Viewpoint: Cultural Survival

Wed., Dec. 7, 2005

When consumers buy a cup of fair trade coffee or purchase a craft at a fair trade store, they feel comforted to know that they have helped a producer in a far-off country earn a living. And they should. Fair trade has helped thousands of farmers and artisans worldwide to improve their incomes and livelihoods.

But life is still hard for those producers and their families, and the fair trade market is more complicated than putting a few extra cents in their pockets. In order for fair trade to achieve its goals, everyone involved�from the producers to the consumers�must understand how it works.

There is little published research about fair trade, and even less information featuring candid conversations with the indigenous producers who both keep the industry afloat and supposedly benefit from it. Reports and publications, mostly put out by fair trade companies themselves, laud the success stories. But there are few, if any, accounts written by parties with the specific interests of indigenous producers in mind.

In hopes of starting a dialogue about whether fair trade has truly improved the lives of its producers, Cultural Survival spent several weeks this year visiting and interviewing indigenous producers of fair trade coffee and crafts. We also spoke with labeling organizations, importers, roasters, and other business people involved in fair trade.

When Cultural Survival was founded more than 30 years ago, the indigenous rights movement was led by anthropologists working to protect endangered indigenous cultures. Today, indigenous peoples are leading efforts to promote their own rights. Similarly, fair trade was started by concerned businesspeople in the North as a way to give poor producers in the South a system in which they could make sustainable livelihoods.

It is time for fair traders to allow producers to become full partners and to control their own fair trade businesses. As the industry rapidly expands, it runs the risk of losing the sense of connectedness between importers and producers that is meant to be at the core of its philosophy. Over the course of Cultural Survival�s research, we became information-gatherers for producers we met who had questions about the fair trade system but did not know how to find the answers. We also uncovered some problems, which, if left unattended, will prove detrimental to the long-term health of the fair trade system.

Three concerns stand out: (1) Producers need to have relationships with multiple clients, and to consider diversification of their business; (2) It is essential for both indigenous people and fair traders to have a complete understanding of all levels of their fair trade enterprise; and (3) Business practices on the importer�s end of the transaction must be examined as closely as the business practices of the producer.

When fair trade is examined from an indigenous rights point of view, the empowerment of indigenous peoples becomes the key concern. Our Fall 2005 issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly is meant to open a dialogue between fair traders in the North and the indigenous peoples whom the system is meant to serve. In doing so, we hope to help the fair trade movement move beyond being simply a market niche and realize its full potential as a vehicle for social change.

This article was adpated from the magazine issue noted above and written by several staff members of Cultural Survival.