Fairtrade Movement

The global coffee crisis in the early 2000's had a devastating effect on Nicaraguan coffee producers. In response, cooperatives were formed with the purpose of supporting the communities as they survived the crisis and moved toward coffee quality improvement for access to global specialty markets. Usually, humanitarian support agencies work with existing cooperatives, but in this case Catholic Relief Services embarked on a project to support over 300 of the poorest coffee producers in the Matagalpa in their initiation of CECOSEMAC cooperative. This report describes how the process of forming a social enterprise introduced the Seattle University students to CECOSEMAC and revealed inadequacies in the fair trade and organic coffee export model. The innovative solution to this problem is to offer the producers a premium above fair trade and organic price and pay them up front. In addition, the supply chain was simplified and shortened that enabled the business to return another 12 % of the sale price directly to the producers and 27% to an educational fund to support the children. This unique combination of educational focus, fulfilling community needs, and the empowerment of students has created a successful model that has transferrable potential to other educational institutions.

The emergence of Islamic micro financial institution becomes the alternative solution for the micro-entrepreneurs who need working capital assistance. However, the impact of Islamic microfinance institution in reducing poverty level is somewhat still debatable. In Indonesia, Islamic microfinance established through the presence of Baitul Mal wa Tamwil (BMT), the most popular type of Islamic microfinance institutions. BMT providing financing for the micro-entrepreneurs, as their potential clients, that operates their activities mostly at the traditional markets. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of BMT for poverty alleviation in Bandung as the capital city of West Java as the biggest population province in Indonesia, not only based on material level but also on spiritual level. This study is looking at income variables of micro-entrepreneur’s household, as well as the spiritual level indicator of micro-entrepreneur before and after they received financing from BMT. T...

This paper analyzes whether ideology-driven firms doing business based on ethical principles such as those envisioned by fair trade can survive in the market when competition increases. By formally evaluating the development of fair trade over time, we show that such firms cannot continue to exist with full compliance with ethical standards about fairness. We conceptualize fairness as wealth transfers to small local producers in developing countries and apply a Hotelling-model of horizontal competition in fairness. Results show that increasing the scale and scope of fair trade products in the market implies that concessions on fairness are needed to survive intensified competition. Ideology-driven fair trade firms will survive only if they differentiate. In the end, paradoxically, wealth transfers by ideology-driven firms can be upheld only by focusing on other attributes than fairness to attract consumers. Only then can ideology-driven firms maintain ethical standards in a market environment, while alleviating pressure on total wealth transfers to local producers.

In my comment I showed that throughout Smith’s (2009) paper, he had made errors in economic theory, logic and fact, and that had misused evidence. His reply does not address these criticisms but accuses me of misrepresenting the body of literature on agricultural economics, of distorting what he said on four points, and of being wrong in one sentence. It is shown here that this is not so: any misrepresentation and distortion is being done by Smith.

The 'private' and 'public' sector economics found their own strong places to play roles in the mainstream economy. At the end, however, these two systems-the private, popularly called the first sector economy, and the public, called the second sector economy-both individually and jointly have been found seriously inadequate and incapable to ensuring wellbeing of human societies nationally and globally. Responding to such a situation a number of non-conventional approaches like cooperatives and social enterprises, waqaf, foundations, and other non-profit institutions, etc., together called third sector economy, were moved and promoted to ensure social justice and wellbeing of mankind. Initially it emerged as a make-up and defensive strategy of the market-state model to meet the minimum of unmet requirements in the sectors where the market and state have grossly failed. It, thus, played only a subordinate role. As a result, it could not help much to solve the problem of economic inequity, concentration of wealth, and social divides. However it is strongly felt that a broadly based third sector economic model with both not for-profit business like enterprises and for-profit businesses blended with social justice is necessary to play its role as a mainstream model not only for poverty alleviation but also for economic growth to bridge the economic and social divides. Mainstreaming the third sector is the urgent call of the day.

Alastair Smith (2009) claims to refute a few criticisms of Fairtrade. It is shown that his empirical evidence consists of anecdotes with no statistical or other evidential value, and that his economics is wrong. Though Fairtrade is an agricultural marketing system, he appears not to be aware of the literature on agricultural marketing or cooperatives. Accordingly he makes statements not in accord with the accepted theory or evidence. He assumes, for instance backward sloping supply curves and that the prices offered by state marketing boards are not affected by markets. There are ethical trading alternatives which avoid all the criticisms of Fairtrade.

