Not so fair trade

The Guardian published an article on 12 December 2009 arguing that Fairtrade is a bit more problematic and a bit less win-win than its advocates suggest. It says that Fairtrade does not actually benefit the world's poorest farmers and is based on an anti-mechanisation, anti-large scale view of development, and that very little of the profit from the end product actually makes its way back to the farmers.

You can read the Guardian article here.

A report published in 2008 by the Adam Smith Institute argues that fair trade does more harm than good. Read it here.

See a rebuttal of the Adam Smith Institute's claims by the FairTrade Foundation here.

The Food Ethics Council also has some interesting material on the subject. You can read it here.

Alastair Smith (University of Cardiff) has worked for some time on the exploration of fair trade issues. His work deconstructs some of the main arguments that the Adam Smith Institute and others have levelled against fairtrade. See the following:

• Smith, Alastair M. (2009), Fair Trade Diversification and Structural Change: Towards a broader framework of analysis, Oxford Journal of Development Studies, 37:4. See here.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2009), Evaluating the Criticisms of Fair Trade: How strong is the argument that consumers and businesses should abandon Fair Trade as a means to socialise their economic decisions?, Economic Affairs, 19:4. See here.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2008), A Response to the Adam Smith Report and A New Way to Think About Measuring the Content of the Fair Trade Cup, Comment and Analysis Paper BRASS.