[ This is a repost of the following article: ]
[ From: "Jack Denver" > ]
[ Subject: Fair Trade Certified... ]
[ Newsgroups: alt.coffee ]
[ Message-ID: > ]

If you look at the google archives, you'll see that it has been discussed a
lot. Some people favor it strongly.


Others (myself included) feel that, by paying the fair trade price to the
farmer regardless of quality, the system does not provide an incentive for
the farmer to produce better tasting coffee. There are also questions as to
whether the Fair Trade organizations (however well intenioned) are self
perpetuating bureaucracies ultimately more concerned with maximizing their
own revenues (they in effect "sell" the right to use the FT logo) rather
than helping the farmer and whether the fair trade money makes it all the
way past the plantation owner to the level of the field worker. Whether
"buying Fair Trade" is one of those easy things that people do to make
themselve feel better and less guilty without actually accomplishing much.
It should be noted that there are many coffees that do not carry the
official "Fair Trade" label that are nevertheless produced under "fair
trade" or better conditions. Also, unless something is done regarding the
overall imbalance of supply and demand, fair trade will only help a relative
handful of "lottery winners" who get their coffee into the fair trade system
while leaving the vast majority in their current state of misery. Market
prices are fundamentally set by supply and demand, not by "Fair Trade"
activists. The fundamental problem is that a world supply that was roughly
balanced until fairly recently (even short at times) has become unbalanced
by the addition of vast new (unfortunately low quality)production in Vietnam
and also large automated farms in Brasil, as well as by declining rates of
consumption. This new low cost production is squeezing out higher cost,
labor intensive producers in Central America and elsewhere. Low prices are a
market's way of telling you it's time to find something else to do.
Unfortunately, in some of the producing countries, the economy and way of
life has been geared to coffee production and there are not a lot of
alternatives available, leading to real human suffering. Paying an
artificially high price for a commodity, while providing short term relief,
only encourages even more production, or at least the maintenance of current
production, which is the last thing that is needed since the world is
already knee deep in coffee. Otherwise the outlook will remain grim unless
and until more of the coffee farmers just give up and plant other crops or
abandon their farms or until something else changes the supply-demand
equation - adverse weather conditions, a change in the trend of declining
coffee drinking (which in the US has dropped by 1/2 over the last 40 years
as people switched from coffee to soft drinks), the growth of new markets in
Asia, etc.

In the developed world we deal with agricultural oversupply by having the
government subsidize our own farmers and have the resulting mountains and
lakes of butter, cheese, wine, etc. pile up in warehouses or converted to
industrial alcohol at taxpayer expense. But the political chances of getting
taxpayer subsidies for overseas coffee farmers is nil and the producing
countries don't have the money for the kind of subsidies needed. Fair trade
is an effort at a kind of voluntary tax (or involuntary to the extent the
Fair Trade people strong arm roasters ala protection racket ) to pay a
subsidy to coffee farmers. But there's a reason why taxes are involuntary -
if you give people a choice betwee paying price A (with tax) and price B
(without) most people don't have enough of a "social conscious" (or have
enough common sense, depending on how you look at it) to pay price A.


"Justin" > wrote in message
.. .
> Does anyone here even care about Fair Trade coffee?
>
> Just wondering. I think it's an important aspect in the coffee industry.
>
>



--
....I'm an air-conditioned gypsy...

- The Who

wrote in message news:<bntese$b93$>
>
> "Justin" > wrote in message
> .. .
> > Does anyone here even care about Fair Trade coffee?
> >
> > Just wondering. I think it's an important aspect in the coffee industry.
> >
> >
(Much good analysis snipped.)

There is one reasonable argument for artificial support of Central
American coffee - it helps reduce the amount of farmers switching to
more unsavory crops, with proceeds going to local terrorist groups.
Maybe some more of that War on Drugs and War on Terror money should go
into the coffee industry.

Greg Zywicki

"Greg Zywicki" > wrote in message
m...
> wrote in message news:<bntese$b93$>
> >
> > "Justin" > wrote in message
> > .. .
> > > Does anyone here even care about Fair Trade coffee?
> > >
> > > Just wondering. I think it's an important aspect in the coffee
industry.
> > >
> > >
> (Much good analysis snipped.)
>
> There is one reasonable argument for artificial support of Central
> American coffee - it helps reduce the amount of farmers switching to
> more unsavory crops, with proceeds going to local terrorist groups.
> Maybe some more of that War on Drugs and War on Terror money should go
> into the coffee industry.
>
> Greg Zywicki


Assuming that the War on Drugs is in fact, really a war on drugs; there are
healthy oil reserves in S. America as well.