There is good reason to combine education with microcredit for poverty alleviation in the poor communities of the developing world, including in Indonesia. Poverty is dangerous, it deprives people of their right to education, their right to good health, their right to freedom of speech, their right to democracy, their right to financial services and of course their right to knowledge enhancement, which are all crucial to living a better life. We must therefore, provide services beyond, credits for the poor. In this case, education should be included to each and every development agenda for the poor since it is key to any positive change and sustainable development of people. If well planned and well integrated within the microcredit services, education can serve a good purpose in poverty alleviation. This paper describes how education and microfinance have been used in combination to alleviate poverty in Indonesia, especially in the areas studied. The study uses a multi-cases approa...

Schools in the UK teach pupils about Fairtrade as part of Religious Education, Personal and Social Education, Citizenship, Geography etc. There are also Fairtrade Schools, where the whole school, including staff and parents, is committed to promoting the brand. It is argued here that promoting this commercial brand to schoolchildren and using the schoolchildren to press adults to buy a product amounts to indoctrination using criteria of intent, methods of teaching, and the subject matter. This conflicts with educational goals. It is also shown to be akin to the criminal offence of Unfair Trading: the methods used in teaching used would be unacceptable in normal commercial marketing. A completely separate criticism, based on a wide range of research evidence, is that the schools mislead by giving false information and by suppression of relevant information, again akin to the criminal offence of Unfair Trading. The question of who has the responsibility for preventing such actions is considered. Fairtrade; fair trade; ethics; education; values; Unfair Trading people in the Third World. There are a lot of schools (1000 (Fairtrade Foundation, 2013) to 4000 (Fairtrade Foundation, 2012?)) which are registered as Fairtrade Schools, meaning that the whole school is committed to supporting and promoting the Fairtrade brand. Not only is the brand given the monopoly on supply of school uniforms and products like coffee and chocolate within the school, but the children are organized into putting pressure on their parents and the wider public to buy Fairtrade. Children are also organized into groups putting pressure on retailers to stock the brand. The Fairtrade Foundation UK boasts of its success in getting school children to buy Fairtrade products and to put pressure on adults to buy Fairtrade (and also of its success in persuading children that any bananas not bearing its logo are 'unfair') (Fairtrade Foundation, 2013) This raises a range of ethical issues. In this paper an assumption favourable to the promotion of Fairtrade in schools is made: it is assumed that it is right that schools and teachers educate in moral values and that they cover the ethics of alleviating poverty and providing support to developing countries. It is not argued that schools should be neutral, as argued by Snook (1972) for instance. I begin by distinguishing the brand Fairtrade from a range of other brands and systems described as Fairtrade. I ask first, whether it is acceptable to advertise a product (e.g. 'crisps') to children as part of their lessons, second whether it is acceptable to advertise a commercial brand (e.g. 'Smith's Crisps'), third, whether the techniques actually used to market the brand to children in the UK are ethical, and, fourth, whether the techniques conflict with educational objectives. Even if these issues were irrelevant, it would be serious if the information given to children misleads them, either because it is false, or because inconvenient information is suppressed. The teaching of Fairtrade is examined in relation to the 'three traditional accounts of indoctrination, according to which indoctrination is understood in terms of the intention of the teacher, the methods employed by the teacher, or the doctrinal nature of the subject matter' (Siegel, 2009, p. 27), bearing in mind that the teachers may also be subjected to indoctrination. Finally, it is asked who carries the moral responsibility for ensuring that the teaching is ethical. Following this a conclusion is reached on the ethics of teaching Fairtrade to schoolchildren. Fairtrade is a commercial brand, certifying that products bearing the brand have been produced and marketed according to certain political criteria laid down by

Fair trade is an approach to market exchange that emphasizes equity and sustainability above the pursuit of pure profit. Fair trade is typically juxtaposed to free trade, the tenet of neoliberal political economy that advocates for the removal of all protective barriers that may cause restrictions in the flow of goods, services, and capital among countries in the global marketplace. Fair trade programs generally work by setting up direct relationships between small producers in lesser-developed areas, typically in the Global South, and consumers in developedmarkets, typically in the Global North. Fair trade proposes to enhance the well-being of the less fortunate of the world while eliminating the corruption, exploitation, and aid dependency associated with conventional forms of development. Fair trade is a complement to ethical consumption, a form of consumer activism whereby purchasing decisions are made based on moral or other principled considerations in addition to conventional economic criteria of rational calculation and marginal utility.

