Poll: Do Labels Like Fair Trade Matter To You?

by Mike on March 6, 2010 in Polls

Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance Certified, Organic, Shade Grown. The list goes on and on. This week’s poll question is “Do Labels Like Fair Trade Matter To You?” Do they affect your coffee buying decisions? Or could you care less?

I’m a fan of buying coffee that’s produced with an earth friendly method and provides a working wage for the farmers, but it’s not the only factor that I look at when I’m buying coffee. However, if there’s too similar coffees and one has a Fair Trade label on it, there’s I’m going for the one with the Fair Trade label. My thinking doesn’t stop there. I have questions about how effective are these labels and the certifications behind, do they really help the farmers and the land where they are grown? However, that’s probably for another blog post some time.

Last week’s poll question was “How Do You Like Your Coffee?”

First place ended in a tie between dark roasts and medium roast votes. Each one had 34% of the vote.

All of the above came in next with 21% of the vote. Light roasts and flavored each had three votes.

Paul @ Cellular Reverse Lookup said:

I usually drink 2 cups a day. Had to cut back. Getting up there in age. But I sure do luv dark roast. I used to drink alot more coffee per day.

Nate February 28, 2010 at 6:43 pm said:

I opted for the “Medium” vote, I wanted to click the “All of the Above”, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it with the ‘Flavored’ option in there I like medium, dark and light though…really depends on what kind of coffee it is, and what I’m in the mood for.

howard said:

i usually have 2 min per day. 1 as i commute to work and the 2nd with lunch. my preference is for plain roasted coffees although my wife cons me into drinking the flavor of the day type drinks if we go out or she is in the mood to bust some new k-cup variety. i also do prefer the organic grown beans if you want a more detailed answer.

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Article by Mike Crimmins

Mike Crimmins is the highly caffeinated blogger behind Daily Shot Of Coffee. Besides drinking way too much coffee, he's obsessed with the Yankees and getting dirty on his mountain bike.

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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

Melody March 6, 2010 at 12:08 pm

You can open up a can of worms with your blog post on this topic, but I am of the belief that there is more than one way to skin a cat. A coffee can be ethically sourced absent a special ‘fair trade’ label which requires the farmer to pay a licensing fee to Fair Trade Association. Some coffee roasters are moving away from FT to “direct trade” (Intelligentsia, Stumptown), and Starbucks as CAFE Practices and Shared Planet.

The bottom line is that Fair Trade is label, and it relates heavily to the farmer being paid a certain price for his or her beans (and less so about the actual quality of the bean which is one reason why Intelligentsia is behind the movement to Direct Trade).

But it’s just a label. It doesn’t tell you anything about the coffee if you don’t see that label – There is more than one way to produce equitable farmer relations, and it’s foolish to suggest that Fair Trade is the ONLY answer.
Melody´s last blog ..Starbucks Around the Globe: Mexico (Episode #2)

Nate March 6, 2010 at 5:46 pm

Do they matter?
OF COURSE THEY DO!

Fair Trade Certified ensures a certain set of standards, I won’t go into all of the details, but I did cover them all in a recent post. While it is true that simply being certified FairTrade does not ensure quality, that is up to the buyer/roaster/consumer!

It is important to the farmers, their families, and their communities…very much so. I’m not saying any of these programs are perfect, but they do let the consumer easily identify that a brand is promoting sustainable practices. While I agree with Melody that Fair Trade is not the ONLY answer, other roasters and companies have certainly done programs on their own, but their is standardized public accountability with an independent certification rather than a private program initiated solely by the corporation. There are far too many coffee roasters that will purchase one bag of coffee ‘direct’ from an independent farm, and then turn around and make a huge deal about how they employ ‘fairtrade practices’ or they use ‘direct trade’, or other similar wording to greenwash their operation.

The bottom line is that conditions for coffee farmers are horrendous, and we need to do what we can to contribute towards improving these conditions. Fairtrade, RA, Bird Friendly, UTZ, etc are all making a difference where they can. If it were not for these programs, we would be oblivious to the situation. So yes they do ‘matter’. Ultimately, it is up to the consumer to be informed and motivated to make a difference with their purchase.
I don’t look down on people for not purchasing certified coffee, that is not my place. It is my personal decision to make this small contribution towards solving the problem, and bringing awareness to the problem. I buy certified coffees exclusively, because I have seen how desperate the situation is for these communities. Really, what’s an extra $1? To us it’s not much, but to the independent farmers, it is a day’s work.
Nate´s last blog ..CoffeeNate 31 :: What is a Coffee Snob?

Geri March 7, 2010 at 12:07 am

Nate,
What I enjoy so much about this site is learning and your comment opened my eyes.
Most of the time my coffee selections are based mainly on taste and price. I have not gone into the history of where it comes from and who produces it etc. Thank you for your knowledge and sharing it with all who need more information before making decisions like this that affect many people.

