Fair Trade Plantations?

The idea seems preposterous - including plantations in the Fair Trade program. When I hear the word "plantations," I'm immediately reminded of cotton plantations in the Southern states before the Civil War... isn't that the opposite of what Fair Trade stands for? Yes, but Paul Rice, founder of Fair Trade USA believes that coffee growing estates and plantations can be incorporated into the Fair Trade system IF they follow the ethics guidelines.

Pros:

The goal of the policy change is to increase the amount of sustainable supply to keep up with the demand for Fair Trade coffee, which now represents 5% of all coffee sold in the United States. By including more kinds of producers, not just co-op farmers, Rice hopes to double the impact of Fair Trade by 2015; the change would make it easier for big coffee buyers like Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Starbucks and Whole Foods to buy more Fair Trade products. "Fair Trade can be more than a tiny market niche. It can be scalable and significant," he said, and this philosophy is driving the change in Fair Trade USA's policy.

Cons:

Critics of Rice's plan argue that expanding suppliers to include coffee estates corrupts the core ideology of the whole Fair Trade Movement. Many believe that by allowing plantations to participate in Fair Trade, smaller co-op farmers, the very same people Fair Trade was created to protect, will be run out of business. Before the change in policy, co-op farmers were able to stay in business because of the appeal of Fair Trade to consumers; without that exclusive label, capitalism within the Fair Trade market has the opportunity to stamp out the smaller businesses who can't keep up with large plantations.

The larger question now is how this change in policy will impact other fair trade markets like chocolate, jewelry and art pieces.

So where do you stand? Do believe that Fair Trade should be expanded to include coffee estates? What about for other fair trade goods? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!