PRLog (Press Release) -
Mar 12, 2010 -
My Fight Against Fair-Trade
March 11, 2010
By Matthew Holland
NonprofitProducts.org
What do you think when you see a product with a label that says "fair-trade"
on it? My guess is that you probably feel pretty warm and comfy inside. This is simply because you think you are buying a product that is making a difference to some poor individual half-way around the globe. Unfortunately, this isn't quite the truth. The real truth is that "fair-trade"
is only fair to the manufacturer creating the product, the importer/distributor moving the product and the retailer selling the product. One would like to think that these "fair-trade"
profits trickle down to the person stuck in a factory for 12 hours a day barely making .20 cents an hour. One would like to think that these "fair-trade"
products help that guy/girl picking coffee beans all day long in the 100 degree Latin American and African heat. One would like to think that these "fair-trade"
products really make a difference for the people they are designed to help. But, the real difference is only in the bulging pockets of corporate executives. It may be legal, but at the end of the day, it is far from fair.
So do these bean pickers and factory workers get anything out of the "fair-trade"
deal? A few yes, most no. Even with those few that benefit, the benefit of a couple extra pennies an hour will not get them out of a life of indentured servitude to the business they work for. How does a company that gives their workforce a couple extra pennies an hour constitute fair-trade? It does not get them out of poverty. It barely buys them a couple of loaves of bread. But, isn't a job a job? Well, in America yes for the most part, but not when your third world labor is being taken advantage of under the cloak of “fairness”
.
One may wonder how do big corps get away with this "fair-trade"
charade. It comes down to those "Fair-Trade"
organizations keeping track of all these products. First, most products from abroad, from coffee to cotton to cool looking trinkets, are loosely if at all regulated. Second, anyone under the sun can make a "Fair-Trade Certified" organization. Third, many of the "fair-trade organizations"
out there are in the same bed with the companies that are taking advantage of their own workforce while deceiving the public into thinking they just made a difference through their "fair-trade"
purchase. How do I know this? It's all posted on-line at every "fair-trade"
organization's website. These organizations take donations, huge ones at that, from these mega corps all-day-long. On top of that, they charge these mega chains a "fee" to enable them to put their "Fair-Trade"
certification label/logo on their product. What happens? These fair-trade "enforcers" and these mega-corps sit down in a smoked filled room and "discuss" fair-trade pricing. But, it is a far cry from a discussion. It is a tainted process, filled with greed and heavy handed corporate influence making the best deal for corporations and a poor deal for the poor. Instead of being given a fair deal the poor are taken advantage of by crafty corporate executives with business ethics and personal morals that are dodgy at best.
There is no problem with the majority of social enterprise for-profit entities, most of them do excellent work. There is no problem with the small store selling fair-trade products gathered from the many excellent artisan groups around the world. Problems arise when these mega-chains gain mega profits from the sale of their "fair-trade certified" products and claim to be doing the world's goodwill.
