Fair Trade from the Ground Up: New Markets for Social Justice

1. Fair Trade from the Ground Up

14 T here are over eight hundred Fair Trade certified producer organizations on four continents: Africa, Asia, North America, and South America.1 Nearly half of them grow coffee; others produce tea, cocoa, grains, sugar, spices, fruit, honey, wine, olive oil, and flowers. Why and how have these producers organized? How do they perceive their participation in Fair Trade? What benefits and drawbacks have they experienced ? How are they differentiating their products in the market? A body of field research by sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, and others allows us to address these questions. The studies that inform this chapter are listed in table 1.1. Why Organize? Some producers were organized prior to their involvement in Fair Trade. In El Salvador, Mexico, and Nicaragua, coffee-growing cooperatives date back to 1980s land reforms. In their study of the Mexican cooperative union Coordinadora Estatal Productores Café Organico (CEPCO), researchers Josefina Aranda and Carmen Morales (2002) note that it was easy to achieve Fair Trade certification because the group and its member cooperatives were already organized and democratic. Similarly, in Tanzania the socialist Chapter 1 FairTrade from the Ground Up Fair Trade from the Ground Up 15 government (in power from 1967 to the 1980s) assigned all coffee growers to rural cooperative societies that in turn aggregated into cooperative unions; some coffee unions there have even deeper roots. In post-apartheid South Africa, the policy of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has provided incentives to establish black-owned businesses as well as enterprises in which the workers are shareholders. These include vineyards, wineries, tea cooperatives, and fruit farms. Start-up funding for one Fair Trade winery came from the country’s Department of Land Affairs and from a trust established to allocate public and government donations received after a disastrous bridge accident in 1987. The first producer group in the world to gain Fair Trade certification basically invented a label that stated what they were already doing. The Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Región del Istmo (UCIRI) in Oaxaca was organized with the help of farmer/priest Franz (Francisco) VanderHoff Boersma, who then worked with a Dutch development organization to create a certification process and establish Max Havelaar, the first Fair Trade certifier (Audebrand and Pauchant 2009, VanderHoff Boersma 2009). Other Fair Trade producer groups formed with the aid of religious organizations. In Bolivia, the Central Cooperativas Agropecuarias “Operacion Tierra” (CECAOT) union of quinoa growers came together to mechanize their production at the urging of Belgian missionaries (Cáceres , Carimentran, and Wilkinson 2007). The Oaxaca, Mexico, cooperative Yeni Naván/Michiza and the Guatemalan highlands cooperative La Voz have histories that link Christianity, social justice, and a desire for autonomy (Jaffee 2007, Lyon 2002). Describing the origins of the La Selva coffee cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico, researcher Alma Amalia González Cabañas writes, Many of the communities where founding members live supported the work of consciousness-raising in the Catholic Church. The feeling of fraternity shared in the community reflection groups focusing on the “word of God” served as the basis for formation of relationships of trust (confianza) among the producers. The priests emphasized to the producers the importance of not relying on middle men (coyotes) to commercialize their products. They also promoted community projects in health care, basic supplies stores, literacy and, of course, the formation of catechists. (2002, 3) Study Product Country Producer Group(s) Aranda and Morales 2002 coffee Mexico CEPCO* Bacon et al. 2008 coffee Nicaragua CECOCAFEN,* PRODECOOP* Besky 2010 tea India Darjeeling tea plantations Cáceres and Wilkinson 2007 quinoa Bolivia CECAOT* Doherty and Tranchell 2005 cocoa Ghana Kuapa Kokoo Dolan 2008 tea Kenya Kiegoi Frundt 2009 bananas Dominican Republic Finca 6 (also unions, plantations) Frundt 2009 bananas Windward Islands WINFA* Frundt 2009 bananas Ecuador, Peru El Guabo Frundt 2009 bananas Peru El Prieto, CEPIBO Garza and Trejo 2002 coffee Mexico Unión Majomut* Getz and Schreck 2006 bananas Dominican Republic Finca 6 González Cabañas 2002 coffee Mexico La Selva Jaffe 2007 coffee Mexico Yeni Naván/Michiza Kleine 2008 wine Chile Los Robles Lewis and Runsten 2008 coffee Mexico La 21 de Septiembre, Yeni Naván/Michiza Linton 2008 coffee El Salvador APECAFE* Linton 2008 coffee Tanzania AKSGC* Lyon 2002 coffee Guatemala La Voz Lyon 2007 coffee Guatemala La Voz Lyon 2010 coffee Guatemala La Voz Méndez 2002 coffee El Salvador APECAFE,* Las Colinas, El Sincuyo Table 1...