This volume provides a range of perspectives on the significance and operation of the G20 (Group of Twenty). The G20 was convened in 2008 as a summit of world leaders from economically significant states in response to the 2008 global financial crisis and followed on from the preceding G8 (Group of Eight). The G20 is an informal grouping which has a delimited membership of economically significant states, which focuses on policy issues relating to global economics and finance. From its inception, the G20 has been beset by questions about its legitimacy and authority given that it is a self-selected forum of wealthy states that excludes less developed states and sits outside the existing forms of multilateral global governance. The influence of the G20 has also been unclear. While it helped coordinate a significant immediate response to the 2008 global financial crisis, its influence has waned as the effects of the immediate crisis have lessened, and poor global economic growth has become the 'new mediocre' which governments are attempting to grapple with (Luckhurst 2016: 161). As such, the yearly summits have varied in respect to developing noteworthy outcomes or effective policy deliberations. Nevertheless, despite this varying influence and profile, the G20 provides a rare opportunity for world leaders and policy makers to meet, discuss and coordinate responses to global issues that have not been resolved in other forums or International Organizations (IOs)/ Intergovernmental Organizations. It thus performs a potentially important role in global governance. In light of these issues and concerns, the future of the G20 is uncertain and requires further analysis. This volume considers the current and future significance of the G20 by engaging various accounts of International Relations (IR) theory to examine the political impact of this particular form of global governance. Rather than focusing upon the narrow accounts of the G20 derived from international policy observers or the discipline of economics, IR theory represents a broader range of political positions, which analyze the various factors that influence world politics. As such, IR theory is a body of thought which examines how the

Islamic microfinance is the integration of the two forces that are growing rapidly, namely Islamic finance and microfinance. Therefore, not only has the dual mission as conventional microfinance (financial and social intermediation), Islamic microfinance also has a spiritual mission (spiritual intermediation) as a manifestation of Islamic principles which is based and a real differentiator compared to MFIs. This study is the first empirical study to explore and establish the concept of spiritual intermediation of Islamic microfinance (IMFI) towards the concept of triple mission of MFI (i.e. financial, social and spiritual intermediation). The study used a qualitative approach with qualitative interviews and focus group discussions to 32 administrators, managers and field staff of 12 Baitul Maal wattamwil (BMT) in the city of Jambi and Kendari. The result shows that there is a spiritual intermediary conducted by BMT in the form of spiritual practice, spiritual education and spiritual...

1 Common law and public domain approaches to water governance – an Australian perspective 21 Douglas Fisher 2 A comparison of constitutional provisions on water-related rights in Southern African states 68 Ed Couzens and Meda Couzens 3 Private and public ownership of water areas – structures and implications of the Finnish model 98 Pekka Vihervuori 4 Human right to water: Argentine cases, human rights – are they enforceable? 118 Maria Onestini 5 Struggle for water rights between the natives and the European settlers: a case study of Njoro Kubwa Springs (1947–56) 131 Ezekiel Nyangeri Nyanchaga

Schools in the UK teach pupils about Fairtrade as part of Religious Education, Personal and Social Education, Citizenship, Geography etc. There are also Fairtrade Schools, where the whole school, including staff and parents, is committed to promoting the brand. It is argued here that promoting this commercial brand to schoolchildren and using the schoolchildren to press adults to buy a product amounts to indoctrination using criteria of intent, methods of teaching, and the subject matter. This conflicts with educational goals. It is also shown to be akin to the criminal offence of Unfair Trading: the methods used in teaching used would be unacceptable in normal commercial marketing. A completely separate criticism, based on a wide range of research evidence, is that the schools mislead by giving false information and by suppression of relevant information, again akin to the criminal offence of Unfair Trading. The question of who has the responsibility for preventing such actions is ...

History will point to 2018 as the tipping point for all things gender. The evidence is everywhere, from more women running for political office to girls being saved from sex trafficking rings. The focus on gender surpasses typical academic discussions about political, social, and cultural effects. Gender has gone "mainstream" in 2018. This handbook could not come at a better time. What brought about this gigantic shift in consciousness related to gender? Historians will point to the #MeToo movement, the exposure of sexual harassment, violence, and abuse cases happening at the highest echelons of government, corporate, and social organizations, the incremental movements made in micro-level organizations, such as families, to whittle away at stereotypes that inhibited girls and boys from branching out beyond accepted norms, as just a few of the tremors that precluded this tectonic shift. For those of us who have dedicated our personal and professional lives to advocating for change, the questions are not how and why but what now? But for those who have not considered the extremely complex nature of gender, permit me to provide an illustrative metaphor. Describing the concept of gender is akin to describing a color. I'll use blue as it is my favorite and also, interestingly, has a "history." There are many ways to describe the color blue: spectrum, variation, dark to light, hue, cadence, clarity, sharpness, depth, boldness, etc. Given this vast lexicon, it is clear that there is no universal definition of blue. Blue is in the eye of the beholder; blue represents different things to different people. Blue as a color has an interesting history. It was one of the most recent color words added to the English language and was legitimized as a symbol by the Catholic Church when they officially assigned it to represent Saint Mary. In France and the USA, for example, the color blue represents patriotism. In other cultures, blue represents nature. Blue has been used to describe objects and feelings like "blue moon" or "dress blues" or "feeling blue." Advertisers are aware that blue signals strength to consumers. And parents in many countries use the color blue to reveal