Besides, cocaine and opiates would never be a good cash crop if there were
no demand.

Nuff said about drugs, I agree that money is the best incentive to wean
farmers over to crops like coffee and I agree that ESK provided a great
analysis of the situation.

Jack Sanka

In rec.food.cooking, "Jack Schidt?" > wrote:

> Nuff said about drugs, I agree that money is the best incentive to wean
> farmers over to crops like coffee and I agree that ESK provided a great
> analysis of the situation.

Thanks, but I was not the author. I merely crossposted it.


--
....I'm an air-conditioned gypsy...

- The Who

[ This is a repost of the following article: ]
[ From: "D. O'Keefe" > ]
[ Subject: Fair Trade Certified... ]
[ Newsgroups: alt.coffee ]
[ Message-ID: > ]

[***NOTE: I didn't write this article. I thought, however, that some
people in RFC might be interested because of the recent discussions of
Fairtrade coffee. The conclusion the author has reached is that Fairtrade
coffee has increased greatly in quality over the last several years.]

As we all may recall, only a few short years ago the consensus on Fair Trade
coffees and many organics was that they were inferior. That they have risen
in quality in so many instances speaks for the care the farmers are putting
into their crops and the support they've received from the SCAA, ngo's and
others. Most coffee farmers a few years ago had little understanding of the
coffee market or of even how their coffees tasted. The SCAA, the ngos and
others have made a great effort and a great difference in raising the
quality profiles of many coffees that once were marginally valued. Mexico is
a prime example. There are Mexican coffees from Chiapas, Oaxaca and Nyarit
that are highly valued for their quality now where as late as the 90's they
were still being denigrated as inferior. That quality shift has been based
on education and price differentials. If those here who attended the 1998
SCAA conference and the Sustainable Coffee Conference that was part of it
remember, there were people from producing countries saying that if
equitable prices were paid that the quality would improve considerably. In
those days Fair Trade was largely unknown and "shade grown" and "organic"
were in the discussion, education phase. I believe that in these five
intervening years we have seen a sea change in the way quality coffee is
produced even as we've seen the market manipulated for the benefit of a few
with inferior coffee production. The fastest growing segment of specialty
coffee is in the sustainable sector and much of that growth is based on
education and the hope of better prices for greater attention to growing
standards. That Ken Davids and others are now ranking the sustainably grown
coffees with all the other "top cuppers" speaks to the efforts made.

D. O'Keefe

"Barry Jarrett" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 10:05:44 -0500, "Jack Denver"
> > wrote:
>
> >But are these coffee top cuppers BECAUSE they are FT or just by
coincidence?
> >FT doesn't prevent coffee from being top quality, it doesn't guarantee
it
> >either.
>
> bingo. same holds for organics.
>
> --barry "i buy 'em when they taste the best"
>



--
....I'm an air-conditioned gypsy...

- The Who

"Jack Schidt®" > wrote in message om>...
> "Greg Zywicki" > wrote in message
> m...
> > wrote in message news:<bntese$b93$>
> > >
> > > "Justin" > wrote in message
> > > .. .
> > > > Does anyone here even care about Fair Trade coffee?
> > > >
> > > > Just wondering. I think it's an important aspect in the coffee
> industry.
> > > >
> > > >
> > (Much good analysis snipped.)
> >
> > There is one reasonable argument for artificial support of Central
> > American coffee - it helps reduce the amount of farmers switching to
> > more unsavory crops, with proceeds going to local terrorist groups.
> > Maybe some more of that War on Drugs and War on Terror money should go
> > into the coffee industry.
> >
> > Greg Zywicki
>
>
> Assuming that the War on Drugs is in fact, really a war on drugs; there are
> healthy oil reserves in S. America as well.

Whatever it is a war on, the money is there. Might as well keep the
supremo (shade grown, especially) growing.

> Besides, cocaine and opiates would never be a good cash crop if there were
> no demand.

True, but three hundred years of steady demand (at least) is a hard
trend to buck.

> Nuff said about drugs, I agree that money is the best incentive to wean
> farmers over to crops like coffee and I agree that ESK provided a great
> analysis of the situation.
>
> Jack Sanka

Definitely. Raise your mugs to Esk.

Greg Zywicki