Those of you who know me are already accustomed to my passion and those of you who have been following this blog since I left Cincy are probably pretty familiar by now with my tendency to become a bit ruthless when it comes to all things fair trade, organic, environment, sustainability, etc. I have recently been accused of being an idealist (you know who you are) and this was not complimentary but a general statement about the problem of idealists not being effective in changing things.
After an entry about why I do what I do, where I spoke of what I call shallow fair trade, I have been challenged by those who believe that big companies jumping on the Fair Trade wagon will do more for the advancement of the movement than all of the small companies combined. So I have decided to readdress this subject.
Here is the catch when Walmart, P&G, Nestle, and Starbucks buy into Fair Trade they have the power to introduce it to a larger market but what is lost in the process? The big boys get involved so they can use the label to increase their profit margins rather than supporting the goals of fair trade. And as more of the big corporations enter the mix the more the standards and integrity of the label erode. There is a huge difference between companies that stock their shelves with FT certified products and the companies that live by the FT principles.
This distinction is already evident with Walmart and organics. Seeing the profitability in organics, in 2006 Walmart announced that they were going to expand their organic offerings. The Cornucopia Institute recently found Walmart selling non-organic food products with the organic label. As well as non-organic produce being stocked in the organic sections and shelf labels advertising organic under non-organic products. It seems, not surprisingly, that Walmart has applied it's standard business model to organics. So what's to stop them from doing the same with fair trade offerings?
I guess this is my answer to the people that believe these companies hold more power for change than idealists like me. At what cost?
6.05.2007
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3 comments:
It's a fact and it's been acknowledged by large corporations that these efforts (organic, fair trade, grass fed , free range ) are great because there profitable !! That's were the demise begins. I understand that business's need to have margins but at what cost ?? Is it the farmer , environment or all of us that perish in the process ? Nestle, Starbucks and P&G are to coffee what Cargill, ADM, and Monsanto are to our food supply. These large companies rule us and unfortunately they know it. It's only time before we have a major crisis in this country due to corporate greed and the lack of sensitivity to our environment !
The terms LOCAL and SUSTAINABLE are the next on the block to be bastardized. I acknowledge and admire all of you that make diligent efforts daily and to the rest of you "GROW SOMETHING " .
You know the graham cracker is my favorite part of a s'more.
And since these corporations have power over everything, including our government, the chances of them utilizing their lobbying power to alter the stringent requirements oft attached to an organic certification are fairly high. (One lovely example of this is bovine growth hormone: harmful, & outlawed in Europe and Canada, but lobbyists here moved legislation through congress making it unlawful to even label organic milk products with No RGBH")
Plus the big guys, with their low quality, less than ethical organic offerings are able to keep their prices lower because they are General Mills or Kellog's or other multi-billion dollar brand, and they put the REAL organic labels, that support small and/or local family owned farms, out of business, and we are left with low quality, amoral industry farming, which utilizes exorbetant amounts of fossil fuels to ship "organic" produce in from Uganda where they can pay workers 30 cents an hour....
And Every Body needs to see the documentary "The Corporation"
Farm on, Meg! Lindsay :)
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