Entrepreneur is a strategic economic change agent for the Indonesian people in reducing poverty. By seeing that most of the Indonesia's population is Muslim, so it is very appropriate to implement an Islamic-based entrepreneurship system. Entrepreneur is a system in accordance with the teachings of Islam because it is highly recommended to seek risky or income. Islamic teachings view that work is worship, so that entrepreneurs besides can lift income per capita, also can reduce poverty. In this library research emphasize the importance of entrepreneur applied in Islam because in view of Islam is aspect of life which is grouped into human relations in social interactions according to the source of life problem which closely related to relation between human with God which will be accounted later in achiral. Business in the Qur'an is a human trade with God associated with spending his rescue to someone who cannot afford. Successful behavior in Islam cannot simply come; there are many values that need to be interpreted by Muslims as an entrepreneur. One of them, orientation which is a conception of a good self or someone else who becomes a habit as a way of life (way of life).Analysis of the success of an Islamic entrepreneur is to consider the variables of success and failure with internal and external factors based on Islamic teachings.

Maintaining the sustainability of microfinance institutions such as BMT is a must because this financial institution is badly needed by the community who do not want to be involved with usury practices. Efforts to build sustainability with a variety of approaches, especially from a more Islamic management approach are needed. This study aims to build a model of sustainability in BMT based on growth in the financing, community support, fraud, Islamic human capital, and Islamic leadership. This research was conducted using a quantitative approach (multiple linear regression with stepwise methods) to get the best model by developing moderating variables. The number of samples used was 105 respondents collected from BMT spread across the Semarang and Pekalongan Residency, Central Java, Indonesia. Based on the results of the study, to build BMT sustainability requires financing growth, support from the community, and good Islamic human capital. An interesting finding is that fraud does n...

The research aim is study entrepreneurial behavior based on Islamic taught. Islam encourage learning and networking. The first taught of Alqur'an is "Iqra!" means read or learn! Entrepreneurs need to equip themselves with entrepreneurial knowledge and experience so called entrepreneurial literacy. Knowledge here including financial, innovation and development of process. Moslem also taught to widespread networking in order to gather "rizq" and prolong the life. This study is preliminary research which has high content on validity and reliability test. However, we try to find the relationship between religion, knowledge and networking and their effect to performance. Samples are Moslem entrepreneur from several region of East Java including Madura, Malang, Probolinggo, Banyuwangi, Blitar, Ponorogo and Gerbangkertasusila. By using partial least squared, we found that religion has direct and indirect effect on performance through knowledge and network.

Consumers are often implicated in upholding unjust economic practices that arise when they purchase commodities produced in ethically unacceptable ways. Consumers are, however, ignorant about the production of many of the commodities they buy, and so they often unwittingly consume such products. This essay asks whether consumers are culpable for their ignorance about the commodities they purchase.

There is good reason to combine education with microcredit for poverty alleviation in the poor communities of the developing world, including in Indonesia. Poverty is dangerous, it deprives people of their right to education, their right to good health, their right to freedom of speech, their right to democracy, their right to financial services and of course their right to knowledge enhancement, which are all crucial to living a better life. We must therefore, provide services beyond, credits for the poor. In this case, education should be included to each and every development agenda for the poor since it is key to any positive change and sustainable development of people. If well planned and well integrated within the microcredit services, education can serve a good purpose in poverty alleviation. This paper describes how education and microfinance have been used in combination to alleviate poverty in Indonesia, especially in the areas studied. The study uses a multi-cases approa...

Denounced by evangelical Christians, the Frankfurt School of neo-Marxists, new age cultists, and conservative and liberal moralists alike, consumerism has had a strange history as a subject of scholarship. Economics as a discipline has always assumed that demand played a central role in determining prosperity or poverty. Yet, only in the last thirty years has consumption, the purchase and use of goods and services by individuals, become a subject of systematic inquiry by historians and social scientists. Frank Trentmann, professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, is the world's foremost scholar on the history of what we buy. The "Cultures of Consumption" research program, which he led at the University of London from 2002 to 2007, generated an impressive set of scholarly studies that have defined the field. 1 His magnum opus, Empire of 1. Frank Trentmann (ed.

