Can We Make Fair Trade More Fair?

Today, August 9, we celebrate the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, which was established in 2004 by the United Nations to mark each year’s passing of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Since this day has been set aside to raise awareness of indigenous issues and to promote the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, it seems appropriate to reflect on fair trade, a system that has been developed to improve economic conditions of small-scale farmers, including indigenous farmers around the world.

You probably already know why buying fairly traded products benefits small-scale farmers. Take coffee, for example — it’s a serious business, second only to oil as the most heavily traded commodity in the world. But the small family farmers who are the primary growers of coffee have little access to the world market and are exposed to volatile world prices. Fair trade gives small-scale farmers a more adequate and stable source of income, giving them access to international buyers and ensuring they’re paid a minimum price for their products.

Fair trade systems also help ensure that working conditions improve and that human rights violations such as abusive child labor are not tolerated. What’s more, agricultural products certified by TransFair USA (the fair trade certification organization in the United States) are grown using more environmentally sustainable methods of farming.

But fair trade is complicated, and it’s not just about paying a fair price to farmers. It involves processing and certification of the products, international shipping, marketing, and distribution. While participation in a fair trade cooperative does eliminate the risk of small-scale farmers getting underpaid for their products by exploitative middlemen, the fair trade system is still about competing in the global marketplace, and presupposes that trade is an appropriate means of promoting development. So what does this mean for indigenous peoples?

The Cultural Survival Quarterly issue called “Fair Trade and Indigenous Peoples” takes an in-depth look at these complexities. It critiques fair trade for not paying enough attention to indigenous perspectives, but also presents many of the positive impacts that fair trade has had on indigenous farmers.

Although fair trade does improve financial outcomes for indigenous farmers, it doesn’t address the fundamental conflicts between the competition-based, free-market system that governs today’s global marketplace and indigenous economic models. As a result of economic globalization and the international and national trade policies, indigenous peoples have been forcibly displaced from their lands and robbed of natural resources like water, forests, wildlife, minerals, oil, and natural gas by governments and corporations seeking economic growth.

In contrast, indigenous peoples have used and sustained these same natural resources for centuries, as indigenous cultures and economies are based on deeply-rooted notions of reciprocity with nature, sustainability, responsibility to one’s community, spiritual balance, and a respect for past and future generations. What's more, while indigenous farmers have traditionally grown their products for local markets and communities, emphasizing crop diversity and meeting the community's needs, globalized trade agreements have forced farmers to produce mono-crops for mass markets.

So while fair trade certainly begins to address concerns of economic equity and environmental sustainability, it stops short of incorporating the equal participation of indigenous communities into determining trade policy, or of reconfiguring trade to reflect the values, traditions, and world views of indigenous peoples. Perhaps it never set out to do this, but then can we truly call it fair yet, or is just fairer trade?

Looking ahead, there's the potential to address gaps in the fair trade movement by allowing indigenous farmers to play a more central role in devising how to create opportunities for all small-scale farmers to make sustainable livelihoods.