An overview of what happened: There were 2 main “tracks”:

• How to build Small Scale Farmer Solidarity, and
• What are our collective Measures of Success as leaders in this movement?

I joined the 2nd track, and went to its 3 attendant workshops:

1. Volume, (covered here and here) which asked what fair trade success would look like. Consensus: Fair trade success is not measured by volume but by stronger producer organizations and educated consumers; large public corporations should follow standards, and the standards should be set by Fair Trade organizations.

2. The Trade Relationship, which asked what a sound fair trade relationship would look like. Consensus: A sound relationship would allow for mutual learning, economic stability, and collaborative problem solving.

3. The Power of Consumers, which asked how to engage and track the consumer communities that will help demand and define the future of fair trade. Consensus (sort of): The goal’s to get 3 times more fair trade products sold than are being sold now.

Check out these and more details from the summit here, and lemme know your thoughts :) A more comprehensive summary will come out in the fall, sez Equal Exchange.

I’m still of the opinion that Rink was talking about more than consumer behavior (though I’m sure that was part of it) when he said that fair trade certification didn’t really matter — we were talking about the fair trade movement as a whole, and the directions it might go in the future.

More on that later — For now, here’s the email, the bulk of which I totally agree with — especially the need and utility of stronger fair trade certification standards. Thanks to Rodney for the convo :)
___

To further the general Fair Trade conversation, and specifically to add to the discussion that started with this post, I just wanted to share some more thoughts from Rink (Rink Dickinson, co-founder and Exec. Dir. of Equal Exchange), and some of my own.

When Rink said in the small group session at last week’s Summit that “Fair Trade Certification doesn’t matter” he meant that the presence of the Fair Trade Certified™ seal on packaging seems to have little to no effect upon consumer behavior – even though that is its raison d’etre. While we know there are individuals like you who were introduced to the bigger Fair Trade story through the seal, Rink was saying that the seal doesn’t make much difference to the average shopper.

For example, when Café Campesino and Dean’s Beans took the seal off their packages it seemed to have no effect upon their sales. In Rink’s estimation most people, even those buying products bearing the seal, just don’t know what it means. I personally would love to see someone conduct a proper market study to find out.

However, regardless of its influence upon consumers, the presence and promotion of the Fair Trade seal in the marketplace does seem to have an effect upon the companies that do, or might, use the seal (i.e. “licensees”) and this can be a good thing. Namely because some companies believe that the seal offers competitive advantages they use it. Some a lot, some very little. [Right, the crowd at Equal Exchange's 20th anniversary party]

This, of course, means they have to buy at least that coffee or cocoa, etc. on Fair Trade terms. For conventional corporations this constitutes an improvement, and better incomes for farmers. Thus Rink’s take on Starbucks’ minimal participation in the Fair Trade Certification system – it’s better than nothing.

(I’ll speak for myself now)

Yet, with all that said, that dynamic represents a system that is heavy on marketing and light on the values that inspired the creation of Fair Trade over 20 years ago. Consequently, we have a tension that you might call a divide between “gradualists” and “accelerators”. (Not great names , I know, and maybe someone has already put other, better, labels on these camps, and on yet other groups in between).

I know that some folks, like “Havenocar”, won’t like the following, which is fine, but at EE we just can’t get excited about a low bar labeling system where, say, a multi-national corporation like Nestlé can convert less than 1/10th of 1% of their coffee supply chain and then present a “Fair Trade Certified™” package of coffee on equal footing with other products that come from an authentic Fair Trade supply chain and that represent real change – not just niche-marketing. [left: Equal Exchange's roaster]

Yes, there also has to be an incentive and method for conventional corporations to gradually reform their practices, which was the purpose of the Fair Trade Certification and labeling system. We simply think that it could, and should, ask much more of the participants than it does today.

For myself I think this advocacy for a high-bar represents a kind of optimism about people, and their readiness for change. That is that we think that if you did ask more of companies (ie apply stricter standards) they would still participate.

In contrast the counter-argument seems to be predicated on the assumption that if you ask for too much firms will stay on the sidelines. Remember, too, that within corporations there are also vying camps. There will be “change agents” and the “money crowd”, and the later will probably insist that their firm do as little as possible to meet the requirements. Hence, the lower you set the bar, the less real change you get. But that’s just my theory.

Regardless, what is even more concerning to us is that with each passing year the bar actually seems to go lower, not higher. The recent Fair Trade labeling of rooibos from white owned South African plantations is a great example of a bad trend.

Obviously, all this raises as many issues as it addresses, so we’ll look forward to more postings, comments, and general conversation. Thanks again, Siel, for making this forum possible.

Rodney

But that night, I’d been drinking lots to prep for the panel I’d put together. And while we said hello, and Jordan knew about green LA girl, he didn’t recognize me.

So we met again the way all cool people do these days — via the web :P Jordan made some amazing comments via the USFT listserv, and I quoted him here. Then, Jordan wanted advice on starting a blog for his fair trade banana company, Oke USA. So we chatted on the phone ’bout that.

And when I got to Boston, we got to chat for reals.

