The other way to look at fair trade coffee.

In my last post I wrote about a recent article in the Economist, which cast doubts on the entire fair trade movement.

The economic arguments presented were familiar and predictable. “The market decides”.

I don’t think the market decides very well. And to make that argument puts the lives of millions of people into the hands of economic formulae.

Instead, I think the world would be better served by putting away the calculators and the spreadsheets, and being a little more human in its vision of ‘economics’.

Take a look at Café Conciencia.

This is a non-profit organization based in Guatemala. Its work involves supporting farmers who grow fair trade coffee. The organization raises funds and supports its cause by selling the coffee and running eco-tours.

This is fair trade in action.

Fair trade isn’t some irritating subset of mainstream economics, to be discussed in boardrooms and bars.

The fair trade coffee movement is something that happens, in real life...now and now and now. And it transforms the lives of thousands upon thousands of poor farmers, their families and their communities.

You want to argue against that?

Comments

[mookrit]

Since coffee farmers don’t have direct access to international markets, there is a very long supply chain between coffee producer and consumer, in which the product changes hands any number of times. What can buying Fair Trade coffee do about this, a problem created by local governments who overregulate?