Organic Fresh Produce and Fair-Trade, are they Middle Class Gimmicks?

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Fair Tradeis an interesting one. When I drive home from the supermarket with a bag of Fair-Tradecoffee beans in amongst the other fresh produce, should I feel all warm insidethat I am doing my bit to help pull the third world out of poverty? Or have Ijust been done by a marketing ploy whose target market is the blissfullyunaware middle class? Or, slightly more worrying, is a significant wedge of thecash that I am lead to believe is heading to those who need it, not actually gettingthere? It seemsthat only a very small number of farmers are able to get fair-trade deals, and forthese lucky few the system seems to be delivering on its promise. However thefair-trade sales represent only a small fraction of the total market. It’sdifficult to choose a view point between, ‘oh well at least we are helping asmall few’ or ‘ok, but what about the rest/majority of them? ‘. If fair-trade saleswere to increase, it may encourage long term production of already overproduced products which would push the price down even further. In recenttimes of economic hardship, fair-trade seems to have emerged as recession proof,but this is most likely because the people who tend to buy those products areless vulnerable to fluctuations in the economy. Those who use savers stamps arenot the people who buy fair-trade coffee. It’s difficult to say whether theranks of the ethical shopper are indeed on the increase or whether that targetmarket has been effectively targeted as part of a successful corporate strategy. It seemsthat the real issue that is stifling the development of third world farmers isthe US and European agricultural subsidies that apply to their farmers. It cannever be a level playing surface for the third world producers of fresh produce whilst these subsidies are in place. In the mean time, wealthy westerners arelead to believe they are making a difference.  PR: wait...  I: wait...  L: wait...  LD: wait...  I: wait...  Rank: wait...  I: wait... wait... wait...  Rank: wait...  Traffic: wait...  Price: wait...  C: wait...

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