summary of this fascinating nytimes article:
So, have you guys heard of the labels "organic" or "cruelty free" or "sustainable"? Well guess what, there's a new touchy-feely label in town! These days, all the hip coffee shops in Brooklyn are selling this cool new* product called "fair trade" coffee. Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and McDonalds have recently** picked up on this trend! It's not mainstream yet--after all, Maxwell House doesn't sell it, and there are like 30 people in Middle America who still drink Maxwell House. Besides, it's vaguely European.
So here's how fair trade works: coffee distributors buy coffee beans from farmers at fair prices. Get it? fair trade = fair prices? Clever, right? You might be wondering, who decides what a "fair" price is? Well, we wondered the same thing. Unfortunately, it turns out, no one really knows or cares. We asked a couple people, and they just looked at us funny, so we stopped digging, because, well, it's not like we're hard-hitting news reporters. We work for the style section for crying out loud! Besides, it's not like distributors would lie to you and claim to be more ethical than they are just to jack up prices. So just trust us. After all, we are totally hip, with a finger on the pulse of the "green revolution!" (P.S. We totally stole that phrase from Tom Friedman. He's a middle aged father living in suburban Maryland, but sometimes he shares a page with Maureen Dowd, so you know, he has street cred.)
*in 1998
**in 1999
2 comments:
Oh. My. God. I just taught a class yesterday on fair trade and that article was the one I chose to discuss with my class. I always come to your site to get updated on interesting news, and today (miracle of miracles) I actually had a clue!!
Aside from that, I thought the article was really interesting... I'm not sure that I agree with it being such a trendy thing, but maybe that's because of where I live and what I am use to.
It was a really good class that I had with the kids, too... it was interesting to hear their (European) opinions on the matter.
haha, I'm glad my blog post proved so timely. :) I think "fair trade" is trendy in exactly the same way that Whole Foods is trendy. Namely, it's not. Some people buy fair trade because they really believe in the cause. Most buy it because they have a lot of disposable income and are willing to spend extra to keep up appearances of being socially conscious. And everyone else is too price sensitive to bother.
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