Fair trade coffee producers are required to farm with sustainable farming techniques. The rules are intended to improve the community and well being of the workers and less on the coffee product, which organic coffee’s main concern is. So fair trade is a little looser on the restrictions to their farming techniques than organic coffee.

Fair trade farmers are encouraged to farm organically, through a premium paid if they are organically certified. Every year fair trade certified farmers are converting over to be organic certified as well. I saw a statistic recently that suggested a little over half of fair trade coffee is also certified organic. From looking around online, it would seem like that is a close enough estimate.

I would think anything to get chemicals out of what we ingest has to be a good thing. If we can make it a cup of fair trade organic coffee, then even better!

Enjoy!
Ian

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Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. Fair Trade is much more than a fair price though!

Fair Trade principles include:

• Fair prices: Democratically organized farmer groups receive a guaranteed minimum floor price and an additional premium for certified organic products. Farmer organizations are also eligible for pre-harvest credit.
• Fair labor conditions: Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions, and living wages.
• Forced child labor is strictly prohibited.
• Direct trade: Importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to strengthen their organizations and become competitive players in the global economy.
• Democratic and transparent organizations: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to use their Fair Trade premiums.
• Community development: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like health care, new schools, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.
• Environmental sustainability: The Fair Trade certification system strictly prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), promotes integrated farm management systems that improve soil fertility, and limits the use of harmful agrochemicals in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers’ health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations.

TransFair USA and Transfair Canada, are non-profit organizations, and are the only independent, third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the U.S. and Canada. They are two of the 20 members of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). TransFair’s rigorous audit system, which tracks products from farm to finished product, verifies industry compliance with Fair Trade criteria. TransFair allows companies to display the Fair Trade Certified label on products that meet strict Fair Trade standards.

Fair Trade Certification is currently available in the U.S. and Canada for coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, sugar, rice, and vanilla.

Fair Trade Certified label used in the U.S.

Fair Trade Certified label used in Canada

Fair Trade Certified label used in Europe. Note: The fair trade label used in Europe is spelled Fairtrade and was created in 2002 to unify the 20 member organizations, although they still allow U.S. and Canada to use their own labels.

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In the first half of the 1900’s there were many small movements and discussions about providing fair wages and working conditions for workers in some of the world’s poorer regions. There were efforts from church groups purchasing crafts directly from southern communities to world powers trying to manipulate commodity prices to sustain poorer countries.

Towards the end of World War II, Oxfam UK started to initiate projects where they purchased products directly from the people they were trying to support. In the 1960’s, United Kingdom and Netherlands became the main initiators of fair trade practices. From commodities like sugar cane, soon expanded to coffee in the early 1970’s.

In Netherlands in the late 1980’s, the first Fair Trade certification was started. It was named after a fictional Dutch character ‘Max Havelaar’, from a book (Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company) where he opposed the exploitation of coffee pickers in Java and Indonesia (both colonies of Netherlands). The Max Havelaar label soon stood for a standardized system of Fair Trade coffee.

Even though fair trade coffee grew in most European countries, it wasn’t until 1997 in Canada and 1998 in the US when those two countries first certified fair trade coffee for sale.

For more information about the history of fair trade coffee, please visit the TransfairUSA.org website or the transfair.ca website

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