go away. We celebrate the debate. We celebrate the fact that there are people who are concerned that co-ops might get hurt. Obviously, we aren't doing this lightly. We obviously agree that is a potential risk and we are managing for that. I can tell you suffice to say that the debate is part of our journey as a movement. It's necessary."Question: "How, in practice, are you managing for the impact the certification of estates will have on cooperatives?"Paul: "Innovating slowly and with care, we plan to implement 10 - 20 pilots over the next two years. We will assess results at both the farm level and the sector level, reporting on system-wide sales for both cooperatives and pilot farms to ensure new producers is not displacing the sales of current cooperatives. To further strengthen existing Fair Trade cooperatives, Fair Trade USA is developing innovative new partnerships to connect, create and transform the lives of farming communities worldwide - this is our Co-Op Link program. These partnerships enable targeted projects that help farmers improve quality, increase productivity, improve access to capital, and become stronger business partners. A few of our current partners include: Ansara Family Foundation,Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), Atlas Coffee Importers, AVINA Foundation, Green Mountain Coffee, Kiva, Progreso, Rabobank, Rabobank Foundation, responsAbility, Root Capital, Scientific Certification Systems, Sustainable Harvest, VIVA Trust , W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the World Bank.""The opponents of what we are doing are asserting that fair trade doesn't work on estates, that it only works for small holder cooperatives. I would really caution people to draw quick conclusions on that. The reality is there's been some research around the performance of fair trade on large estates in terms of lifting farm workers out of poverty, improving incomes and living standards, working conditions and also empowering them. Most of that research is very positive. It's not negative.""People say, 'Have you seen the research that says fair trade doesn't work on large estates?'"I say: Show them to me. Show them to me. Because what I've read and what I continue to read is actually very positive. It very much matches my own personal experience and part of what led us as an organization and me as a leader here to these crossroads was our experience on larger fair trade farms over the last 3, 4 5 years. We didn't just say, 'Oh what a great idea, let's extend the farm worker model to coffee.' We actually spent a lot of time on the fair trade certified estates.""And my personal feeling and impression of my team from all these interactions is that fair trade works. It actually works. Notto say that it's perfect and that we can't improve on it. We want to improve on the farm worker model and we have very specific ideas of how to do that. But the bottom line is that it's working. It's really amazing."To be continued]]>http://www.justmeans.com/FLO--Fair-Trade-USA--and-Starbucks--A-Critique--Part-4-/53484.htmlWed, 25 Apr 2012 09:00:31 GMTJulie Fahnestock (Please note: This posting critiques the fair trade industry at the close of 2011. As of January 2012, Fair Trade USA revised their standards and the current standards will be discussed in a future posting.) Fair Trade International and Fair Trade USA have both had a positive impact on the corporate social responsibility goals of big businesses. FLO has maintained its leadership in Europe with Sainsbury as the largest fair trade retailer in the world. Each minute Sainsbury sells 1,200 FLO banana Read Full Article ]]> (Please note: This posting critiques the fair trade industry at the close of 2011. As of January 2012, Fair Trade USA revised their standards and the current standards will be discussed in a future posting.) Fair Trade International and Fair Trade USA have both had a positive impact on the corporate social responsibility goals of big businesses. FLO has maintained its leadership in Europe with Sainsbury as the largest fair trade retailer in the world. Each minute Sainsbury sells 1,200 FLO bananas a minute, generating almost 4million in Fair Trade premium in 2009, (sainsburys.co.uk). The following chart shows the fast-paced growth of Fairtrade (FLO) certified products in the UK. In less than 10 years, the revenue from fair trade products increased by almost 500%. Big businesses like Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer have made FLO products part of mainstream culture in Europe. Sainbury's push for more fair trade products on their shelves came from the help of Comic Relief, a major charity in the UK which purposes to end global poverty. Together with Comic Relief, the Sainsbury's Fair Development Fund was kick-started with an initial commitment of 1 