THANK YOU. Fair trade or organic coffee is just a way to identify yourself to coffee shops as being price insensitive. There is an excellent chapter on the economics of fair trade coffee in the book "The Underground Economist". I recommend people read it before saying how wonderful fair trade is.

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No matter where you go, there you are. (b.banzai)

If Fair Trade is bad for coffee farmers please tell the coffee farmers in Hawaii to stop paying minimum wage to their workers.

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All I said was that intellectuals are like the Mafia, they only kill their own.

Woody Allen
Stardust Memories

Thanks for the family history. Now back to my original question, which you failed to answer......

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Save a seal, club a liberal.

If you look over this thread I think you will find your answer.

__________________

All I said was that intellectuals are like the Mafia, they only kill their own.

Woody Allen
Stardust Memories

__________________

All I said was that intellectuals are like the Mafia, they only kill their own.

Woody Allen
Stardust Memories

Don't bother bringing economic reality into this thread. Fair trade supporters don't care. They either: 1) Obstinately deny all arguments and simply insist that it makes the farmers better off (fair trade drinkers have a notoriously poor education in economics), or 2) Don't care about the consequences, because paying more for the coffee is right in principle.

You're spoiling everyone's parade, because they want to believe that they can do something as simple as paying a little more for coffee to fix problems that are complicated. Of course, the demand for fair trade is highly correlated with the demand for organic, which is unambiguously worse for coffee growers who must outlay thousands of dollars to get certified.

Regarding the cost to farmers to become certified as "Fair Trade", the article cited below from the CATO which Jizay favors doesn't seem to mention cost to farmers, but it does mention cost to "producer organizations".

Below are previous post which go over the economics:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/752341-post65.html
The ShopRite in Roxborough has Newman's fair trade coffee. Ground, regular & decaf.

I noticed the regular price was about $1.30 less per pound than Starbucks regular price.

http://www.newmansownorganics.com/food_coffee.html

Target also sells Fair Trade coffee for less than non-fair trade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/wor...rade-fair.html
FAIR TRADE COFFEE ENTHUSIASTS SHOULD
CONFRONT REALITY
Jeremy Weber
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj27n1/cj27n1-9.pdf

Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair
Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce
Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern
Nicaragua?
CHRISTOPHER BACON *
University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
http://www.ecodes.org/pages/especial...docs/bacon.pdf

WPS4011
"Fairtrade" and Market Failures in Agricultural Commodity Markets
Loraine Ronchi
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/externa...EX/wps4011.txt

‘Fair’ coffee workers paid below minimum wage
By Hal Weitzman in Lima
Published: September 8 2006 22:01 | Last updated: September 8 2006 22:01
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/46cd2578-3f5...0779e2340.html

I should point out that all of these articles are cited in the Weber report to the CATO.

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/492450-post36.html
"There is a section regarding FT farmer and non-FT farmers, since all the farmers were disadvantaged to begin with it’s difficult to say that the FT farmers have had a negative impact on the non-FT farmers. The Weber report presents two groups in Peru, but does it draw a conclusive correlation showing the action vs. reaction? I don't believe it does because the fortunes of the non-FT farmers rely on many factors which they have no control over. Less control than the FT farmers. Also since only 20% of the FT farmers coffee actually goes to the FT market it would seem that the FT farmer should also be disadvantaged by 80%. However, according to Weber, Bacon, Reynolds, & Ronchi (at the World Bank) they are better off. Also since, according to Wiezter at The Financial Times, they are able to pay their laborers something close to the minimum wage the laborers who work for FT farmers are better off as well."

__________________

All I said was that intellectuals are like the Mafia, they only kill their own.

Woody Allen
Stardust Memories

Who do you think sells the coffee to the fair trade system? Individual farmers belong to producer organizations, which are certified fair trade, organic, etc. Who do you think bears these costs? Or do you think?

So the cost to the individual farmers for Fair Trade or organic certification could be $10 each as opposed to "thousands of dollars".

__________________

All I said was that intellectuals are like the Mafia, they only kill their own.

Woody Allen
Stardust Memories

If you believe that "Fair Trade" is bad for coffee farmers, instead trying to help farmers in Ethiopia think of the coffee farmers in this country. Just tell the coffee farmers in Hawaii and Puerto Rico that you want to eliminate minimum wage.

__________________

All I said was that intellectuals are like the Mafia, they only kill their own.

Woody Allen
Stardust Memories