For all y’all who’re still debating the fair trade vs. organic issue: Clearly, for many of us, this is a both-and issue, not an either-or.
Coffees with both organic and fair trade certifications are expected to grow 21% through mid-2007. That’s faster than one of either organic or fair trade certification.
The survey was done by Sustainable Markets Intelligence Center, incorporating responses from more than 20 companies accounting for 90% of the U.S. organic coffee market. Double-certified coffees are the “star performers,†the survey sez.
Oddly, it’s FLO — Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, which certifies fair trade farms, that reportedly “disagreed.” Basically, FLO argues that they have damn good enviro standards, which were recently iimproved in Dec. 2005.
This, to me, seems like a v. dumb comment on the part of FLO — Why pit organic against fair trade, just when a study comes out saying they work well together?
Yes, I know that it takes farmers a while to get organic certification, and that costs can be prohibitive — and perhaps FLO is trying to point out that just cuz a fair trade coffee isn’t also organic certified, it doesn’t mean the stuff’s full of pesticides and GMOs.
But this kind of tactic leads to consumer confusion and disenchantment from people who really do care about organic standards — including some fair trade coffee roasters. After all, organic certification’s about a third-party certification making sure specific criteria were met. I would think that FLO, which too provides a third-party certification making sure specific criteria were met, would see why organic certification’s important.
I agree with Mark Inman — Taylor Maid Farms dude and current prez of the Specialty Coffee Association of America — who sez organic certification provides superior information about environmental practices for customers and coffee buyers alike.
I do wanna mention — Mark’s both a big name in fair trade but an even bigger name in organic farming. The guy’s even married to a woman who works for the CCOF :) I don’t think that affected the outcome of the survey — It’s unsurprising to me that double-certified coffee’s will grow faster than single-certs. That said, I think it’s a good idea to mention where people’re coming from –
I can already anticipate the email responses to this post: What about shade grown certified? :P
Thanks to Jasmin for the tip :)
I guess for those that are against FT, the same could be said… “just because the beans do not carry the seal does not mean a fair price was not paid..
Comment by Jason — October 9, 2006 @ 12:36 pm
Yes — In fact, it’s much easier for uncertified fair trade coffee to make that claim than uncertified organic, due to restrictions that prevent some coffee, even if fairly traded, from being labelled as fair trade. That said, a claim’s not good ’nuff — If a coffee’s really fairly traded, a coffee company needs to put up the proof, whether it’s via certification or some other method.
Comment by Siel — October 13, 2006 @ 8:36 pm