million and is being used to support a number of Fairtrade initiatives over a four-year period (sainsbury.co.uk). This initiative will empower producers in some of the poorest of the Third World nations to meet the Fairtrade standards so that they can sell their products through FLO. The Sainsbury's Fair Development Fund should help farmers - especially in Africa - find new routes to market, (O'Neill). Already, Sainsbury has helped farmers in Malawi and Uganda become FLO certified and is purchasing their dried fruits and sugar to make Fairtrade fruit bars. Fairtrade has become a major part of the CSR plan of Sainsbury. Marks and Spencer, a department/specialty store in the UK has also made FLO's products a part of their goals to become more sustainable. In 2010, sales of Fairtrade products increased by 40% at M&S, and the retailer now sells more than 300 different items of Fairtrade food, drink and flowers (Smithers). They were also the first retailer to carry Fairtrade vegetables. The photo below shows a Kenyan farmer holding his Fairtrade, green beans. As one of the five pillars of Marks and Spencer's CSR plan called "Plan A: Doing the Right Thing," M&S plans to convert 10% of their cotton from conventional to Fairtrade by 2012 (marksandspencer.com). The company also has goals to reduce waste and give profits to breast cancer research. Fairtrade is one piece of their larger CSR plan. Fair Trade USA has also had large US businesses grab on to their standards and labeling as part of larger CSR plans. As part of Wal-Mart's Global Sustainability plan, Sam's club became the first mainstream retailer to offer Fair Trade USA certified bananas. As of December 2009, the sales of these bananas generated more than $900,000 to fund community development projects in Colombia while eliminating the need to use more than 875,000 gallons of herbicide, (walmartstores.com). Additionally, Ben and Jerry's, now owned by Unilever, prides itself in being the first company to certify ice cream under Fair Trade USA's standards.Many smaller companies in the USA have used Fair Trade USA to certify their products as well. Kopali Organics, an organic chocolate company, sources only Fair Trade USA cocoa from Peru."We are friends with Paul Rice [President of Fair Trade USA] and believe that they are going to raise the FLO standards," stated Jacqueline Holmes, President of Kopali Organics.Other companies like Mocha Joes in Brattleboro, Vermont and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Waterbury, Vermont have used Fair Trade USA's standards as one part of their larger mission to become sustainable businesses . But are these businesses using fair trade as a way of marketing? Critics of fair trade have deemed the label as "fairwashing" consumers and that is being used by many companies, not to change the lives of small farmers, but to make more profit. But Paul Rice doesn't think so. In an interview with him this month, he commented that many companies with fair trade certified products are in fact, not using the label to market their products. "How does Dunkin Donuts market their fair trade espresso? They don't. You wouldn't even know Dunkin Donuts carries fair trade certified espresso unless you asked," Rice stated.I know this firsthand to be true. I only knew about Dunkin Donut's fair trade espresso because a friend told me about it. When I asked a Dunkin' barista if she could confirm they carried fair trade espresso, she looked confused and asked, "What's fair trade? I've never heard of this." It wasn't until I was drinking my latte that I noticed the coffee cup sleeve. It was marked with Fair Trade USA's black and white label and a few sentences defining fair trade. There was no other marketing material in the store about their fair trade certification. Later I logged onto the Dunkin Donuts website, expecting to see the fair trade label front and center on their homepage, but it wasn't there. Why then would Dunkin Donuts care about selling fair trade coffee if they aren't using it as a marketing tool? Stay tuned for thoughts on this question and a full interview with Paul Rice, CEO of Fair Trade USA. This and more, coming your way soon! (To obtain a copy of the citations, please contact Julie directly) ]]>http://www.justmeans.com/FLO--Fair-Trade-USA--and-Starbucks--A-Critique--Part-3-/53414.htmlWed, 18 Apr 2012 08:38:08 GMTJulie Fahnestock Part 3 of a multi-series post(Please note: This posting critiques the fair trade industry at the close of 2011. As of January 2012, Fair Trade USA revised their standards and the current standards will be discussed in a future posting. Click on the link at the bottom of the post to read about Fair Trade USA's revisions). As the European fair trade market was gaining momentum, small steps were also being taken in the United States. Led by