Fair Trade Coffee: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Market-Driven Social Justice

by Gavin Fridell

Over the past two decades, sales of fair trade coffee have grown significantly and the fair trade network has emerged as an important international development project. Activists and commentators have been quick to celebrate this sales growth, which has allowed socially just trade, labour, and environmental standards and practices to be extended to hundreds of thousands of small farmers and poor rural workers throughout the Global South. While recent assessments of the fair trade network have focused on its impact on local poverty alleviation, however, the broader political-economic and historically rooted structures that frame it have been left largely unexamined. In this study, Gavin Fridell argues that while local level analysis is important, examination of the impacts of broader structures on fair trade coffee networks, and vice versa, are of equal if not greater significance in determining their long-term developmental potential. Using case studies from Mexico and Canada, Fridell examines the fair trade coffee movement at both the global and local level, assessing its effectiveness and locating it within political and development theory. In addition, Fridell provides in-depth historical analysis of fair trade coffee in the context of global trade, and compares it with a variety of postwar development projects within the coffee industry. Timely, meticulously researched, and engagingly written, this study challenges many commonly held assumptions about the long-term prospects and pitfalls of the fair trade network's market-driven strategy in the era of globalization.

Genres: Economics, Social Justice

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Mark Overly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the dangers of writing a critique of fair trade in this age is that any critique of fair trade is, by extension, a support for increased free trade, as evidenced by an earlier goodreads reviewer.

This work is a heavily researched and nuanced critique of fair trade and its limits as a market friendly answer to the injustices of neoliberal (free) trade policies. The author posits that such market driven solutions are inadequate in the absence of state sponsored development that , however flawed, provided better outcomes for the poor and disadvantaged. This book is best suited for students of social justice and political theory, but is also useful for those interested in the coffee trade.

[Victor Claar · Rating 3 out of 5]

While written from a strong Marxist point of view (good old Karl and his "Capital" are referred to frequently), this surprisingly readable book makes two valuable contributions. First, it is rich with history, evidence, and examples regarding the origins and path of the Fair Trade network. Second, since Fridell is no fan of the current incarnation of the Fair Trade network, he does a superb job of identifying its limitations. This is especially surprising and powerful since his clear preference is for considerably more statist interventions--both national and global--to make trade more consistent with the original goals of the fair trade movement, rather than ongoing efforts to "harness free markets" to make trade more "fair."

Don't make this the first book you pick up if you want a balanced take on fair trade, its achievements, and limits. But do read it sometime if you want more details, and also to learn what someone with strong Marxist leanings thinks is wrong with the Fair Trade network.

[Katelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent so far. Down with capitalism.