Entrepreneur is a stratetegical economic change agent for the Indonesian people in reducing poverty. By seeing that the majority of Indonesia's population is Muslim so it is very appropriate to implement an Islamic-based entrepreneurship system. Entrepreneur is a system in accordance with the teachings of Islam because it is highly recommended to seek riski or income. Islamic teachings view that work is a worship, so that entrepreneurs besides can lift income per capita, also can reduce poverty. In this library research emphasize the importance of entrepreneur applied in Islam because in view of Islam is aspect of life which is grouped into muamalah problem which closely related to relation between human with God which will be accounted later in akhirat. Business in the Qur'an is a human trade with God associated with spending his rescue to someone who can not afford. Successful behavior in Islam can not simply come, there are many values that need to be interpreted by Muslims as an entrepreneur. One of them, the orientation that becomes a good conception of self or others who become habit as way of life (way of life). Analysis of the success of an Islamic entrepreneur is to consider the variables of success and failure with internal and external factors based on Islamic teachings.

There is good reason to combine education with microcredit for poverty alleviation in the poor communities of the developing world, including in Indonesia. Poverty is dangerous, it deprives people of their right to education, their right to good health, their right to freedom of speech, their right to democracy, their right to financial services and of course their right to knowledge enhancement, which are all crucial to living a better life. We must therefore, provide services beyond, credits for the poor. In this case, education should be included to each and every development agenda for the poor since it is key to any positive change and sustainable development of people. If well planned and well integrated within the microcredit services, education can serve a good purpose in poverty alleviation. This paper describes how education and microfinance have been used in combination to alleviate poverty in Indonesia, especially in the areas studied. The study uses a multi-cases approach to examine the purposively selected baitul maal tamwil (BMTs) organisations, which are sharia based semiformal microfinance institutions regarded to be among those few integrating education with their financial services.

Indonesia has a strong presence of microfinance sector with the number of Islamic Microfinance Institutions (IMFIs) estimated to be around 5,000 currently. Microfinance is an effective tool in alleviating poverty in Indonesia due to the limited access to financial services by the poor who accounted for approximately 96 million Indonesians (or 37% of the total population), living on less than USD 1.90 a day. In the absence of collateral and steady income, the poor are considered too risky to be given credit facilities by the formal financial services providers and living in remote areas has also limited their access to formal financial services. This study aims to examine the poverty alleviation efforts from the perspective of the IMFIs in view of their direct involvement in the process and having rich information about financial issues facing the borrowers. The managers also understand about financial inclusion agenda as well as financial guidelines and regulations issued by the rel...

This chapter aims to provide a snapshot of the current fair trade movement by addressing four provocative questions: 1) Fair trade for whom? 2) Fair trade by whom? 3) How may fair trade labeling and certification support these goals (or not)? and 4) What next for fair trade’s approach to capitalism and the state? For new readers, the chapter provides an introduction to fair trade that focuses primarily on the current moment. For readers more familiar with fair trade, it offers an updated summary of key debates in the field, drawing heavily on literature published in the last five years. This chapter also highlights linkages between fair trade and the environment. It describes the ways in which fair trade can support environmental conservation, raises questions about climate justice, and shows how certification programs can pit people against the planet, rather than supporting both. The following section provides basic background information on the fair trade movement.

Policy makers around the world are realizing the importance of providing management training to business owners in order to make them more competitive and profitable. However, hardly any institution of higher education offers management training specifically tailored for the experienced small business owners. The author has many years of experience in designing, developing and offering such training in the United States. The model that was developed in the US was then tested in other countries like Azerbaijan, Turkey, Tajikistan and Syria where the design parameters were validated. This paper proposed a strategic framework for designing such training programs for business owners and offers recommendations for those interested.

This paper analyzes whether ideology-driven firms doing business based on ethical principles such as those envisioned by fair trade can survive in the market when competition increases. By formally evaluating the development of fair trade over time, we show that such firms cannot continue to exist with full compliance with ethical standards about fairness. We conceptualize fairness as wealth transfers to small local producers in developing countries and apply a Hotelling-model of horizontal competition in fairness. Results show that increasing the scale and scope of fair trade products in the market implies that concessions on fairness are needed to survive intensified competition. Ideology-driven fair trade firms will survive only if they differentiate. In the end, paradoxically, wealth transfers by ideology-driven firms can be upheld only by focusing on other attributes than fairness to attract consumers. Only then can ideology-driven firms maintain ethical standards in a market environment, while alleviating pressure on total wealth transfers to local producers.

