A BETTER WORLD WITH 'FAIR TRADE'

The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/globe
December 19, 2004

OP-ED, By Chuck Coffman & John Parks
(Chuck Coffman and John Parks are co-owners of Armeno Coffee Roasters Ltd. in Northborough, Massachusetts, USA)

BRITISH recording artists recently remade the 20-year-old Band Aid hit "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Proceeds from the record sales are earmarked for relief efforts in the war-torn Darfur region of the Sudan.

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In Africa and across the globe, hunger and poverty remain a daily struggle for millions of people. Buying a new album is certainly one way to contribute, but every day Americans can make meaningful and lasting contributions to the fight against poverty. It's as simple as changing how we shop. During the holidays and year round, consumers should seek out products labeled as fair trade certified.

Certification as a fair trade product, a process handled in the United States by the nonprofit TransFair USA, ensures the farmer and workers were paid a fair price for the crop. Routine items such as coffee, bananas, and chocolate are labeled as fair trade certified and available in stores.

With fair trade, we put our money where our mouth is. If you've ever expressed concern about hunger, poverty, drug trafficking, child labor and slavery, deforestation and pollution, now you can really do something about it. Buy fair trade.

How does fair trade work? Small farms join together in cooperatives and work with fair trade exporters, giving them access to the international markets. On his own, a small farmer deals with brokers who pay just pennies for a pound of coffee, often less than the cost of growing the crop.

Fair trade guarantees farmers a minimum of $1.26 per pound, and if it is certified as organic -- which all TransFair certified coffee in the United States is -- the farmer receives $1.41 per pound.

US demand for fair trade coffee has skyrocketed. Last year, 18.7 million pounds of TransFair USA certified coffee sold in stores, cafes, and online. The 2003 sales represented a 91 percent increase over the 9.8 million pounds certified the previous year. The total pounds certified this year is expected jump to 30 million, according to one report.

Here are the benefits to farmers, their families, and communities when we buy their coffee at a fair price:

Farmers earn enough to support their families so the children are able to attend school instead of working in the fields. In Guatemala, one fair trade cooperative is sending students to college for the first time.

Fair trade products are grown with care for the environment. Harmful pesticides are prohibited. Coffee is shade grown, under the canopy of trees, thus preventing deforestation and the loss of wildlife habitat.

The products are of exceptional quality. Because farmers receive a fair price, they do not cut corners to cut costs. In addition, they hand-tend their crops instead of using mass-production farming methods.

Land is preserved for a natural, sustainable use. One Colombian coffee cooperative, empowered by the economic stability provided by fair trade, prevented the cultivation of 1,600 acres of coca and poppy, used to produce illegal narcotics.

Without fair trade practices, the picture is bleak for these farmers and their families. For example, an Ecuadorian family of four needs $9.60 per day for basic necessities, but on non-fair trade banana farms, workers earn as little as $2 a day. This disparity often leads to children working in the fields to supplement the family income.

The situation is even bleaker in Africa. Child slavery on African coffee and cocoa farms was exposed three years ago when a ship carrying dozens of boys and girls was denied access to a port in Gabon.

A fair trade label on any product guarantees no slavery or child labor contributed to it. It further guarantees a fair price was paid for a high-quality product grown with care for the environment.

Worldwide, farmers are trapped in a cycle of poverty and debt because they are denied access to international markets by brokers and middlemen. Fair trade helps to lift them up by the boot straps and earn a decent living. Fair trade certification is not a handout; it's a guarantee the farmers received a fair share of the final market value of their product.

We often watch the plight of poor people a world away and feel powerless to help. Now, we have a way to put our money directly into the pockets of poor farmers a world away.

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2004/12/19/a_better_world_with_fair_trade/