its that time of year...where many of you will probably notice stuff at cafes in regards to fairtrade coffee.....people buy the stuff... i know sometimes it can be a little bit more expensive buts its for a good cause. Encourage your local coffee hangout to start stocking it, encourage your friends, start getting the fairtrade tea or coffee from your local supermarke or trade aid store.
Support your fellow companions who plant and harvest the beans that make your coffee.... we know there is other alternatives to free trade. Research and learn about them. .... okay so this sounds a bit of a rant...... but remember as consumers we can change things...its happening in the UK....it can happen here!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
You do realise that "fair trade" coffee is a sham. The only "fair trade" is free, un subsidised trade.
The only people who profit on fair trade are teh people on our side of the world, who profit from the branding when do gooders such as yourself pay over inflated prices for it.
Financial times has reported that:
* Fair trade coffee producers are paid under the minimum wage in peru
* Non certified coffee is sold as fair trade
* Fair trade coffee has been planted illegally in protected rainforests
Elsewhere I have read that growers have to pay to join the fair trade coffee "cartel" which effectively prices teh smaller growers out of it, as they can't afford to join.
Fair trade coffee is bought at $2.35 per kilo (USD) off the farmers, and sold at $40 (USD) per kilo. 5 cents per kilo is spent on development assistance. So about $35+ per kilo doesn't go to the farmers, it goes to middle men.
All "fair trade" is is marketing. It doesn't help people in developing nations. Face it, if there was free trade, coffee would be purchased at a cheaper price in larger quantities, either with more money going to the farmers, or the price getting pulled up. And without all the tariffs, they would be able to afford cheaper goods imported from elsewhere if they wanted, or local produce if it was cheaper.
If anything, free trade does the exact opposite of what it was intended. It entrenches subsistance farming, and stunts development.
But those in the fair trade movement don't care. They are making a very healthy profit off it.
Mmmmm fair trade coffee!!
How fair is fair-trade coffee?
What price virtue?
Not to be a party-pooper, but its not all fair...
But go the Fair Trade stores! =)
Fairtrade coffee....a product no one will willingly pay for at true market prices so requiring handwrining socialists to try to ram it down everyones throat oblivious to the fact that if there was REAL FREE TRADE operating as opposed to the protectionist/unionist socialism currently in place around the world that these coffee growers probably wouldn't need any subsidies or charity to market their coffee in the first place...
Fair trade coffee is just coffee traded freely. It is not an alternative to free trade. Of course if people want to purchase the feel-good factor of supporting those less fortunate bundled with their coffee they should. However, as with most products, caveat emptor. You may not be buying what you think you are and as this thread shows it is sadly ironic when that deception deprives the very people it is supposed to help.
I wish I got in on the Fair Trade scam when it appeared a few years ago. It sure has suckered a lot of people and is a guranteed growth industry proving the old adage that an idiot is born every second :)
Post a Comment