I just finished reading “Coffee, A Dark History” by Antony Wild where he provides the following conclusion about fair trade coffee:

Ideas of Fair Trade, and of organic and bird-friendly coffees, are predicated on the assumption that the trade is immutable, and that the trick is to make it more just and eco-friendly. This of course ignores the entire supply and consumption chain. Even Fair Trade coffee is carried down to a tropical dock in a truck belching diesel fumes, shipped thousands of miles accross the world’s oceans, and hauled up and down a Western nation’s motorways eventually to find its way onto the shelf of a supermarket built on an out-of-town greenfield site frequented by shoppers who arrive in gas-guzzling cars from surrounding towns and villages. This, in itself, is hardly sustainable.

Now I understand that Mr Wild is looking at the larger picture (as do many that share a similar view), however, I’m not sure that its Fair Trade coffee’s responsibility to decide where supermarkets should be built or what kind of vehicles the auto industry should produce.

Fair Trade is predicated on the assumption to make situations more just for farmers and eco-friendly for their communities. Just a little over 20 years ago, this was pretty much a non-existent concept. Fair Trade is just one link in a very large chain. It is however, very important for the people and communities that it reaches out to, at a very low effort and cost for us.

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