Comments on: Alternative Trade Organizations and the Fair Trade Movement https://fairworldproject.org/alternative-trade-organizations-and-the-fair-trade-movement/ Tue, 26 Feb 2019 09:34:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: trent https://fairworldproject.org/alternative-trade-organizations-and-the-fair-trade-movement/#comment-4209 Tue, 26 Feb 2019 09:34:31 +0000 https://fairworldproject.org/?p=3195#comment-4209 In reply to Concernedreader.

Yes, workers on plantations and small producers both need our strong support and need to benefit from both market and policy initiatives. We see two dangers and addressing both in the same way however. One is that if not done well, programs may provide some improvements in the short term, but protect the status quo in the long term and therefore not facilitate the true transformation that we need. The other danger is if the responsibility placed on the plantation owners are not stringent enough, the program will simply allow the owner to benefit from a market niche, competing against small producers who do not benefit from economies of scale, while the workers see very little of that benefit. Yes, we use fair trade to primarily apply to small producers, but see worker initiatives as an equally vital piece of a just economy.

]]> By: Kerstin https://fairworldproject.org/alternative-trade-organizations-and-the-fair-trade-movement/#comment-356 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:00:52 +0000 https://fairworldproject.org/?p=3195#comment-356 In reply to Concernedreader.

Yes, workers on plantations and small producers both need our strong support and need to benefit from both market and policy initiatives. We see two dangers and addressing both in the same way however. One is that if not done well, programs may provide some improvements in the short term, but protect the status quo in the long term and therefore not facilitate the true transformation that we need. The other danger is if the responsibility placed on the plantation owners are not stringent enough, the program will simply allow the owner to benefit from a market niche, competing against small producers who do not benefit from economies of scale, while the workers see very little of that benefit. Yes, we use fair trade to primarily apply to small producers, but see worker initiatives as an equally vital piece of a just economy.

]]> By: Concernedreader https://fairworldproject.org/alternative-trade-organizations-and-the-fair-trade-movement/#comment-354 Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:34:41 +0000 https://fairworldproject.org/?p=3195#comment-354 Great text, and I too am concerned about the changing dynamics within FairTrade. yet, one of your statement is simply not true, a conventional wisdom that often bugs me in that it undermines the effort of FT to help the workers on estates and plantations and is just as valuable as the efforts that it also makes to support small producers. You write: “one, through allowing large plantations to produce “fair trade” products that compete with those from small farmers in the Global South for whom fair trade was originally set up to help;”. This ‘allowing large plantations to produce FT’ is actually the basis of the history of FT, working with tea plantations in Sri Lanka. For some reasons, some people seem to encouraging small producers to supporting plantations workers. Or you do one thing or the other. Not true. Each have specific dynamics, each have needs that needs to be addressed, FT caters to both, helping workers and small producers to organize better and be empowered.

Please stop saying this about plantation workers. They deserve FT as much as small producers.

Thanks.

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