Allentown, Pa. – When rock star and global poverty activist Bono released a line of clothing in the spring of 2005, it might have been easy to believe the $80 cotton T-shirts and $175 denim jeans were made with Fair Trade Certified cotton.
After all, we’re talking about Bono here, the guy who campaigns against AIDS in Africa and the crippling debt of Third World countries.
But, as it turns out, Bono’s Edun clothing line wasn’t Fair Trade Certified.
Fair Trade Certified essentially means that the raw- material producers are paid a fair wage and workers are treated fairly as they manufacture the garment. Bono made no such claims, although Bono, his partner, Ali Hewson, and New York clothing designer Rogan Gregory said the clothing was manufactured “according to fair trade principles.”
Confused? You’re not alone. Edun clothing, which was discontinued last year after poor sales, highlights a blurring between what is considered Fair Trade Certified products, and a larger, more complex commercial environment where companies and consumers support fair trade ideals but have not, for a number of reasons, taken the steps to become certified.
A nonprofit organization, TransFair USA, one of 19 national certifying groups that operate under the umbrella of the international Fair Trade network, grants Fair Trade status to products sold in the United States. Under Fair Trade rules, only products that are 100 percent Fair Trade Certified can carry the label.
In reality, Edun could have never received a Fair Trade Certification for its clothing sold in the United States because TransFair USA only certifies agricultural products, including coffee, tea and a few tropical fruits.
Clothing receives the official Fair Trade label in countries other than the United States.
“Fair trade is a very macro term,” says Nichole Chettero, a spokeswoman for TransFair USA, based in Berkeley, Calif. “Fair trade can encompass many things that a Fair Trade Certified product can have. But the product isn’t certified. It’s like going to your local farmers market and buying from a local farmer who you know grows organic produce. But they just haven’t spent the money to get the official certification.”
The official Fair Trade movement in the United States is relatively young. The first certified product, coffee, arrived in the United States in 1998. Tea, rice, cocoa and a select number of tropical fruits followed suit. Last year, TransFair added vanilla and three types of tea to the list.
Other products will be added, but clothing, in particular, presents a more complex monitoring problem, says TransFair’s Chettero.
“For us to put our logo on a product as Fair Trade, we want every level of production to be certified, from the time the cotton is picked until the last stitch is made on the garment,” says Chettero.
“We also have a domestic cotton industry here, which they don’t have in the United Kingdom (where Fair Trade Certified cotton clothing is available). We want to wait until the entire supply chain has been audited and set in place and there is a complete and consistent supply chain.”
Certified products sold in the U.S. carry a small certification mark, or logo, with a figure, half black, half white, holding two contrasting cups. Lettering in the logo, above the figure, reads Fair Trade Certified.
The Canadian version has English script above the figure and the equivalent French phrase below. Most other countries that take part in the Fair Trade program use a slightly different, stylized logo, which looks like a colorful Ms. Pac-man with “Fairtrade” lettering directly below the logo.
In the United States, Fair Trade coffee is by far the largest single imported product. To qualify, farmers have to have less than 5 hectares (about 12.3 acres) of land, be organized into a cooperative recognized by the international Fair Trade Labeling Organization and be paid at least $1.26 per pound of coffee from a buyer.
But coffee also is subject to one of the widest ranges of certified and uncertified possibilities.
Starbucks imports more Fair Trade Certified coffee than any roaster in the U.S, according to TransFair figures. The Seattle-based company imported 18 million pounds of the certified coffee in 2006, or about 6 percent of its total. Most of the Fair Trade Certified coffee goes into the Starbuck’s Cafe Estema brand, but the rest is blended into other Starbucks coffee offerings.
Since only products that are 100 percent Fair Trade Certified can carry the label, Starbucks and other roasters who blend certified coffees with others can’t legally use the logo on those mixed blends.
