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A letter about free trade compared to fair trade, by John E. Peck of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
How I Became Guilt Free Through Fair Trade!
By: John E. Peck
WI Network for Peace and Justice (www.wnpj.org)
Many people in the U.S. drink coffee or eat
chocolate everyday without ever thinking about where
they come from and who produced them. Neither of
these products grows in the U.S. and along with
petroleum - they are among the most important
commodities in worldwide trade. The rude reality
behind coffee, though, would leave a bad taste in
most peoples mouths and chocolate hardly seems a
good way to celebrate Valentines Day once one knows
its horrid history.
There are over 250 million coffee growers in the
world and most of them earn less than $300 per year.
Migrant pickers face incredible abuse on corporate
plantations they call them sweatshops in the
fields while middlemen, nicknamed coyotes in
Latin America, take advantage of those family
farmers who try to raise coffee on their own.
Meanwhile, people in the U.S. drink 20% of the
worlds coffee and pay up to $3.00 for a fancy latte
at outfits like Starbucks. Procter & Gamble, the
maker of Folgers, earned over $1 billion last year,
paying a mere 50 cents per pound for coffee on the
global market.
Chocolate is even worse since corporations like M&M
Mars, Nestle, Cadbury-Schwepps, and Hersheys depend
upon cheap imports from West Africa or Indonesia
where hundreds of thousands of children work on
plantations instead of going to school, some in
veritable slavery. "The beatings were a part of my
life," a 14 year old in Cote dIvoire, West Africa,
Aly Diabate, told reporters in 2001. "Anytime they
loaded you with bags [of cocoa] and you fell while
carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead, they beat
you and beat you until you picked it up again." It
takes 400 cocoa pods to make 1 pound of chocolate,
yet Aly had never tasted the cause of his slavery.
(www.globalexchange.org)
Thankfully, there is an alternative and that is
found in fair trade. Fair trade is based on several
common sense principles: that farmers should
receive a fair price for their product, that workers
deserve a living wage, that consumers have the right
to know about what they buy, that nature be
protected from destruction, and that communities
have the final say over how their economy is run.
The fair trade movement began in Europe in the late
1980s and is highly developed there, while in the
U.S. it is just starting to take-off. Last year,
total fair trade sales in Canada, the U.S. and the
Pacific Rim exceeded $250 million
(www.fairtradefederation.com). There are now over
600,000 people in 32 countries involved in producing
fair trade coffee, tea, cocoa, and bananas. Over
10,000 retailers and 200 universities in the U.S.
now offer fair trade coffee on a daily basis not
just for special occasions.
To give some specific examples, the Divine Chocolate
Project uses fair trade to link 40,000 cocoa farmers
in Ghana, West Africa, to chocolate lovers around
the globe. Their farmer cooperative, called Kuapa
Kokoo, devotes part of what it earns each year
towards community development projects such as
providing school scholarships and supplying clean
drinking water. Divine Chocolate is now found in
many better groceries and coffeeshops - you can
find out where it is available by contacting SERRV
in Madison, WI #608-251-0430 (toll free
#888-294-9657) or visiting: www.serrv.org/divine/
Just Coffee is another successful fair trade
initiative, importing coffee from as far away as
East Timor, Chiapas (Mexico), and Ethiopia for
processing and distribution to delis, coffeeshops
and co-ops throughout the Midwest. On a windy day
in Madison you can literally smell their coffee
roaster a mile away. The farmers who are partners
with Just Coffee receive 3-4 times the world coffee
price for their work. Part of the proceeds from
certain varieties of Just Coffee also go to good
causes for instance, Peace Coffee supports the
Madison Area Peace Coalition, Un Centavo Mas Coffee
supports the labor struggle of the Coalition of
Immokalee Workers against Taco Bell, and Grounds for
Democracy Coffee supports the Democracy Now
alternative indymedia project. You can find out
more by calling #608-204-9011 or visiting:
www.justcoffee.com
Many people are worried about the power of
multinational corporations and the threat to our
democracy posed by such entities as the World Trade
Organization (WTO), but they dont know what to do
about it. Fair trade is one simple answer. Every
day as a smart consumer you can vote with your
dollar for the type of world you really want to see.
Ask for fair trade coffee or chocolate next time
youre at a café or grocery, and if the person
behind the counter doesnt grasp what youre talking
about, let them know! Help put social justice back
into your cup of java and bar of candy.
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