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217. The FT4All debates: A summary

2011-11-10 Comments Off on 217. The FT4All debates: A summary

On Halloween, I published a post summarizing everything written here on the Fair Trade for All debate and promised to leave this issue alone for a while.  With new information continuing to emerge in this evolving process, it has proven harder than I thought to keep my word.  Yesterday I published three more new posts related to FT4All.  What follows is an updated summary of FT4All content from this blog.

FOR FT4ALL: Paul Rice – FTUSA

AGAINST FT4ALL: Merling Preza – Latin American and Caribbean Network of Small Fair Trade Producers

  • Merling Preza makes the case against FT4All (published 9 November 2011).  Notes from a long and ranging discussion on the FT4All vision with Merling Preza, General Manager of PRODECOOP and President of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Small Fair Trade Producers.

 (Find essential background for the Paul Rice-Merling Preza debate here.)


FOR and AGAINST FT4ALL: The Bill Fishbein debates.

  • For: Competition among certifiers could benefit smallholder farmers (published 24 October 2011).  Bill’s shorter and less passionate, if equally thoughtful, argument suggesting that FT4All may generate some benefits for smallholder farmers by unleashing competition in a marketplace that has only known monopoly.

 

FINDING BALANCE in the DEBATE.

 

INCLUSION – Is there room for unorganized smallholder farmers in the U.S. market for Fair Trade coffee?

  • Where there is no cooperative (published 13 October 2011).  Reflections on the limitations of the cooperative model and FT4All’s potential to expand opportunities for smallholder farmers in places where there is no cooperative.

 

IMPACT – How will FT4All impact smallholder cooperatives?

  •  Will a rising tide lift all boats?  (published 10 October 2011).  Two visions of what will happen to smallholder coops when FTUSA opens the floodgates to estate coffee.  The answer to the question may depend on how high and how fast the tide rises, and who gets the lifeboats.

 

PROCESS – How will FTUSA manage the process of change?

  • Governance matters (published 21 October 2011).  Reflections on coffee chain governance, an underappreciated aspect of the coffee trade, and its implications for farmers.  With reference to pending decisions that may indicate how FTUSA will govern as we move into the FT4All era.