INTERVIEWED by: Karen Snyder
PHOTOGRAPHY provided by: TransFair USA
INTERVIEWED by: Karen Snyder
PHOTOGRAPHY provided by: TransFair USA
Paul Rice is the President & CEO of TransFair USA, the leading Fair Trade certification organization in the U.S. Since launching the Fair Trade Certified label for coffee nine years ago, Paul has helped establish Fair Trade as one of the fastest growing segments of the food industry.
Please describe fair trade and its value to consumers in your own words.
It’s all about fairness and hope. In my mind that extends to not only to farmers and farm workers all over the world, but also for consumers who want to make a difference but don’t know how. Something as simple as a daily cup of fair trade coffee is a powerful act that reaches across the planet and helps other people. To me fair trade is all about hope.
I used to live in Nicaragua. I was there for eleven years and I worked with farmers and saw a lot of poverty and hopeless. People who worked their whole lives, yet were not able to afford to send their kids to high school, or pave their home’s floors or have clean water in their villages. The farmers looked to the government and charity to solve those problems.
INTERVIEWED by: Karen Snyder
PHOTOGRAPHY provided by: TransFair USA
When I started PRODECOOP, which was Nicaragua‘s first fair trade coffee export in 1990, I joined a journey with 3,000 small coffee farmers that turned the whole business model from one of powerlessness and hopelessness, to one that allowed farmers to be self-reliant. Through PRODECOOP, families put food on the table, fixed the community school, and cared for their kids with their own resources–their own money based on the principle of a fair price for their labors. Witnessing this made me a true believer in fair trade.
Which of your strategies brought about deeper awareness of fair trade in North America?
Frankly, I think it was the early recognition that fair trade is a multi-stake model which depends on the involvement and success of all partners in the system. Key partners are consumers, producers and companies. Historically, the trade mentality, as seen in Europe, saw it as a global alliance between rich countries and poor farmers. Industry was a necessary evil of getting products to markets. When I brought the fair trade movement to America, I really rethought that mind-set. My thought was that capitalism and stainability can be combined. So far the fair trade model has shown that profitability and social justice can go hand-in-hand.
At TransFair, we help companies tell their story and reach the 20%-30% of American consumers who consider themselves an “ethical consumer”–that is 40-60 million people in this country who on a regular basis are shopping with their values. This consumer is really transforming capitalism, by encouraging companies to seek a wedding between profits and stainability.
What has been the hardest part of educating the American consumer about fair trade?
Here in the U.S., we really position fair trade products as a quality product first, with the secondary message of “you are helping the poor when you buy.”
In the early days, retailers were open to bringing in fair trade goods, but they made it very clear that the product could not taste like sh-t. The stores could not charge a premium price if the product tasted bad. Farmers had to invest in quality. We took that message back to the farmers, and raised money and invested in training, quality control measures, machinery, and cupping labs. Then we had coffee farmers enter coffee contests around the word, and they starting winning award after award! Now we could go to consumers and say, “Buy this coffee not only because it tastes excellent, but also feel good when you buy it because you are helping farmers get out of poverty.”
INTERVIEWED by: Karen Snyder
PHOTOGRAPHY provided by: TransFair USA
What are your goals or desires to extend fair trade beyond agricultural based products?
It is really interesting to see major brands and retailers doing so well with their current line of fair trade food products that they in turn are coming back to us asking, “What more can you do to extend fair trade?” If you look at the rapid expansion of fair trade products in the U.S., that expansion has been driven by businesses eager to expand fair trade. We have moved from coffee and tea to rice, sugar, honey, wine, and much more. Now we are exploring how to certify toys, apparel, gold, sea food and timber. Certainly the standards for fair trade food will be different then apparel, but the principles of fair trade will be valid and applicable. Namely, environmental stainability, fair price, living wages, and community funds.
One exciting development that we are in the pilot phase of is farm-to-factory apparel. We wanted to go beyond the farmers who raise the cotton, to the factory workers that are creating apparel. So now we have come from certifying single composite products like coffee and tea, to multi-composite products like chocolate and body-care, to factory produced products in the spring of 2010.
What is your number-one concern with the fair trade movement at this time, and what solution do you see?
As fair trade as grown, so too have alternative methods of certification where the standards are lower to make a lower price point. To a consumer that is not aware, when shopping, that shopper may not understand the difference between a fair trade label and another certification. That person may go for the cheaper product not understanding that the means less money going back to the farmer.
Any closing thoughts?
I think we are very close to seeing a fair lifestyle coming about. Fair trade really fits into the current business trends of more sustainable supply chains, greater transparency and greater product traceability.
I really believe that people want to make a difference but are stressed with the tasks of daily life. We all eat and we all shop. By turning our act of eating or shopping into an act of grace and goodwill, we have done something truly remarkable for people everywhere. Every purchasing act is casting a vote. Stand up and be heard with your purchasing dollars! **
TransFair, USA
www.transfairusa.org
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