Nate March 7, 2010 at 4:24 am: Thanks Geri, your comment humbles me. Until a year or so ago, I had no clue about where my daily cup of (at that time not so tasty either) coffee originated from. I saw this one farmer who was living in a lean-to just wanted to own a used bicycle someday…that was his dream! Wow, that really got me questioning my purchasing decisions. All this guy wants is an old bike, and I am so blessed with many more material items than he, why can’t I contribute to the solution? I could go on and on about this topic because it does go so far beyond basic certification, but I am glad that you caught how important it should be in our purchasing decisions. Take care
Nate´s last blog ..CoffeeNate 31 :: What is a Coffee Snob?

Reply

Karen @ Blazing Minds March 7, 2010 at 7:40 am

As long as the coffee tastes nice, then I don’t really care to be honest, but I suppose I’m upsetting someone, somewhere, which that comment
Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..Blazing Minds Blogger Earnings for February 2010

Nate March 7, 2010 at 11:58 am: Karen, you will upset someone with anything you say. I think it’s a law or something You aren’t upsetting me, that’s your decision to make! I’m sure I am oblivious to, or unknowingly contributing to, other injustices in other areas the same as many coffee drinkers do. It’s not our fault that these conditions exist, but I like to take what action I can reasonably do when I am made aware of issues that strike a chord with me. Yummy coffee is always a prerequisite to any purchasing decision though!!
Nate´s last blog ..CoffeeNate 31 :: What is a Coffee Snob?

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John Gaberino March 8, 2010 at 5:08 pm

Did you know that a coffee farm that hires an employee that is not a family member can no longer be fairtrade certified; even if they pay them exceptionally well? In other Fair Trade industries like cocoa and bananas, a business can have employees that they treat and pay well and still be certified. However for some reason Trans Fair only allows farmers that do not higher people outside there family which just restricts a farm from growing and forces them into making the decision to stay very small or keep growing and loose the certification. This is one of the reasons I think Rainforest Alliance came about and is a much better solution toward a more sustainable future. It is not that the goal to help small family farms isn’t an honorable and necessary goal that bothers me, but rather the misleading marketing that it is a solution for the whole industry that bothers me.

Nate March 8, 2010 at 9:34 pm

Hi John! I’ve never heard of this! Do you have some supporting evidence? Everything that I have researched never touched on this. The only stipulation was that the farm, or farmers, must form a cooperative, in fact I’ve seen case studies that were focused on how a community of coffee farmers formed a cooperative, not just one family. I’ve never read anything that suggested that only family members could be certified FairTrade by Transfair. Hmmm….nevertheless, you are correct about one thing and that is that FairTrade certification (or any other certification for that fact) is not the answer for the entire industry, but it is a start. I wish all of these groups could come together and create a single, unified certification label. It would be so much easier for consumers to know what it all means!
Nate´s last blog ..CoffeeNate 31 :: What is a Coffee Snob?

John Gaberino March 8, 2010 at 10:53 pm

If you look at the transfair website, the link is below, for tea, bananas, and fresh fruit there are documents for small producers and hired help however for coffee there is only a document for small producers.

http://www.transfairusa.org/content/certification/producer_certification_guide.php

The coffee guide to producer certification for coffee says, “The Standards laid out in this document apply to small farmers’ organisations
ONLY. For Standards related to hired labour situations please see the respective
document”. It says that a farm has to be part of a cooperative to be certified. I asked a representative of Transfair at the SCAA in Long Beach in 2007 this exact question and she said that it was correct that a small to medium farm that had employees could not be certified unless they were part of a coop and even then it can be difficult as 50% of the coop has to be a “small farm”, ie no non-family employees. I have alot of friends in my town that have recently started small organic farms. I know it would be difficult for them to make a profit and grow if they had to work under those restrictions. The lady from Transfair said that there is a movement to change the rules but that things change slowly in the organization. I imagine there is a YouTube video out there somewhere of the panel discussion.

Nate March 10, 2010 at 1:52 pm: Great stuff John! Thanks for the source. I asked TransFair why they did this and they gave me this link http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2008/F/Fairtrade_and_Coffee_Plantations.pdf. It explains some of their reasons. Take care.
Nate´s last blog ..CoffeeNate 31 :: What is a Coffee Snob?

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danesi March 14, 2010 at 10:14 am

To be honest i never look at the Labels a coffe has, most of the coffees that i’m buying are not fair trade either, should that affect my habits? should i just quit drinking my favourite coffees for that reason?
danesi´s last blog ..Danesi marketing materials

Jean at The Delightful Repast June 12, 2010 at 2:26 pm

Like Nate, I buy only fair trade coffees but don’t look down on others who do not. I’m sure we all do what we can about various problems in the world. And, of course, besides being fair trade and organic, I want my coffee to taste really good! Especially since I prefer it black, I like a really smooth brew.

Lisa August 14, 2010 at 10:48 am

I am more interested in taste and the freshness, as well as if the coffee is what it says it is, such as 100 per cent Hawaiian Kona. I am also getting more skeptical about labels such as fair trade, bird friendly, organic. I do not think people know what these terms really know what they mean anymore, on the seller side and the buyer side too.