The emergence of Islamic micro financial institution becomes the alternative solution for the micro-entrepreneurs who need working capital assistance. However, the impact of Islamic microfinance institution in reducing poverty level is somewhat still debatable. In Indonesia, Islamic microfinance established through the presence of Baitul Mal wa Tamwil (BMT), the most popular type of Islamic microfinance institutions. BMT providing financing for the micro-entrepreneurs, as their potential clients, that operates their activities mostly at the traditional markets. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of BMT for poverty alleviation in Bandung as the capital city of West Java as the biggest population province in Indonesia, not only based on material level but also on spiritual level. This study is looking at income variables of micro-entrepreneur’s household, as well as the spiritual level indicator of micro-entrepreneur before and after they received financing from BMT. The primary data obtained through in-depth questionnaires in Bandung, Indonesia.

Researchers debate whether today’s Fairtrade mark honors or bastardizes the intentions of Fairtrade pioneers. Their arguments are often based on assertions about Fairtrade governance, the complex system of processes and practices used to make high- level decisions about certifying Fairtrade. However, extant literature on how Fairtrade’s organizational structure and institutional norms have evolved lacks methodological rigor, explanatory accounts, and comprehensive detail. This chapter provides a historical narrative that improves upon these shortcomings. This research is based on data from four sources: literature from Fairtrade labeling organizations; academic publications; personal memoirs of key actors; and over 100 original interviews with a diverse spectrum of key actors. The interviewees provided feedback on the narrative, helping to vet this chapter as the first rigorous historical account of Fairtrade governance.

‘Fair trade’ has emerged over recent decades as a buzzword used by social scientists, socially conscious businesses, international development practitioners, social movement activists and ethically minded consumers. As a concept, fair trade refers to a critique of the historical inequalities inherent in international trade and to a belief that trade can be made more socially just. This notion is increasingly linked to a set of concrete initiatives that challenge global inequalities and create more egalitarian commodity networks, linking marginalized producers in the global South with progressive consumers in the global North. In moving from abstract concept to grounded practice, fair trade works to transform international trade from a vehicle of exploitation to an avenue of empowerment. In the global South, fair trade seeks to enhance wellbeing – by fostering higher prices and wages, stable markets and employment, better work conditions and environmental sustainability – and to bolster individual and collective capacities – by strengthening information exchanges, social service access, opportunities for self-determination and local organizations. In the global North, fair trade seeks to bolster more equitable trade policies, business models and consumption practices by making available a range of goods that are produced under more socially just and environmentally sustainable conditions...

The fair trade movement aims to alleviate poverty and empower producers. This means working alongside farmers and workers as a team. This guest blog from Lewis & Clark College professor and fair trade researcher Elizabeth Bennett discusses why it’s important to include producers, and what you can do to advocate for this best practice.

Voluntary standards-setting organizations are not neutral entities. They are political constructions in which actors’ interests play out and power dynamics shape outcomes. The standards they create are likewise not simple derivatives of scientific evidence or aggregates of professional expertise but instead the products of political negotiation. In private regulatory bodies, as in all political arenas, the good and the awful manage to coexist, and the outcomes are just as subject to manipulation by powerful actors as in any other realm of global politics.

The chapter proceeds as follows. First a background section positions this analysis in relation to relevant fair trade studies. Next the data and methods section describes the collection and synthesis of over 17000 archival documents and more than 100 interviews with Fairtrade leaders and participants. Then an empirical section describes producers’ partici- pation in Fairtrade International governance from 1988 to 2014. It is presented in five time periods: label creation (1988–1995); label prolifer- ation (1992–1997); label unification and development (1997–2005); producers as members (2005–2011); and producers as equal owners (2011–2014).3 The discussion argues that the new structure could be pivotal in shifting Fairtrade outcomes, and it identifies key variables that shape the policy-making process. Some of the policy-making challenges were generated by Fairtrade International’s extended period of excluding producers, while others are broadly experienced, enduring problems in governance. The chapter closes with suggestions for future research and by emphasizing the value of including marginalized voices in private regulatory regimes.