the Mennonite Central Committee and Ten Thousand Villages, Read Full Article ]]> Part 3 of a multi-series post(Please note: This posting critiques the fair trade industry at the close of 2011. As of January 2012, Fair Trade USA revised their standards and the current standards will be discussed in a future posting. Click on the link at the bottom of the post to read about Fair Trade USA's revisions). As the European fair trade market was gaining momentum, small steps were also being taken in the United States. Led by the Mennonite Central Committee and Ten Thousand Villages, fair trade was originally pushed by missionaries and development workers on behalf of displaced refugees. The young U.S. fair trade movement shared with its European counterparts a twin set of roots: one in religious development charities and another in solidarity activism on the political Left, (Jaffee, 272). In fact, Fair Trade USA, formerly known as Transfair USA, was one of the founding members of FLO. In 1998, the formerly Transfair USA was founded. Boston-based Equal Exchange, who had been building the fair trade coffee market for twelve years in the USA, helped to generate the publicity that the new fair trade label needed. Equal Exchange pioneered the fair trade model for agricultural products in the United States, filling this niche virtually alone for a decade, (Jaffee, 267). In the fall of 2011, Fair Trade USA announced that by December 2011 it would withdraw its membership from FLO and create its own standards; standards which became quite controversial. Critics of Fair Trade USA claim that their new model is focused on maximizing the volume of fair trade sales as opposed to maximizing the impact of each purchase. Fair Trade USA has been characterized by a business-centered model, and civil society links have played a minimal role in its institutional culture and governance structure, (Jaffee, 267). As is the model with Starbucks' Coffee Sourcing Guidelines/Preferred Supplier Program and the UK supermarket, Tesco's, 'Nature's Choice', these private companies have standards that are set and monitored by an individual firm, (Tallontire, CSR and Regulation, 77). Coincidentally, Fair Trade USA will have their standards monitored by the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS); the same monitoring organization who audits Starbucks' 'ethical sourcing practices" called the Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices (CAF Practices). In 2011, The SCS helped Fair Trade USA develop the following standards: (Figure 1: 2011 standards. Standards have since been revised.) Fair Trade USA Labeling Opportunities (fairtradesusa.org)1. Fair Trade Certified label: Products with 25 percent Fair Trade Certified content and more will earn the "Fair Trade Certified" label on the front of the package. 2. Fair Trade Certified Ingredients label: Products with between 10 and 24 percent Fair Trade Certified content will earn the "Fair Trade Certified Ingredients" label on the front of the package. 3. Ingredients Panel: For products with less than 10 percent, Fair Trade Certified content will be featured as a back-panel ingredients notesuch as "Fair Trade Certified Sugar." The controversy about Fair Trade USA's standards arose from the fact that they were much lower than the globally recognized standards of FLO. Fair Trade USA had publicized that it would certify a product as fair trade with only 10% of the product including fair trade ingredients. These standards came from their recent push called "Fair Trade for All." Fair Trade for All is the initiative of Fair Trade USA which has pushed them in a different direction than FLO, with a goal to double their impact by 2015; impact meaning more access of the fair trade market for producers and for corporations. This approach is a more inclusive approach that will benefit more farmers and farm workers, first in coffee and then across the system and will extend the benefits of Fair Trade to include millions of additional people and offer give U.S. buyers more opportunities to do more good with more Fair Trade supply options, (fairtradeforall.com). Fair Trade USA will be assessing its business practices in an effort to make fair trade certification easier, less expensive and more scalable for their industry partners. According to Stacy Geagan Wagner, the former Director of Public Relations at Fair Trade USA, "We [Fair Trade USA] don't understand why fair trade exists for some and not all. Not just for farmer workers in bananas and tea. We have different philosophies to achieve [than FLO]. We want to be innovative and under FLO we couldn't do that."Jennifer Larson, a former Communications Coordinator at Fair Trade USA, added, "In light of all of the feedback we have been receiving we are currently reviewing our policy and will announce