At the United Students for Fair Trade conference in March, we had a very hippie-ish block of time called “Open Space,” where anyone could start a panel on any topic, and everyone else could come and go to whichever panel, as they chose. One of these was about fair trade and low-income communities. As a gal who studies at a very affluent, private university, situated in the middle of a very poor community, the issue was one in which all the ironies of fair trade activism collided.
For many of the people who live around USC, fair trade coffee is not an option. The stuff simply costs too much. Sure, Yuban tastes shitty, but you can buy a vat of it for a mere $4. Compare this to the $10+ for a pound of most fair trade coffees. For a financially struggling family, this “choice” is a no-brainer.
Which, I think, is what really holds me back from jumping on the quality bandwagon — You know, the one that argues quality’s more important than fair trade certification, that if people start buying better tasting coffee, the coffee crisis will slowly go away.
For many, quality is just not a feature they can afford to pay for.
And perhaps even more depressingly, even the ones who CAN pay for it, simply don’t care to. Check out this editorial from a Univ. of AZ student. Says the Folgers fan: “the best part of waking up is cheap prices.” And read Peter’s comment on this blog: “Not only don’t I particularly care where my money goes when I buy a cup of coffee, but even asking me to think about it is demanding far too much of me before I’ve had my first cup of coffee of the day.”
I’d love for everyone to be able to afford and to buy yummy coffee. And many fair trade coffees are super yummy, no question. You only have to brew up a cup of Monkey & Son Velvet Hammer to figure that out. But many consumers can’t, or won’t, buy the stuff if it’s more expensive. Yummier coffee’s usually sold at gourmet prices, and is thus gonna be pricier than Folgers.
Yes, better beans usually means better pay for farmers. Which is why fair trade certification programs work to educate farmers about quality issues to improve their product. And yes, we need to decrease the amount of crappy coffee that’s being produced these days. There’s simply too much of it on the market for farmers to earn decent wages growing the stuff.
Still, as avs pointed out in his comment, “quality” can be defined in many ways — including “value” – whether you get value for money. I wouldn’t be opposed to fair trade certification of lower-quality beans, if it means that less affluent Americans will be able to drink their java without contributing to coffee farmer exploitation.
Prices would prolly still go up a bit — This depends on how many middle-people we can cut out. But slave-labor free, environmental-friendly coffee will cost more to produce, regardless of the quality of the stuff. It seems pretty certain that fair trade coffee, even if it tastes gross, will be more expensive than the current Nescafe offerings.
I think that the way consumer activism — and political activism in general — is conceived these days often cuts out people without as much money to barter with. We’re all aware of the irony of Walmart — The company kills unions and allows sweatshop labor, but goes into less affluent communities others don’t care to serve, and offers poor people goods at prices they can afford.
It’s doubtless that fair trade benefits farmers. The US coffee companies can complain about the strictures of fair trade certification — many of which are very important concerns — but the fact that many coffee farmers choose to get certified, despite the fact that many US coffee companies don’t, speaks volumes. Fair trade coffee was conceived to help farmers.
And by widening the fair trade consumer base to less wealthy communities will allow us not only to help mitigate the suffering of coffee farmers, but also to unite US consumers around an international cause by taking away an economic barrier to socio-political engagement.
I guess I AM becoming a wide-eyed optimist. But I find it painful knowing that many of the disenfranchised in our country often don’t even have the option of taking action against the labor abuses going on in other countries. I believe many of us, rich or poor, care deeply and have serious ethical concerns about our choices as consumers. And we should all be able to make choices based on these concerns.
Update: Another thing to consider the fact that the reason a lot of coffee tastes gross is because desparate farmers are forced to sell their crops early — meaning to pick their coffee cherries early — to pay back their debtors. This of course contributes to more gross coffee. Fair trade attempts to decrease the frequency of these instances, as well as to educate the coffee farmers about raising the quality of their coffee.
And now — to totally lose credibility with all centrist and rightish readers of my blog, if any — this quiz pegs me as a socialist. Wow — Could it be? I still think of myself as an informed, practical realist –
| You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (8% permissive) You are best described as a: |
 |
|
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Filed in: fairtrade coffee environment california losangeles usc
i got socialist too. eh, labels …
Comment by Stephanie — October 3, 2005 @ 10:12 pm
Socialist? Bollocks. The US has a totally different scale when it comes to these things. Probably most European parties would rank as Socialist or at most Democrat in this test — even the right-wing ones.
