Comments on: DEBATE: Should the Fair Trade Model Accommodate Hired Labor on Large-scale Farms

By: jim purdy

jim purdy — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 16:45:32 +0000

a lot of work and expertise went into this ‘paper’. However I believe a lot of it was for naught. To realize what it actually takes to be a farmer; the (lack of) resources available, in the 3rd. world and modern EU, Canada and the U.S, the competition for land and the needs to address hunger(the market) AND to make money. A farmer, me, wants a good income, a short work week, all the perks including a good retirement package. But in most farming situations all of these things are not available, just some of it. Yet I’m expected to produce a fresh, clean, wholesome, good looking, low priced ‘commodity’ because I’m ‘lucky to be a farmer’. Now if all of the farmers in the world decided, all at once, to only grow what they and their family needed to eat, the world would end in a nuclear holacaust for want of a ‘loaf’ !
I could go on and on but I have more pressing things to do

By: Richard Kanak

Richard Kanak — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 15:32:43 +0000

It is critical to not allow the dilution of certified fair trade by mega corporations who have teams of lawyers which research how to achieve status at a minimum cost to therefore maximize profits.

In the US today we have examples of the slowly eroding “Organic” certification by large corporate agribusinesses. The great issue has been and always will be exploitation of workers. Cesar Chavez began a struggle for workers rights which remains ongoing today. Certified Organic does not mean the product is Fair Trade, though the consumer tends to falsely equate the two.

As always regarding important issue what is needed is consumer involvement.

As a consumer I read the labels and when I have the opportunity to select products which are Organic and Fair Trade are important considerations. My standard line when the barista at Starbucks asks me what I want, my response is, Organic, Fair Trade, Shade grown, Dark roast, Cuban coffee.