changes in early December." Wagner admitted that Fair Trade USA made a mistake by publishing these low standards on their website."We are reviewing our policies again, being very specific about what it [Fair Trade USA standards] does allow and does not allow." When asked why the standards were published on the website as official standards if they were still under a review process she commented,"If people had read the fine print on the website, they would understand that these policies weren't final. It was a good learning experience. And we can't undo the past."Unique to Fair Trade USA is the certification of cosmetics such as lip balm, lotions and shampoos. Another part of the controversy about their standards was in regards to the labeling of composite products with as little as 2 -5% fair trade ingredients: Category 1: Minimum 5% for 'leave on' oil/wax based products Category 2: Minimum 2% for 'wash off' surfactant based products (fairtradeusa.org)Not every ingredient in the product needs to be eligible for certification (meaning there is not a certification available for ingredients such as water or certain fragrances) and these products will have the third tier label, "certified ingredient." The reasoning for this, states Fair Trade USA, is because of the water content in many cosmetics; without water those percentages would look like 20 and 50 percent, (fairtradeusa.org). However, in the summer of 2011, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, due to a letter of formal complaint filed by Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps, filed a complaint against Fair Trade USA for false advertising. They recommended that Fair Trade USA, which licenses use of "fair trade" seals, modify the authorized language that accompanies seals provided for personal-care products to make clear that such products may contain only 2-5% fair-trade certified ingredients and the organization has agreed to do so, (nadreview.org). Fair Trade USA agreed to revise their standards and in the fall of 2011, they welcomed stakeholder input into their revisions. In January 2012, Fair Trade USA released this statement about their new standards; standards which look quite similar to that of FLO's. Stay posted for more juicy details in the movement! Next week's post will discuss the role of big corporations in the fair trade industry. Is fair trade just another marketing scheme?And coming soon! Q &A with Mr. Paul Rice, Founder and CEO of Fair Trade USA. ]]>http://www.justmeans.com/FLO--Fair-Trade-USA--and-Starbucks--A-Critique---Part-2/53208.htmlThu, 05 Apr 2012 16:12:58 GMTJulie Fahnestock Part 2 of a multi-series postThe majority of consumers who consider themselves "ethical shoppers" are most likely to be familiar with the term, "fair trade." An ethical consumer is also likely to know about the history of exploitation of small farmers behind the coffee, bananas, sugar and tea industries. The average, ethical consumer, however, is unlikely to know that fair trade labels are not created equal. Behind the labels are very different standards. Influential companies, like Starbucks, a Read Full Article ]]> Part 2 of a multi-series postThe majority of consumers who consider themselves "ethical shoppers" are most likely to be familiar with the term, "fair trade." An ethical consumer is also likely to know about the history of exploitation of small farmers behind the coffee, bananas, sugar and tea industries. The average, ethical consumer, however, is unlikely to know that fair trade labels are not created equal. Behind the labels are very different standards. Influential companies, like Starbucks, are joining the bandwagon and defining fair trade under their own terms. As Dean Cyon, owner of Deans Beans, a coffee roaster in Orange, Massachusetts puts it, "the powerful fair trade logo isn't what it used to be." Fair Trade International (FLO), formerly known as the Fair Trade Labeling Organization, certified by FLO-CERT and Fair Trade USA, formerly known as Transfair USA, certified by Scientific Certification Systems, are the leaders in the fair trade industry with their green and blue and black and white marks labeling a variety of both foods and materials in more than 70 countries (fairtrade.net). Twenty years later, the engaged, ethical consumer is as confused as ever. FLO, Transfair USA and others have created their own version of fair trade standards and practices which they believe to the best most beneficial for the producer and the consumer. However, the question for each organization is: will they be sustainable?Birthed from alternative trading organizations (ATO's) the fair trade movement began with small scale suppliers sending arts and crafts products to non profit organizations such as Oxfam. At the beginning, Fair Trade Organizations traded mostly with