The Dark Side of Chocolate wants to know if your chocolate has a bitter taste. It encourages you to recall " rumors " about child labor and trafficking on cocoa plantations in Africa, and invites you to follow Danish journalist Miki Mistrati on an international—and sometimes under-cover—journey to investigate these allegations. The film is unquestionably successful in piquing interest about the ethics of cocoa production, but ultimately fails to provide the basic information about trafficking, child labor, and ethical sourcing that its intended lay audience is likely to require. A more comprehensive documentary would examine migrant smuggling as a social problem, discuss relevant international laws and organizations, and outline civil society initiatives for ethical sourcing of cocoa. The film should be considered an important element of a more comprehensive toolkit for educating ethical chocolate lovers. We travel with Mistrati and his crew to Mali and the Ivory Coast, the sending and receiving countries of trafficked children, respectively. There, he follows the smuggling route from native village, to border crossing, to cocoa plantation. The coverage is satisfyingly comprehensive, and the images captivating. We meet children at various stages of trafficking, interview mothers of missing children, interrogate conspirators, and follow the busses, taxis, and traffickers that make it all possible. Mistrati also brings us to the offices of INTERPOL, the ILO, the Ivoirian president, and chocolate manufacturers, where he questions officials' awareness of and responses to trafficking and child labor. In the film's final scene, Mistrati screens footage on a large surface outside of Nestlé's headquarters. The message is clear: consumers should be outraged at the unethical sourcing of cocoa, and their activism should target the chocolate industry. The film is successful in avoiding two pitfalls common to documentaries on developing countries. First, it delivers compelling on-the-ground footage without engaging in 'poverty porn.' (For more on exploitative images of poverty, see the " Aid Thoughts " blog.) One exception is a short clip highlighting images of a girl's leg wounds without explanation—Work with dangerous tools? Domestic abuse? Sexual violence? We can only guess. This scene is an outlier, however. The film is otherwise tasteful in using images of Africa and Africans to tell a story and evoke interest in working for change. Second, Mistrati does not reduce actors to simple " heroes, " " villains, " and " victims, " but instead allows them to reflect the complexity he finds on the ground. For example, the General Secretary of the Malian bus drivers' union could have easily been " the hero, " as he has " rescued " children for nearly a decade. However, a moving image of him weeping for the fate of these children is countered by a scene in which he vehemently censures a young girl for

I took an in-depth look into the organisation that is "Fairtrade" and tried
to assess whether it really helps people in the world.
The paper also takes a look at the role of ethical consumption in general
that "Fairtrade" aims to promote. The role of symbolism and brand names underpinning consumption are also addressed.
The exploitation of the coffee industry is also an integral part of the essay.

I. M. Wilson, Wabash College | Choice
“Highly recommended.”

Lisa Shaw, University of Liverpool
“Remaking Brazil is an important addition to the growing bibliography on films of the so-called ‘retomada’ or renaissance of Brazilian cinema that began in the mid-1990s, and is essential reading for students and scholars working in this field. It will also appeal to a general readership with an interest in contemporary cinema of Brazilian culture.”

Lúcia Nagib, University of Leeds
“This book offers the English reader, for the first time, an overarching picture of Brazil’s thriving contemporary film production. Tatiana Signorelli Heise has devised an insightful method to tackle its complexity by focusing on the recurrent trope of brasilidade, that is, the idea of national belonging. The categories she establishes in order to organize her vast material—‘celebratory,’ ‘reformist,’ ‘oppositional,’ and ‘alternative’—are bound to become common currency among film scholars. Bold in its assertions and unafraid of canonical theories, Remaking Brazil is a compelling testament to the resilience of the nation in the transnational era.”

This paper explores the following general question: Why are Fair Trade coffee farmers in Nicaragua burdened by debt? Nearly five years from ''the end " of the coffee crisis, peasant farming households committed to Fair Trade standards continue to struggle with a legacy of indebtedness caused by years of low farm-gate prices and declining productivity between 2000 and 2004. Through ethnographic observation and interviews with peasant farmers in Nicaragua, I explore how farmers experience a simple reproduction squeeze that hinders them from ''bootstrapping " their own economic development. I argue that the effort to raise the Fair Trade minimum price and premium for coffee through Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) in 2008 demonstrated a good first step toward improving farm-gate prices, however, these gains must be understood in the context of long-term indebtedness as well as rising production costs and household consumption costs.

There is good reason to combine education with microcredit for poverty alleviation in the poor communities of the developing world, including in Indonesia. Poverty is dangerous, it deprives people of their right to education, their right to good health, their right to freedom of speech, their right to democracy, their right to financial services and of course their right to knowledge enhancement, which are all crucial to living a better life. We must therefore, provide services beyond, credits for the poor. In this case, education should be included to each and every development agenda for the poor since it is key to any positive change and sustainable development of people. If well planned and well integrated within the microcredit services, education can serve a good purpose in poverty alleviation. This paper describes how education and microfinance have been used in combination to alleviate poverty in Indonesia, especially in the areas studied. The study uses a multi-cases approach to examine the purposively selected baitul maal tamwil (BMTs) organisations, which are sharia based semiformal microfinance institutions regarded to be among those few integrating education with their financial services.