Starbucks also imports a far greater amount of coffee – some 155 million pounds in 2006 – under its own “independently verified sourcing and purchasing guidelines” for its C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices) program. The C.A.F.E. coffees represent slightly more than half of all the coffees Starbucks bought in 2006, according to Starbucks figures released this month.
The C.A.F.E. coffees also represent a trend among coffee importers and growers called “relationship coffee,” where the grower and roaster form a partnership.
“The idea is to build a direct, strong, fair, long-term relationship with farmers we buy coffee from,” says Peter Giuliano, co-owner and director of the Durham, N.C., roaster, Counter Culture Coffee, which sells Fair Trade Certified and relationship coffee.
“Our relationship model goes way beyond the basics of Fair Trade certification and allows us to have fair, direct, mutually beneficial relationships with farmers. If we were to stop at Fair Trade and say, ‘OK, so it’s fair and that’s enough’ we would miss out on the joy of developing these great relationships and great coffees.” The relationship aspect is one reason Easton, Pa., coffee shop owner Troy Reynard chose to sell Counter Culture coffee at his Cosmic Cup near Lafayette College.
While some of the coffee Reynard sells is Fair Trade Certified, about two-thirds is relationship coffee.
Coffee “is more than just a commodity to them, and they get it about it being a relationship between grower and roaster,” says Reynard. “If the farmer needs a new tractor or a (coffee) sorter, they help out. Also, if I have a chance to buy a really good coffee that doesn’t happen to be Fair Trade, I want the latitude to do that without boxing myself in,” says Reynard, who supports Fair Trade principles.
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) On a recent visit to his shop, several of the coffees being offered from a half dozen stylized airpots carried the Fair Trade certification.
Starbucks wants to buy more Fair Trade Certified coffees, but also supports its relationship coffees, says Mike Lenda, the company’s marketing representative for eastern Pennsylvania. “It may depend on what we’re looking for in a flavor profile. We do have consumers who ask us for Fair Trade Certified coffee, but we also have consumers who ask us how we’re taking care of our farmers and what we’re doing for them beyond the Fair Trade guidelines. A lot of people look for that stamp (certification) but they don’t look at what opportunities are beyond the stamp.” TransFair’s Chettero acknowledges the connections between the two.
“We don’t see Fair Trade Certified coffee as a replacement for relationship coffee. Obviously, there are people in the coffee business who have developed relationships with (growers) and these importers pay really wonderful prices and go above and beyond to make sure labor practices and environmental concerns are addressed. If everyone in the coffee industry followed these, there wouldn’t be a need for Fair Trade.” Still, TransFair sees value in its certification model, which involves independent, third-party verification of prices and labor standards.
Industry-led programs, such as Starbuck’s C.A.F.E., have auditors hired by the company. “We see C.A.F.E. practices and other industry-led sustainability efforts as a response to consumer demand.
We see strength in our model. The third-party verification is very important,” Chettero says.
In the United States, a second labeling effort, called Fair Trade Federation, also comes into play, especially on products that fall outside the limited list of certified agricultural products. The tag means a company – but not the labeled product itself – formally endorses the goals of the Fair Trade movement. To be able to use the federation label, a company makes its ways of doing business – how much it pays for its raw materials, how well it treats its workers – transparent, says TransFair’s Chettero.
The tag, a pair of hands on an eye-shaped oval, appears on some clothing at Clothesline Organics in Bethlehem, Pa., says co-owner Josh Bushey. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of the clothing at the store carries the tag.
“A few people ask for (the Fair Trade Federation) label, but more people are worried about whether the cotton is organic than the manufacturing conditions,” says Bushey. “At the very least, all of our manufacturers are sweat-shop free. And between 30 and 35 percent of our clothing is made here in America, so that sort of trumps any concerns about the manufacturing conditions.” It may be some time before Fair Trade Certified clothing appears in shops such as Clothesline Organics, says TransFair’s Chettero.
— (c) 2007, The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) Visit The Morning Call at Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
—– ARCHIVE PHOTOS on MCT Direct (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Bono, Starbucks AP-NY-02-01-07 0616EST