handcrafts producers, mainly because of their contacts with missionaries and often, crafts provide "supplementary income" to families; they were of crucial importance to households headed by women with limited employment opportunities (Kocken). In 1988, the fair trade industry was formalized by a Dutch development agency, Solidaridad, under the label "Max Havelaar" and the idea quickly caught on. The Max Havelaar label was replicated across Europe and North America and in 1997 in Bonn, Germany, FLO emerged.FLO was created as an intiative to unite the variations of the European-based, Max Havelaar label. Its goals were quite different from the small scale ATO's. FLO purposed to reach a more diverse customer base and to grow the fair trade market by using different distribution strategies [than the ATOs] (Benezcon, 62). From the beginning, FLO determined to formalize and to set the fair trade standards. This determination led FLO to terminate the use of the Max Havelaar and other certfication marks, such as Transfair, and to create their own; both as a way to unite their work and to set a new standard. In 2002, FLO launched the globally recognized, blue and green label. The goals of the launch were to improve the visibility of their label on supermarket shelves, facilitate cross border trade and simplify export procedures for both producers and exporters (fairtrade.net).To bring more credibility and transparency to the FLO mark, FLO took two, large strides in the fair trade industry. In 2004, FLO split into two independently managed organizations: Fair Trade International (FLO) and FLO-CERT, which acts as the fair trade certifier and inspector of traders and products. Additionally, FLO became one of the founding members the ISEAL Alliance who develops guidance and helps strengthen the effectiveness and impact of voluntary environmental and social standards (isealalliance.org). FLO's compliance with ISEAL's Code of Good Practice ensures consumers that FLO's standards have undergone rigorous peer review and self-assessment. Coincidentally, ISEAL maintains the integrity of FLO's fair trade standards through the following criterion: the standard will not create unnecessary barriers to trade; the standard-setting process is transparent and open to interested stakeholders; the standard has clear objectives, and criterion which meet those objectives; there is meaningful participation by those stakeholders that are directly affected by the implementation of the standard; and there is a balance of input in the discussion and in the decision-making on the standard (fairtrade.net).As required by ISEAL, FLO meets with stakeholders to discuss the standards and to look for ways to change and improve them. Through these consultations, in 2006 FLO chose to strengthen their compliance with ISEAL and improve their standard-setting policies. These "good practice" efforts include: increased participation of interested stakeholdersand public in the consultation process; increased transparency of standard setting processes through posting relevant documents of all important steps in standard setting on FLO's website; development of written standard setting procedures; development of a complaints mechanisms; introduction of a central contact point for stakeholders in standard matters, (fairtrade.net) FLO's globally recognized, fair trade "mark" represents three 'common principles' each with their own specific principles.Each principle applies to small scale producers and workers in their organization or cooperative and is expressed in the following charts:Additionally, FLO set standards on ingredients, measurement and content for all products and for each specific product. When available, a product must contain as many Fairtrade ingredients as available (fairtrade.net). For example, a chocolate bar will only receive a FLO label with fair trade certified sugar, vanilla and cocoa. This includes even miniscule amounts of ingredients, even if they constitute less than 1% of the total product. If they are available, they must be fair trade certified for the product to receive the FLO mark. Furthermore, at least 20% of a food composite product's ingredients must be Fairtrade certified and the percentage of ingredients is calculated in their natural state, before ingredients have been processed (fairtrade.net). Through discussions with stakeholders about improving and strengthening the FLO standards, FLO created what it calls the NSF. "The New Standards Framework supports producers in working toward a socially and environmentally sustainable livelihood," says Andreas Kratz, Director of Fairtrade International Standards Unit. "Now, more than ever, more sales under Fairtrade terms provide more opportunity for producers to achieve their own development goals," (tenthousandvillages.ca).The