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-while the use of the example of Nestle in the UK is justified in a disussion of licensing companies…in the UK, Nestle doesn’t have any fair trade products in the US market. people who continue to use this example in arguments about fair trade in the US market are confusing the issues and making it seem like TransFair was party to the Nestle deal in the UK. please stop using it if you’re talking about fair trade in the US market. and you know what else-it’s pretty weak argumentation to use the most extreme yet least significant example possible. what about the hundreds of companies who in their sourcing more closely resemble EE than they do Nestle?

-how is the supply chain for one fair trade certified product different than the supply chain for a product that comes from a company like EE? i would like to see an explanation of this. if a product is sourced from a fair trade certified producer and goes through all the requirements of certification, how is it different? if you give me the argument that the pricing of the product from the non-”100% company” is subsidized by the company’s non-fair trade products, you’re not answering the question. a company’s own internal pricing mechanisms have nothing to do with the certification of a product (assuming of course the minimum price was paid for the fair trade product.) i still don’t understand how EE’s products are more fair trade than say, Green Mountain’s fair trade offerings…a commodity is a commodity, not a company.

-let’s also consider this: you state that your supply chain is authentic and represents real change. there’s no doubt on those points. but what about a company which doesn’t have a 100% fair trade certified product line, yet does,say, 2, 3, 4 times the volume that you do AND it’s all bought on the same standards and terms as your products? who’s the better company? who’s affected more change? who’s more important to a producer-someone who bought 10 containers or 200 containers of coffee? while you would claim that any company buying this kind of volume is being held to a lower bar, how is that less real change? if the products they are sourcing are NOT being held to lower standards, then this example means REAL CHANGE. from this perspective, it’s easy to view one of the current rifts that threatens to tear appart fair trade in the USA: EE thinks fair trade means a 100% fair trade company, and TransFair doesn’t. EE doesn’t think real change can come about when other companies don’t strive to mimic EE’s business model, TransFair does.

-who has the more power to affect economic empowerment for farmers & farm workers in the developing world? by “gradualists” i assume Rodney means EE, Dean’s, etc., i.e., those who will grow the fair trade market by growing as companies. by “accellerators” i assume Rodney means TransFair and companies who plan to grow fair trade as a marketing strategy. can’t it happen both ways? let’s be realistic, how long will it take for EE to have the market penetration of Starbucks? and what about EE’s move into the Pacific Northwest, which is already fair trade coffee paradise? isn’t canibalization of fair trade market space a bad thing? should EE knock someone like Tony’s or Stumptown off the shelves because they’re not “100% fair trade” companies? honestly, who’s in the “money crowd” now? and how sustainable is it to ship beans from West Bridgewater to Seattle (assuming EE doesn’t have a roasting facility in the Pacific Northwest.)

-cafe campesino and dean’s beans left the fair trade certified system and stopped using the logo-this is true. whether or not the logo’s disappearance affected their sales is a complicated question-you have to look the strength of brand loyalty, if there was any growth upon adoption of the logo, how they communicated dropping the logo to their customers, etc. dean’s and campesino are not mainstreamed companies that seem to sell through traditional channels. their customers probably don’t need the logo to feel secure in their purchases-they’ve probably taken the time to go to dean’s site and slog through all the contracts. but for all the customers that aren’t loyal to dean’s & campesino, what do they have? in yours & rink’s statements above, you’re claiming that the label has little to no effect on consumer behavior…why? how? where’s your data? how are you qualified to make these statements? you even state “I personally would love to see someone conduct a proper market study to find out” yet you go ahead and claim that the label has little to no effect on consumer behavior? what’s goin’ on here?

-the south african roibos story. come on rodney. this may be your cause celebre but it surely isn’t a giant glowing example of some kind of standards-lowering conspiracy that you and many critics of FLO claim is taking place. what is supposed to happen to the workers on those plantations? are they just supposed to sit there in limbo because you think fair trade certification should include land reclamation? isn’t the ownership of companies in south africa a question for the south african government? at which point is fair trade supposed to include standards for pressuring & changing government policy? what if FLO had to say “sorry, no fair trade for you until you relinquish ownership of your company and hand it over to non-whites.”? how long do you think it would take for workers on that plantation to get any kind of economic & social empowerment? what if the workers revolted in a destructive manner? what if FLO became seen as an instigator of violence? how far do you parse this stuff?

i hope i’m not shouting into a hurricane here and perhaps, just perhaps, there are others out there who see a side to fair trade that is different from R & R’s or Dean’s or Intelligentsia’s. is there anyone else out there who feels that even Equal Exchange, Global Exchange, Dean’s Beans, the Fair Trade Federation etc. are not above criticism? anyone?

p.s. how fair trade does a company have to be in order to be seen as a “100% fair trade company?” how are the pens and pencils sourced at EE? the paper? your energy? the chairs you sit in? how many people drive automobiles to work at EE? what about your delivery system? your packaging? your carpets? your staples & staple removers? do you buy any office products that were made by child and/or prison labor in China?