This guy really puts my pitiful undergrad existence shame. How? Jordan spent a summer in Ethiopia for Oxfam America (where he first met Tadesse), then spent a summer in Peru to learn how indigenous communities are facing modernization. In Sept. 2003, he went to Cancun as intern for Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The same year, he got arrested protesting at the WTO talks. Then in Spring 2004, he went to El Salvador with HACIA (Harvard Association Cultivating Interamerican) Democracy. And in 2004-2005, Jordan lived in Morocco, teaching and hanging out with his now-sorta-fiance.

And the guy’s a couple years younger than me, the bastard.

All this is to say that I really look up to the guy, cuz he’s done all the things I wish I’d done but didn’t do cuz I was too self-absorbed.

So I asked Jordan a lotta Qs, specifically about the state of fair trade certification these days. Below’s some of what he said [For those new to the discussions about fair trade certification, read this first]:

“I think that TransFair currently doesn’t represent current stakeholders, and it should [represent them] — the people who built and fuelled the movement. TransFair wants to steer the car that’s being fuelled by other people. They don’t wanna be back there pushing the car, but they want to determine where it goes.”

“TransFair’s seized and has been allowed to seize a lot of power. So the activists and the mission-driven companies and the NGOs have to say whether that’s alright or not…. Someone’s gotta step up and show some leadership.”

“Equal Exchange and people like it — we started fair trade. We gave the power to TransFair, and we shouldn’t cede it to them.”

“There should be NGOs and mission-driven companies represented on the board of TransFair if it’s going to be a strategizing, market building organization. Otherwise, they should just be a certifying organization, not a marketing organization, a brand. Right now they’re a brand.”

When I asked how fair trade certification could be fixed, Jordan batted around a lotta ideas, from ousting Paul Rice, the current CEO of TransFair USA, to convening some sort of coalition — for ex the people who put together the Fair Trade Futures conference last year.

But these were just ideas. Jordan said that, ultimately, he didn’t know who exactly should lead the charge, or how, exactly.

Many activists are really looking to the NGOs and mission-driven companies to take action — NOT to abandon fair trade certification, but to make a more concerted effort to have a say in shaping it –

Yes, we already have short videos from Oxfam and TransFair USA. But Black Gold does more than that.

What this film does brilliantly is juxtapose the bon vivants of the western world (us) — delicately sipping their high-priced espresso drinks — with the crushingly poor farmers producing those same espresso beans.

After a long day at the Equal Exchange summit, four of us watched this film Saturday night in Boston, on my laptop, We got a copy of the DVD from Tadesse, the Ethiopean dude featured in the film, shown travelling all over the world in an effort to get a better price for the farmers he represents.

Jordan, one of the wachees, had actually worked in the Ethiopian towns shown in the film. “I think this was a really valiant effort,” he said. “This is the best one [film about fair trade] that I’ve seen.” [Tadesse and me at Logan airport on Sunday morning]

Black Gold isn’t didactic. No one’s narrating; no one’s providing a clear or clean “analysis” of the situation. The film just shows us what some of the problems are — from the unfair farm subsidies of western countries, to the less-than-level playing ground at the WTO, to the aid the west provides to African countries in lieu of fair trade.

Of course, we each had our own ideas about other stuff the film coulda / shoulda covered but didn’t / couldn’t.

Some quotes from our discussion afterwards: The film could’ve gotten into “what the international coffee laws used to do. I feel like it didn’t get too into detail about what kinds of market regulation solutions could’ve been.” The film could’ve talked about “what different actors think the solution could be.” The film could’ve covered “why coffee market prices are so low.”

But one film can’t do everything, and overall, Black Gold really does a helluva lot. Already, Starbucks is feeling the heat.

Wanna see it? LA peeps can see Black Gold between August 18 – 24, cuz the film’s been selected for Docuweek, hosted at the Arclight Hollywood. The rest of the country should be able to see it in theaters in Sept. and Oct.

In the meantime, here’s an interview with Nick, one of the directors, on CNN.

Update, 8/15/06: Here’s the schedule for the screenings :)

Posts re: what I learned at the Equal Exchange summit will continue, but for now, some interesting Boston stuff:

While I was there, I stayed in the TD room, dubbed as such cuz the room contains Teddy Roosevelt’s crib (left). Thanks again to Jordan (right) for putting me up in his Harvard-owned place –

Also, I lost my reusable mug! This is no lil matter, cuz I’d put considerable effort into decorating the damn thing :( By considerable effort, I mean peeling stickers and sticking ‘em on.

Still, I’d given serious consideration to my sticker selection process. Also, I’d felt tots smug using this reusable mug while everyone else used their disposable shit…. If anyone at Bridgewater State College finds it, please email me and lemme know –

Jordan said he’d read my alcohol posts, but that he didn’t see too much drinking while I was there. That’s true — jetlag does odd things to me. On the other hand, I did have 5 drinks on Saturday, which was way over the sticker-worthy limit. Not sure what Jordan’s def. for too much drinking is.

In any case, I now have 4 stickers for July — 2 of them garnered over my weekend in Boston. Yey!

But since I’ve gotten back, I’ve been making up for lost time. I woke up today really hung over, then slumped around the apt. before going for a walk on the beach to cheer myself up, then headed over to a green biz event at 4, where I drank 2 glasses of wine to cope.

Then I got home and bought a bottle of Cabernet at the nearby liquor store.

It’s good to be home –