NSF gives producers more autonomy. They are given the right to determine their own development, monitor their progress and find new ways in which to protect their local environments. With hopes to lessen the desk work and administrative costs, FLO requirements have been edited and compiled into one easy to read document where producers can find specific requirements for bananas or gold, for example. The NSF also plans to restructure the standards with hopes that they will facilitate benchmarking and make it easier to collaborate with other sustainability systems (fairtrade.net). The goal of NSF is to make the standards easier to understand and to free producers to choose where to invest their Fairtrade premiums. As stated by fair trade expert Anne Tallontire, "FLO is THE example of Fair Trade," (Tallontire, CSR and Regulation, 77).Next time in "FLO, Fair Trade USA, and Starbucks: A Critique:" The controversial decision of Fair Trade USA to leave FLO. For better or for worse?Disclaimer: This series gives an overview of the history and the changes in the fair trade industry. Stay tuned for a final posting with the most up-to-date information. To obtain a copy of the citations, please contact Julie directly.]]>http://www.justmeans.com/FLO--Fair-Trade-USA--and-Starbucks--A-Critique/52904.htmlMon, 26 Mar 2012 15:37:32 GMTJulie Fahnestock Part 1 of a multi-post series.You've learned about the slavery behind food, apparel and well, almost everything you consume. You've decided to make some lifestyle choices and invest into more expensive, ethical products. You've heard fair trade ensures equitable wages for farmers. Whole Foods is down the street and you know they offer multiple fair trade products. As you push your grocery cart you pick up bananas, coffee, sugar, cotton balls, chocolate, cocoa butter and molasses. You're very hap Read Full Article ]]> Part 1 of a multi-post series.You've learned about the slavery behind food, apparel and well, almost everything you consume. You've decided to make some lifestyle choices and invest into more expensive, ethical products. You've heard fair trade ensures equitable wages for farmers. Whole Foods is down the street and you know they offer multiple fair trade products. As you push your grocery cart you pick up bananas, coffee, sugar, cotton balls, chocolate, cocoa butter and molasses. You're very happy because every single product is labeled as fair trade. But you're also completely perplexed because every single product is labeled fair trade by a different labeling organization: Fair Trade USA. Fair Trade Labeling Organization. Fair Trade For Life. Alternative Trading Organization. Whole Trade. CAF Principles. Direct Trade. Could fair trade shopping be any more confusing?What We Know:We know there are multiple fair trade organizations. We know they try to provide a fair market to the producers. We know they try their best to empower small communities of farmers. (But do they?)We know when we purchase fair trade labeled products we are preventing slavery. (Wait are we?)What We Aren't Sure Of:Who sets the fair trade standards? Can each labeling organization create their own standards? (yes!) Are these organizations accountable to a higher, governing body? (no!) Has fair trade become a marketing scheme as a way for companies to appeal to make more money? (We hope not!)Through the following blog postings, you will learn that the fair trade industry isn't as simple of a solution as it sounds. (Aka: Fair trade does not end slavery.) In fact, it's a very complex industry with several players approaching it in very different ways. Two of the main players, Fair Trade USA and the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO), have led the way in terms of standard creation and marketing. This series of blog posts gives an in depth look at the controversial decision Fair Trade USA made in December 2011 to leave the internationally accepted standards of FLO and to create their own. * Debated questions are addressed: Should fair trade be open to large plantations? Will fair trade change the economies of small communities, as it was intended to do, if it big corporations like Starbucks and Cadbury get involved? Is fair trade just another form of charity? Are Fair Trade USA's standards too low?Hopefully, through this series you will get a better understanding of one thing: fair trade standards need accountability for two reasons:1. So that fair trade really means fair wages and transformed communities.2. So that when you load up your grocery cart, you know exactly what you are supporting.* (Please note that since the writing of this series, Fair Trade USA has since revised some their standards.)**(Please note that Equal Exchange has since left Fair Trade USA and joined arms with Fair Trade For Life).Image source: Wikipedia]]>