As individuals in the global North have become more aware that the choices they make as consumers…

As individuals in the global North have become more aware
that the choices they make as consumers can have an impact on the environment,
on workers’ rights and wages and on the global South’s general prospects for
development, social movement activism focusing on “fair trade” has emerged in
response. Fair trade is a commitment to purchase products that usually cost
more, but in which workers and producers receive “fair” compensation and in
which production is done in an economically and environmentally sustainable
fashion. Organizations like the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations
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As individuals in the global North have become more aware
that the choices they make as consumers can have an impact on the environment,
on workers’ rights and wages and on the global South’s general prospects for
development, social movement activism focusing on “fair trade” has emerged in
response. Fair trade is a commitment to purchase products that usually cost
more, but in which workers and producers receive “fair” compensation and in
which production is done in an economically and environmentally sustainable
fashion. Organizations like the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International
(FLO) located in Bonn, Germany, have worked to develop consistent certification
standards to ensure that products and commodities sold under the fair trade
label have actually been produced and sold under fair trade terms.

On the one hand, fair trade activism highlights the ways in
which we are all part of the global economy and how our consumer choices impact
others around the world. It presents individuals with an opportunity to take a
stand on the negative consequences of globalization, and its growing popularity
seems to fly in the face of the predictions by economic liberals that consumers
will always seek the lowest price for goods via free markets. Proponents of
free trade activism describe it as an alternative form of globalization and one
that “decommodifies” otherwise impersonal market relationships by creating a
bond between producers and consumers; fair trade labelling often both certifies
a product and also briefly describes the producers and their communities and
creates a context for the purchaser.

On the other hand, observers also note that fair trade is
built upon a paradox. By relying on the market to address issues that have
arisen out of free markets, fair trade activism risks being co-opted by the
very corporations it seeks to criticize. As fair trade politics has grown in
popularity, large corporations have moved to fill this market niche, as the
sale of fair trade products has grown by 30 to 40 percent since the late 1990s.

Some of these corporations offer a single fair trade
certified product or line, but otherwise do not change their business
practices. In 2005 Nestlé—which controls large shares of the world’s cacao and
coffee markets and has been the focus of criticism for its pricing and labour
practices—introduced a fair trade coffee that was FLO certified. Critics point
out that offering a single fair trade product allows companies to “redeem
themselves in the eyes of consumers” without otherwise altering their policies
or practices.

While fair trade activism comes out of the kinds of
observations critical theorists direct our attention to—in terms of the forms
of inequality that arise via global markets—it is also critical theorists who
highlight the complexity and potential pitfalls of relying on market-based
solutions to transform markets. What forms of activism would you recommend in
light of their arguments? *

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