Fairtrade retail sales increased by 12.1% in the UK while organics sales decreased by 12.9% in 2009. This paper examines the lessons that the organics sector might usefully draw from the successful experiences of the Fairtrade movement. Three lessons of exposition and three lessons of engagement are identified. Fairtrade has a common logo across markets, typically there is a narrative, and the provenance of the ingredients is stated. Fairtrade has successfully extended its branding to engage with places and educational and faith communities, and to publicly acknowledge such engagements. There are 500 Fairtrade Towns in the UK, along with 118 Fairtrade universities, a diversity of faith communities including over 6000 Fairtrade churches, and over 4000 UK schools are registered in the Fairtrade Schools Scheme.

There has been a growing intention to adopt entrepreneurship within community development. CD indicates strategies and methods to link poor people within social, political, and economic sources. In this context, microfinance is proved to be an effective tool in freeing people from poverty and has helped to increase their participation in the economic and political process of society. However, as microfinance continues to evolve as a development strategy, more believes that it will only be successful if it is able to strike a balance between the two frameworks--development and finance--that underlie its practice. Social entrepreneurship brings innovative ways to balance the relationship of microfinance and its components with the broader development strategy to reach the poor. However, given the effort of such is debatable; the paper will examine how social entrepreneurship has been adopted specifically in sharia microfinance model.  it is hoped that this paper will contribute toward;  an understanding of how the teaching of Islam through its sharia principle in financial system  become  facilitating factors that promote social entrepreneurship in microfinance field and enriched microfinance model; an advancement of the field through understanding the process of innovation that might be able to be replicated in others context

Legislation to forbid the sale of goods that do not meet minimum standards imposes substantial costs on producers, distributors and consumers, but the main benefit, a reduction in search costs, is unimportant unless the standard affects health or safety.
Benefits also arise when someone other than the consumer bears the cost of inferior goods. In the longer run, production levels and methods may change but economic costs will probably remain above the free market levels. In the short or long run, consumers may benefit by being able to buy better quality goods at the same price, but this is unlikely so the onus is on the legislator to justify imposing compulsory minimum standards.

In my comment I showed that throughout Smith’s (2009) paper, he had made errors in economic theory, logic and fact, and that had misused evidence. His reply does not address these criticisms but accuses me of misrepresenting the body of literature on agricultural economics, of distorting what he said on four points, and of being wrong in one sentence. It is shown here that this is not so: any misrepresentation and distortion is being done by Smith.

Schools in the UK teach pupils about Fairtrade as part of Religious Education,
Personal and Social Education, Citizenship, Geography and so on. There are also
Fairtrade Schools, where the whole school, including staff and parents, is
committed to promoting the brand. It is argued here that promoting this
commercial brand to schoolchildren and using the schoolchildren to press adults
to buy a product amounts to indoctrination using criteria of intent, methods of
teaching and the subject matter. This conflicts with educational goals. It is also
shown to be akin to the criminal offence of Unfair Trading: the methods used in
teaching used would be unacceptable in normal commercial marketing.
A completely separate criticism, based on a wide range of research evidence, is
that the schools mislead by giving false information and by suppression of
relevant information, again akin to the criminal offence of Unfair Trading. The
question of who has the responsibility for preventing such actions is considered.
Keywords: Fairtrade; fair trade; ethics; education; values; Unfair Trading

This article puts forward an argument in favor of small farmer fair trade based on an analysis of the differences between small farmer fair trade and plantation fair trade with examples drawn from the coffee and tea sectors. The article also scrutinizes the Fair Trade USA split from Fairtrade International and the proliferation of Fair Trade labels.

Generous consumers pay £1 billion a year extra for Fairtrade products. Nearly all this extra money is pocketed by firms in the rich countries. Most of what is left is spent on extra operating costs incurred in producing Fairtrade, and some Fairtrade cooperatives make a loss from their Fairtrade membership. Any money left over is spent on social products which may have no economic impact. The farmers do not receive a higher price for Fairtrade and may receive a lower price. Their costs when producing Fairtrade are, however, higher, so their net income is lower. All these established facts contradict the assumptions in the recent paper by Tedeschi and Carlson, so their argument is incorrect. 1 The revised version was published in the Journal of International Development J. Int. Dev. (2013) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)