Conscious Choice: It's Only Fair

December 2002

It's Only Fair

Do a good deed by shopping mindfully

by Rosanne Harrison

Now more than ever, we need to be educated about the difference that our purchases can make in the lives of millions of families. With the holiday season upon us, it is a perfect opportunity for us to develop "Fair Trade" purchasing habits. If we buy Fair Trade products, we can be assured that the people responsible for creating the products were treated with respect and paid a fair price for their work. Also, we’ll be able to give high quality gifts and feel a sense of peace knowing that we made a difference in someone’s life, in someone’s family.

Fair Trade, in its altruistic meaning, is a term introduced by Equal Exchange, a for-profit company. Although a moneymaking entity, Equal Exchange is a pioneering force both in terms of showing how a successful business model can look while helping the lives of artisans, farmers and their environments.

Equal Exchange has developed the Fair Trade idea and successfully put it into action. The company works directly with farmers and artisans in Central and South America, visiting them often to insure high-quality products while making sure sustainable environmental and social standards are maintained.

Under Equal Exchange’s policies, the farmers and artisans, from whom the company gets its products, own shares in Equal Exchange just as do the company’s executives, sales force, and farmer representatives. To keep salary costs down and funnel more money to the farmers and artisans, top executives cannot make more than $65,000 a year. Moreover, Equal Exchange functions on a 3:1 salary ratio. This means that an upper level executive can make only three times more than an entry-level employee...a huge difference from the 475:1 ratio of other corporations.

Alicia Leinberger, a Farmer Representative for Equal Exchange reports that, for consumers, the company’s products cost, if at all, just a few cents more than conventional products. However, the difference in profit to the farmers and artisans is huge. For instance, regarding coffee, Equal Exchange guarantees the farmer $1.26 per pound instead of the conventional going rate of 25 cents per pound. Leinberger says this means the farmers are able to take one dollar and invest it in their families, homes, and production quality, and the remaining 26 cents is used to improve the school systems and community as a whole.

Where to Find Fair Trade Products

To insure that all its products maintain the integrity of the Fair Trade philosophy, Equal Exchange certifies its products with Trans Fair, a third party certifier. Trans Fair audits its client companies’ business practices in order to make sure certain criteria are met that align them with Fair Trade standards. Trans Fair also educates consumers in order to build a demand for Equal Exchange products. More than 150 companies have implemented the Equal Exchange business model over the past three and a half years.

Equal Exchange’s most successful and high profile product is coffee. Currently, more than 140 roasters and importers across the United States, including Starbucks, offer Equal Exchange coffee certified by Trans Fair. In addition, certified teas and chocolates are now available in the marketplace. Some retailers, such as Ten Thousand Villages and Gifts of the World, in suburban Chicago, also sell Equal Exchange rugs, pottery, and clothing. There are others besides Equal Exchange that issue Fair Trade products. While they may not be qualified by a third party certifier, the products still guarantee that a fair price was paid to the farmers and artisans who produced them.

Moreover, buying Fair Trade products assures the thoughtful consumer that the farmers and artisans who produced the goods were treated fairly and humanely. This is particularly important in light of the mass exploitation practices of many businesses that sell to U.S. retailers. Fair Trade, of course, insures that horrific business practices such as child and sweatshop labor are never used.

A World of Difference

Without Equal Exchange’s Fair Trade approach, the production of crops in Central and South America, for example, get mired in about 12 steps or hand-offs that leave farmers next to nothing for their crops. Once farmers grow the crop, processing then takes place and various middlemen, known as coyotes, demand their cut. Add to that the exporters, brokers, wholesalers, and retailers. The plantation and corporate owners make huge profits while the farmers end up in enormous debt due to the high production costs and the low prices they receive for their crops. The farmer is stuck in a downward spiral while everyone else enjoys the ride.

