NATIONAL FAIR TRADE STUDY - ROLLING OUT

KUSIKUY'S founder, Tamara Stenn is working with her Keene State College students and FairTradeUSA to conduct the first ever, large scale Fair Trade consumer study in the US.  Contact FairTradeUSA to see how you can participate!  Stay posted for results (this May).  

Fair Trade Consumer Study 2012

Guest Blogger:  Tamara Stenn, Professor at Keene State College

According to the United Nations, the US is the world’s largest consumer by far, spending over $10 billion and making up almost 30% of the world’s consumer market in 2009.  (Second to the US is Japan weighing in at just 8.5% of world consumption).  For Fair Trade consumption, the US is second to the UK, with almost $1.2 billion spent on Fair Trade goods in the US in 2009.  Per capita, the US has been a much less enthusiastic supporter of Fair Trade with people spending less than $2 a year on Fair Trade goods in 2006 (table 2).  This is more than nine times less than the Swiss who spend an average of $19 each on Fair Trade goods and more than half of what our counterparts in the UK are each investing into Fair Trade.

Some of the largest Fair Trade buyers in the world such as Green Mountain Coffee and Starbucks, are in the US.  US Fair Trade is prominently sold in national grocery stores such as Safeway, Sam’s Club, Trader Joes, Whole Foods Market, WalMart, Target, and thousands of specialty stores in our towns and cities.  Fair Trade is visible, available, but not wholeheartedly consumed, yet.
Why? Are the products still too hard to find?  Are the Fair Trade labels not known?  Is there confusion about what Fair Trade is?  Is there a lack of belief, trust, or understanding?  How are people learning about Fair Trade anyway?

Keene State College students and Fair TradeTowns USA are partnering together to conduct the first nation-wide study of Fair Trade consumption in the US.  We will be examining how age, gender, occupation, income, region lived and community size, all come into play when making decisions about Fair Trade.  We will also be examining how those decisions are being made – how people are learning about Fair Trade, what is the media influence, social networking, and what barriers exist to keep consumers from making Fair Trade purchases.

Hundreds of convenience sample surveys (16 questions and 15 minutes long) will be administered by Fair Trade Towns volunteers in towns and cities across the US during February and March 2012.  Keene State College Quantitative Literacy students studying Fair Trade will then analyze the results and share them in a researched report scheduled to be released in time for World Fair Trade Day in May 2012.

This is study is significant in that it provides a baseline measure in which to begin to understand the US Fair Trade consumer, their motivations, and challenges.  This will provide an important starting point for more specific, follow up studies.

This opportunity is a great way to gauge the impact of Fair Trade in your community.  If you are interested in getting started with this survey and administering it in your town, please contact Billy Linstead Goldsmith at wgoldsmith@fairtradeusa.org or Courtney Lang at clang@fairtradeusa.org.

Authoring White Papers

As an acacemic working in Fair Trade, I have been writing academic papers presenting much detail on different aspects of Fair Trade in reation to its effect on the quality of life of women, the degree of justice it brings to producers, the economic valididty of such a model of trade, and the many ways in which it can be interpreted and understood and which way may be is fairer or more just.

This is important work in deepening the understanding and possibilities of Fair Trade, especially in these times of change and reconfiguration within the Fair Trade industry.

I have been touching upon issues such as power, justice, poverty, capabilities, human development, management, feminism, economic development, social justice, indigenous knowledge, intercultural management. 

And writing for academic journals in the fields of Feminist Economics, Management, Business Ethics, Human Development, Economic Development, and Social Economics.

The following are a series of introductions to journal articles which have recently been presented at national and regional Economic Conferences and are currently undergoing peer review for publication in several academic journals.  I welcome comments and feedback.

I will continue to post new articles and papers here as well. 

I am currently preparing for my next round of research in the Andes region to examine the difference in how Fair Trade is experienced by families and whether or not there is a difference if the primary person working in Fair Trade is a man or woman.  I will also be examining the difference that government plays as I compare Fair Trade Andean women in Bolivia to those in Peru - working in the same industry and from the same ethnic group.  The results of this research will be published in future papers and will be a part of an interdisciplinary textbook I am writing on Fair Trade, Justice, and Feminism.

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you find this blog useful and interesting.

Conclusion: Fair Trade Institutions

Fair Trade Institutions

Amartya Sen explains how understanding justice as nyaya, a Sanskrit word which means justice in a larger, holistic sense includes social, environmental, and personal experiences which make up the full essence of justice.  Using a nyaya interpretation of justice to understand Fair Trade as an institution creates a broader understanding of what it can be, rather than a debate on its limitations.  Fair Trade is a transcendental institution in that it creates a form of justice which is utterly new and defies comparison to any former model of justice.   Transparency, training, access to credit, fair wages and safe working conditions are all elements which contribute to Fair Trade’s transcendentalism.  However, the unevenness of Fair Trade’s application, how it varies from country to country, not by fault of the institution, but due to differences within the countries themselves, effects how Fair Trade is experienced by all.  This erodes its ability of Fair Trade to truly be just and highlights the limitations that Fair Trade has as an institution. 

Comparing Fair Trade to free trade limits one’s understanding of justice by reducing it to a niti argument of right vs wrong, good vs bad, and is not a useful tool for understanding Fair Trade.  Fair Trade institutions build capabilities amongst producers through training and organizational development.  This expansion of capabilities, Sen equates with growing opportunities, freedom, and the realization of justice.   Rawls on the other hand was very concerned with inequalities impeding justice.  Fair Trade is wrought with inequality, from fluctuations in consumer engagement, to limitations in Fair Trade access by gender, culture and country restrictions.  Rawls, in his principles of justice, felt justice should be shared by all, yet Fair Trade seemed to mostly provide justice only for its own members. These arguments illuminate the true collaboration that Fair Trade needs in order to fully realize justice – a collaboration which includes all of society; consumer, countries and governments alike.  Justice is a fog which encompasses all, while Fair Trade is like a baby blanket which partly covers the bed, offering justice for some but not for all.

Understanding Fair Trade through Amartya Sen and John Rawls’ definitions of justice, allows for a deeper consideration of justice to arise.  It is beneficial in that new language and ways in which to think about Fair Trade are developed.  This creates new possibilities for the understanding of Fair Trade and discussing it as an institution of justice.  The broadness of Sen’s nyaya in today’s niti (western) world makes it easy for one to grow impatient with, or simply dismiss, such an interpretation.  However the importance of thinking holistically about trade is imperative in order to truly understand it as a way to advance justice.  Further research is needed in this area.  It is possible that these Fair Trade institutions can be a part of a larger way of realizing justice, or that the idea of Fair Trade in itself can be more broadly applied, thus developing into its own complete fog of universal justice.