CRS is getting involved in a Fair Trade for All pilot project with independent smallholder farmers in Nariño, Colombia. Here’s why.
In yesterday’s post, I suggested that measuring the success of FTUSA’s FT4All coffee innovation pilots could be a complicated affair. The best imaginable scenario, in my mind, is an impact assessment process that is transparent, system-wide, longitudinal and conducted by an independent third party with no skin in the game. Hitting all four of those […]
Fair Trade USA is rolling out Fair Trade for All pilots with coffee estates and independent smallholder farmers all around the world. If these pilots succeed, we expect to see more and more of them. But what does success look like, and how will we measure it? I have had several good discussions of this […]
Got 25 minutes to spare? Listen to this excellent discussion on CBC’s The Current between FTUSA CEO Paul Rice and Fairtrade Canada Communications Director Michael Zelmer on the changes in the Fair Trade system. Haven’t got the time? Here are some of the highlights.
Last September, Fair Trade USA issued two controversial announcements: one about its decision to withdraw from Fairtrade International, the global Fair Trade Certifier formerly known as FLO, and another launching its Fair Trade for All initiative, which rewrites the rules of Fair Trade and opens the U.S. Fair Trade market to coffee estates. In the […]
In this article in the current issue of Roast Magazine, Fair Trade USA CEO Paul Rice again expresses optimism about the future of Fair Trade Certification in the United States. Before you panic, let me say this is not another post about Fair Trade for All. At least, it is mostly not. Mostly, it is […]
Today we sent Fair Trade USA some comments on its proposed Independent Smallholder Standard. The comments include contributions from CRS experts in the areas of Fair Trade, coffee, agriculture, smallholder trade, environmental sustainability and labor rights. They were drafted in a spirit of constructive criticism, and in the hope of improving the Standard and its […]
Our friends from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters have published a tribute to women leaders in Guatemala today on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, including reflections from a recent visit to San Miguel de Pochuta, where CRS and GMCR have teamed up to help women save as part of a community-managed savings and loan […]
Fair Trade USA has released a draft of its Independent Smallholders Standard (ISS) along with a four-page primer, officially opening the period of public review and comment on the way it proposes to bring smallholder farmers not currently organized into cooperatives into the U.S. Fair Trade market for the first time. I will be conferring […]
The Independent Smallholders Standard (ISS) released by Fair Trade USA (FTUSA) is shot through with acronyms — 35 by my count. This periodic table of the acronyms is an essential companion to the Standard. – – – – – Read other posts related to the FTUSA Independent Smallholders Standard.