It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Comment by Anonymous — October 3, 2005 @ 10:18 pm
ethical consumption movements like fair trade are not at all at odds with the interests of lower income individuals and families.
it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not just sweatshop made goods and unfair labor practices that allows walmart to keep its prices low. it’s also its revolutionary distribution system, which relies on economies of scale. part of the reason that fairly made products are more expensive is simply because there is less consumer demand for them. if everyone insisted on fair trade products, they’d be much much cheaper.
so, those that can afford to pay fair prices are ethically obligated to. companies are ethically obligated to try to provide ethical products at a fair price. eventually, as these habits provide a more fair distribution of wealth, and more and more people receive the fair wage for their labor, then more and more people will be able to afford to pay the fair price for other people’s labor.
for instance, let’s say me and thousands others who can afford it buy union-made clothes and fair trade coffee, giving those companies a big share of the market and allowing them to take advantage of efficiencies of scale without affecting their ethical practices. then, those unionized workers can now afford to buy fair trade coffee. meanwhile, coffee pickers in costa rica can afford to buy union made clothes and the cycle goes on, lifting everyone up with it.
this is not socialism or communism. this is straightforward, run-of-the-mill democratic capitalism, at least in theory. but capitalism is not working correctly in practice because we have a worldwide economy but no worldwide democracy. even in our own country, our democracy is broken. this results in a myriad of inequities that are throwing a wrench in the free market. in practice, the free market cannot exist without legal protections. that’s why the US anti-trust laws are a good thing. that’s why US labor laws are a good thing. that’s why the 13th amendment to the constitution is a good thing. this is not communism, this is red, white, and blue, flag-waving, all-american democracy.
on the contrary, those who say that it’s fine if we disenfranchise the powerless, those who say it’s ok to allow a few rich people to exploit the majority, those are the people that are unpatriotic. those are the people that are dangerous to this country.
Comment by jen — October 4, 2005 @ 7:16 am
I had a traumatic experience with coffee at the age of about six that pretty much put me off it for life, but I am very interested in fair trade issues.
I basically agree with Jen. I’m a chocolate addict, and feel guilty that since fair trade chocolate generally costs 3-6 times as much (where I live) I seldom eat it.
In 1999 a UK company tried to bring out a fair trade chocolate bar that would sell for 10% more than the Cadbury’s equivalent. During the three weeks I was there I pretty much subsisted on this stuff. Personally I would happily pay 50% more for fair trade, and I am sure plenty of people would pay 20% more.
The problem is the economies of scale. The bar was off the market by the time I went back in 2003, I think because they simply didn’t have the capital to maintain the losses until they reached a large enough market share. That’s the core problem for fair trade products – the people behind them almost never have the capital to allow them to reach a critical size required to get costs down.
Comment by StephenL — October 7, 2005 @ 10:05 pm
jen & stephenl — You’re totally right about economies of scale being another big issue for fair trade. Certainly something to weighs in when considering the possibilities of making fair trade accessible for all on the consumer end.
I do still think that quality is an issue, but perhaps this is more due to the fact that the fair trade products created right now are generally aimed more towards the bougie market than to a more economically diverse public. The two issues definitely need to be addressed hand in hand.
And yes, it really seems like the people who try to make fair trade more widely avaliable really don’t have the capital to stick it out until their customer base reaches a break-even point. This is where I wonder if big corporations, i.e. Nestle, could start to make a difference — Not so much because they care about fair trade, but because they care about tapping a new market, as evidenced by Nestle’s new foray into fair trade coffee…
Comment by Siel — October 9, 2005 @ 6:15 pm
The Fair Trade market is having some effect – Green Mountain Coffee Roasters listed Fair Trade coffee as their most rapidly growing market segment in their last annual report (and this was before the big McDonalds contract). Maybe we need to be hitting up the mid-sized producers/marketers with the idea Fair Trade as a distinguishing characteristic in the market.
Economies of scale are important but, I strongly suspect, level out well before the size of a Nestles or P&G.
Comment by scotte — November 4, 2005 @ 12:36 pm
Scotte — Interesting idea — Hitting the mid-sized producers and marketers. Maybe like Peet’s? Of course, Peet’s is years ahead of the likes of Starbucks…
Comment by Siel — February 4, 2006 @ 9:21 pm
A friend just introduced me to your blog and I love it!! This post just made me think about my in-law family in Ecuador . . . in most of South America coffee drinking is Nescafe only. can you believe it? in Colombia Nescafe is IT. it’s popular and it’s what people buy. Is it because of price? or advertising? I think getting Nestle to change their ways is so key–you know their marketing has a strong impact, after they got so many women to stop breastfeeding! I know in terms of chocolate drinks, in countries like Peru and Ecuador there are almost no national brands left: they ALL belong to Nestle now. Talk about no choice for consumers. I do have some friends who grow free trade, organic coffee in Ecuador, and it’s very popular but among limited circles.
Comment by Abby — June 9, 2006 @ 11:10 am
Thanks Abby! Great to hear from you :) It is quite amazing that a lot of people still drink Nescafe and Folgers — then again, old habits die hard.
FYI — I wasn’t breast fed :P And my mama drinks Folgers. Connection? I think so. We’ve been, for so long, conditioned to think only, or at least mainly, about prices. To my mom, coffee’s a caffeine-delivery device, and the cheaper you can get it, the better.
It’s hard changing a mid-fifties woman’s habits, but my mom also really appreciates it whenever I buy her coffee. It costs me only about $10 to get her a pre-ground (she doesn’t have a grinder) container of fair trade coffee. And while she may still think of fair trade coffee as bougie coffee, she sure appreciates it when her daugher buys it for her :)
Comment by Siel — June 9, 2006 @ 6:57 pm