[The whole Certification Challenges series is here.]

While some 100% fair trade committed companies went through years of negotiations before ultimately deciding to opt for or against fair trade certification from TransFair USA, the nonprofit that provides the fair trade certification sticker, other companies have decided to remain uncertified and un-fair-trade, using the arguments of the committed companies as an excuse for doing nothing.

This is the real downside of the fair trade certification controversies. Companies that’re less-than-committed use the same excuses against fair trade certification as an excuse for not doing fair trade. And it becomes super difficult to tell who’s really supporting fair trade practices without getting the sticker, and who’s bullshitting.

Seriously, who’s to know? One article in The Idaho Business Review (2/7/05 issue, not avaliable online) alone points to a whole slew of coffee shops successfully caffeinating that gray area.

Take Tim Wright of Moxie Java, who says Moxie’s coffee “probably could be classified as fair-trade, but we don’t pay the extra to have it certified.” Kevin and Lisa Myers, owners of Flying M Coffeehouse and Purple Bean Coffee, say “We’ve always paid more than what the fair-trade levels are.” Then there’s Dave Ledgard, co-owner of Dawson Taylor Coffee Roasters, who says that — even before TFUSA came along — he was paying fair trade prices. Most of Dawson’s coffees aren’t fair trade certified, but he says he works to “make sure everything is sustainable” for farmers and their employees.

According to the Seattle Times, “Even some who are eligible for Fair Trade status say they don’t see why they should pay TransFair’s certification fee, which until recently had been 10 cents a pound, to simply rubber-stamp what they already know to be fair and ethical business practices.” As an example, the Seattle Times tells the story of one Nicaraguan co-op, which gets $1.61 a pound for its coffee, sold to Seattle-area retailers.

Yes, there are some quriks with certification. Geoff Watts, the head buyer for Intelligentsia Coffee, said in an article in Conscious Choice that while Fair Trade has certainly helped many farmers, the biggest problem with the program is the expense of certification and the time it takes to achieve it.

But without certification, it’s tough for the consumer to know who’s just talking and who’s actually walking the walk. The former often are more than happy to pin their un-fair-trade-certified-ness on the what they see as shorcomings of TFUSA, as opposed to taking responsibility for their own unfair practices.

Which is why I still want more companies to get their products fair trade certified, and to work with TransFair USA (and vice versa) in making fair trade certification both feasible and meaningful for all involved.

Some good talks between fair trade coffee companies and TFUSA seem to have happened at the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference earlier this month. I wrote a lil something about it, to come out soon in Just Things –

[The whole Certification Challenges series is here.]