Fair Trade News

Published October 25, 2005

Celebrity's firm committed to fair trade certification

By Janet Forgrieve, Rocky Mountain News

Wild Oats customers might not taste the difference between the coffee Nell Newman pours today and any other organic blend.
But the fair trade label on the bag makes all the difference to growers in far-flung countries, say Newman and others active in fair trade certification.

"For us, the only way we were going to do coffee was organic and fair trade," said Newman, president of Newman's Own Organic.

Newman's company started as a division of Newman's Own, the food company her father, actor Paul Newman, uses as a vehicle to support charitable causes.

Eventually, the organic subsidiary spun out on its own, expanding on its line of organic pretzels and cookies to include branded fair trade coffee from Green Mountain. She'll visit Denver today as part of National Fair Trade Month.

Recent consumer surveys say that about 20 percent of the U.S. population understands what fair trade certification means, said Paul Rice, founder and CEO of TransFair USA.

Fair trade basically means that the farmers and farm workers who grew the coffee, tea, cocoa or fruit were paid a fair and above-market price.

TransFair works with Germany-based Fair Labor Organizations, which sets the standards for fair trade certification. Rice's organization is the only one that certifies fair trade products sold in the United States.

Wild Oats CEO Perry Odak has also been active in promoting fair trade certification for a long time.

Born and raised on a family dairy farm in upstate New York, Odak grew up with ambitions to be a farmer until he went away to college and ended up a businessman instead, he said.

Now he observes as fair trade programs give kids in developing countries a similar choice, by increasing the funds available for education and scholarships, as well as for home and workplace improvements.

"(It's how) we use our purchasing dollars to influence events around the world," Odak said. "It's a win for the farmers. Consumers can feel proud they're not buying products on somebody else's back - they're using their dollars to affect the lives of people in Third World countries and allow them to get a living wage."

Last year, U.S. consumers bought about $350 million worth of fair trade certified coffee, Rice said.

Fair trade began with coffee producers, and java still makes up the bulk of fair trade products, he said, though a host of other items including tea, cocoa, bananas and some other fruits have been added more recently.

Odak and Rice recently toured a fair trade certified banana farm in Colombia. The certification provides that the farm's 40 or so workers earn living wages, benefits and the right to organize, Rice said.

On this particular farm, one wall-size board detailed the fruits of their labors, including the amount of fair-trade premium the bananas brought, he said.

A second board spelled out projects the workers voted to spend the funds on, including helping neighbors who had lost their homes to flooding and $700 to buy a water fountain for the plant.

The boards show the extent of empowerment that fair trade programs can bring to both farmers and farm workers, he said.

And consumers are becoming more aware of that as time goes on, he added.

"Consumers are willing to pay 10 percent more - it's almost like voting with their dollars for a better world," Rice said. "Most people don't have time to write a letter, or even vote - but they all have time for a cup of coffee. If they can make a difference with a cup of coffee, they will."

forgrievej@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5191