Fair Trade and the local food movement

In recent years, people in the United States have become increasingly aware of the source of their food: where and how it is grown, and how that affects the planet. Organic production led the way, yet more recently the local food movement has moved to the forefront. While it would seem as though the local food movement and the Fair Trade movement would be at odds, they actually complement each other extremely well. For consumers in the United States, their best option for the planet is to buy locally. But there are many products and foods that people use on a daily basis that can’t be grown locally, due to differing climates. Buying local lettuce and apples is ideal, but what about coffee, tea, chocolate or mangoes? Fair Trade fills that void. Fair Trade certification ensures that environmentally, economically and socially sustainable practices were upheld. The concepts behind eating locally can also benefit impoverished farmers in the developing world. Growing and eating locally can help farmers in the global south guard against the growing food scarcity crisis and rising world food prices. For many, Fair Trade can create the freedom make that happen.

This past Friday, December 3, Ghana celebrated Farmer’s Day. In a small country where much of the population lives in rural areas, the definition of farmer is versatile and the role vital. An estimated 2.74 million families grow food or keep livestock throughout the country. The theme of this year’s day of recognition is “Grow more food,” a call for increased sustainable farming practices in the face of global food insecurity. As environmental and economic factors force a shift in the status quo, Christian D. B. Mensah of Agro Eco Consultancy in Ghana advises that “Ghana must grow more food, while using less land and water and reducing emission of greenhouse gases, to respond to the challenge of climate change and growing world populations.” Knowing that resources are becoming scarcer, self-sufficiency is a necessary precursor to development.

This call for sustainable agriculture could have come from any developing country in the global south. Global agricultural markets, as well as energy markets, are highly connected, and one decision ripples quickly around the planet. The current food price crisis can be traced back to the Bush administration’s decision in 2006 to heavily subsidize corn ethanol as a partial replacement for gasoline. As local food guru Michael Pollan put it in a 2008 Newsweek article, it “created a situation where American SUVs are competing with African eaters for grain.” As fossil fuel prices have risen, so to have grain prices. Modern agro-business is heavily dependent on oil for all aspects of production and transportation. The only way for people in the developing world to take oil out of the equation and to mitigate the influence of energy policy on grain prices is to grow and eat locally.

However, conditions under which small-scale farmers can grow subsistence crops have traditionally been scarce. Farmers in the global south, be they banana farmers in Ecuador or cocoa growers in Ghana, are up against an unfair market. They must put all their time and energy into growing their one cash crop, which then gets sold at a low price to exploitative middlemen or an international corporation. This is where Fair Trade comes in. The market linkages that Fair Trade creates, as well as floor prices that guard against fluctuating markets, allows farmers the freedom to have more time to work on growing subsistence crops. Fair Trade family farms and cooperatives are better able to create crop diversity and food security, and growing their own food locally means less of a carbon footprint.

Mensah points to certifications as a potential solution for Ghanaian farmers. “These labels give the customers the guarantee that the cocoa beans which are used to make their chocolate are sustainably sourced and that in the origin countries like Ghana, biodiversity is conserved and sustainable livelihoods are ensured. We cannot run away from the power of the market to change behavior.” In a world that is highly interconnected, daily decisions on a local level can have a major impact globally.