though i've trolled around the net and the library a bit and found some worthwhile material for three faces of the argument (pro and anti abolition and pro fair trade), i'm coming up empty looking for anti fair trade arguments -- basically the companies who aren't fair trade just maintain a wall of silence about it.

[ 08 April 2004: Message edited by: wizkid ]

[ 08 April 2004: Message edited by: Pimji ]

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Cocoa farmers receive as little as two cents for every chocolate bar sold. Richard Phinney travels to Ghana, where cocoa is grown, to consider whether Fair Trade has the potential to change relations between the world's rich and poor.

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is that there's no guarantee that fair trade prices won't spike. Another is the overproduction of beans that will result due to increased prices being offered to farmers. I also hear doubt that the benefits of fair trade ever actually trickle down to the farmers.

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Interesting. Be careful, there could be a fact coming your way.

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A guarantee that clearly defined criteria were met in the production and trade of agricultural commodities. The international Fair Trade criteria for coffee, the leading Fair Trade Certified product worldwide, are:

A Fair Price: Producer cooperatives are guaranteed a fair price (a floor price of US$1.26 per pound or 5 cents above the prevailing market price; US$1.41 for certified organic coffee or 15 cents above the market price)
Democratic Organization: Producers must belong to cooperatives or associations that are transparent and democratically controlled by their members
Direct Trade and Long Term Relationships: Importers must purchase coffee directly from Fair Trade certified producers and agree to establish long- term and stable relationships
Access to Credit: When requested by producers, importers must provide pre-harvest financing or credit (up to 60% of each order)
Environmental protection: Producers must implement integrated crop management and environmental protection plans. Through price incentives, producers are encouraged to work towards organic production

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https://www.transfairusa.org/content/works/wrk_index.jsp

[ 12 April 2004: Message edited by: WingNut ]

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The best I can do for you, Patrokles, is to assure you that fair trade coffee is a superior coffee. I would recommend people drink it at least once a day. Ground fresh in a bodum and you're all set to go.

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I agree! The coffee shop where I eat lunch everyday has solely fair trade coffee, and it is some of the best coffee I have ever had. It isn't much more expensive than say, Tim Horton's coffee(blech), either.

[ 12 April 2004: Message edited by: Jesse Hoffman ]

Intertwined with her work as a fair trade researcher and activist, Laure is the co-founder of Équiterre a Montreal based Environmental group. They have a fair amount of info on their website, including some in English.

Laure is also the instigator of Cafe Unidos a trilingual site full of links and info about all kinds "sustainable coffee", including fair trade, shade grown and organic.

If you can read French, this is an annotated bibilography of fair trade prepared by UQAM students (pdf).

Edited to add:I just re-read you original post, patrokles, and I realise that most of the links I've provided may not be all that helpful to find the anti-fair trade argument. Maybe the bibliography will help with that.

Edited again: Now i've just noticed that you're a Montrealer, which means you probably know all this stuff I posted. Ah, well, good luck anyway!

[ 13 April 2004: Message edited by: Sara Mayo ]

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Perhaps the biggest obstacle facing the community is the difficulty in getting certified “fair trade” – a label that ensures fair compensation for farmers and the promise of private long-term financing from roasters during one of the worst global coffee crisis in decades.

“Fair trade,” according to Matt Earley, founder of Cooperative Coffee member JustCoffee, “offers a model of economic interaction where all involved get what they need, where trade is based on respect and real relationships, and where no participant is exploited.”

Earley said fair trade was originally intended to make consumers think about market conditions, while breaking the rules of a free-trade-driven “modern hyper-capitalism.”

Although El Porvenir claims it complies with all the environmental and labor regulations needed to be certified “fair trade,” activists claim the community’s isolated location and relatively small coffee harvest have deterred fair-trade labeling giants in the United States and Europe from trekking up the mountain to visit El Porvenir.

The village applied for certification from the German-based fair-trade pioneer Fair Labeling Organization (FLO) three years ago, but has never been visited by a representative of the company’s spin-off labeling group FLO-Cert Ltd.

“Fair trade has become a for-profit business, and it is more profitable for certifiers to go to areas that are more easily accessible and with greater production outputs,” explained Jubilee House’s Woodard, who has been at the forefront of El Porvenir’s attempts to break into the fast-growing market niche in the United States and Europe.

JustCoffee’s Earley agrees that the fair-trade movement has divided into two camps: the market-driven camp that has patented the fair-trade label and charges producers a certification fee, and the ideologically-driven camp that just wants to extend a helping hand to the “little guy.”
JustCoffee and three other members of Cooperative Coffee have decided to break with the “fair-trade” establishment and pursue a model they claim is more consistent with the original ideology of the movement.

The cost of being certified “fair trade” by FLO also could be a deterrent for the community of El Porvenir.

The one-time certification fee FLO would charge a producer the size of El Porvenir is 2,000 Euros, or $2,431.

Additionally, FLO charges an annual $607 re-certification fee, plus $.02 for each kilo of coffee sold under the “fair-trade” label, for a total cost to El Porvenir of $1,100 for a good year’s harvest.

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[ 13 April 2004: Message edited by: DownTheRoad ]

DMB, your friends in the Alliance Club sound like a real treat

[ 13 April 2004: Message edited by: Scott Piatkowski ]

I don't know if chocolate gets the creative juices flowing, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

[ 13 April 2004: Message edited by: lagatta ]

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Originally posted by lagatta:
fruit of the fine

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Originally posted by Scott Piatkowski:
DMB, your friends in the Alliance Club sound like a real treat

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Ambigous, too, as it could mean "fine" as in "fine and dandy" or a "fine" one would have to pay for unruly behaviour caused by overindulgence (unless one was Dubya Bush, and got a pass ...).

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Originally posted by lagatta:
Could be, pax. I corrected it as soon as I reread my post.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
Scott, you have no idea how relieved I am that you have at least ONE saving vice! After your other post in which you find it worthy of mention that you don't smoke ganga or drink the fruit of the vine, now you mention that you don't drink COFFEE??? What kind of writer are you?

I don't know if chocolate gets the creative juices flowing, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

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Well, it was actually a column in which I mentioned that I use neither alcohol nor marijuana. I did so because I thought it was relevant to the story, not because I was trying to set myself up as some sort of paragon of virtue. And, I don't drink coffee because I don't like the taste.