Equal Exchange takes the 12 steps down to a simple seven. Farmers deal directly with cooperatives, then the importers, roasters, distributors, and, very quickly, the retailers and consumers. With this system in place, the farmers realize a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

Trans Fair representative Kari Hamerschlag says that it’s getting easier to find Fair Trade/Equal Exchange products. For example, she says, Equal Exchange coffees and teas are now accessible on more than 200 college campuses and there are a growing number of retail stores. In addition, last fall, Equal Exchange coffee made its way into National Parks across the United States. "By establishing a larger marketplace in order to purchase Equal Exchange products, consumers have an easier time making the switch," Hamerschlag said. "Now it is just a matter of educating the consumers enough so that they begin asking for Equal Exchange products in organizations that are not selling them, hence, further increasing the market."

Rosanne Harrison is a Chicago freelance writer.

Tracking Down Local Fair Trade Retailers

As far as coffee is concerned, Chicagoans tend to be one of the most Fair Trade "conscious" cities in the United States, according to the Equal Exchange people. That is, Chicagoans go out of their way to look for Fair Trade coffee. This heightened awareness is attributed to the city’s broad ethnic diversity and the large number of immigrants from Central and South America who, of course, know first-hand the hardships farmers are subjected to under the inequities of the conventional free market. Hence, Chicago with its "informed" buying power, can be a pivotal force in making the difference in the lives of millions of farmers and their families.

Coffee retailers throughout the Chicago area, as well as natural food stores such as Sherwyn’s Health Food Shop and the Hyde Park Co-Op, deal in organically grown bulk coffee imported through the Equal Exchange Company.

Intelligentsia is one of the few Chicago companies to offer a Fair Trade product, and operate both a cafe and a coffee roasting facility. In fact, Intelligentsia even pays a higher premium to the growers than is typically expected in Fair Trade exchanges for their wonderfully blended Sumatran, Mexican, and Nicaragua brews.

Some Fair Trade retailers, like Ten Thousand Villages, which has been operating for over 50 years with locations all over North America, carry a variety of Fair Trade products. The three suburban locations and their sister store, Gifts of the World, sell an assortment of merchandise, including beautifully crafted ankle-length dresses, scarves, jackets, and pants from the Marketplace Handwork of India Company. This company insures that poor Indian women are given the opportunity to effect change as wage-earners in their society.

Ten Thousand Villages also carries a line of onyx candle holders from the Dominion Traders Company. Onyx’s coloring can range from the near translucent to a dark brown, and the crafting and sale of this stone guarantees that 150 families in Pakistan remain employed and fairly compensated. Across North America in hundreds of natural food stores and restaurants, Fair Trade products are also sold at some places of worship, including Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Unitarian-Universalist churches, and at Quaker meetings.

Chicago Fair Trade Cafés:

Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea, 3123 N. Broadway, Chicago; 773-348-8058

Napoleon Bakery, 2835 Aurora Avenue, Naperville, Illinois ; 630-548-1044

New Day Coffeehouse, 15 South Park Avenue, Lombard, Illinois; 630-268-0559

Chicago Fair Trade Retail Locations:

Evanston People’s Market, 1111 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, 847-475-9492

Gifts of the World, 888 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg, Illinois, 847-895-3654

Hyde Park Co-Op, 1300 E. 47th Street, Chicago, 773-268-4700

Sherwyn’s Health Food Shop, 645 W. Diversey, Chicago, 773-477-1934

Stanley’s Fruit and Vegetable Market, Elston at North Ave., Chicago, 773-276-8050

Ten Thousand Villages, 719 Main Street, Evanston, Illinois, 847-733-8258; 499C Pennsylvania Avenue, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, 630-790-1166.

Area Chain Locations Selling or Serving Fair Trade Coffee and Tea:

Aveda, Border’s Books Cafés, Dominick’s, Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Seattle’s Best Cafés, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats Market

Visit www.transfairusa.org or www.equalexchange.com for more information or to to buy Fair Trade products over the internet.

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