A K-12 Education in Fair Trade

Fair Trade gets a lot of buzz these days, along with organic wine and water-saving urinals. It's part of the trend towards a greener, more socially conscious world. And of course, getting your product certified as "Fair Trade" is a great way to secure it a spot on the shelves at Whole Foods.

The idea behind Fair Trade is simple: In order to sport the label on its products, a company needs to apply and prove that it pays a certain amount to its suppliers, regardless of where those suppliers may be. It's meant to ensure that an independent coffee farmer in Panama, for example, isn't getting scammed when he sells his beans to Starbucks.

But how much do we really know about Fair Trade itself -- that is, not the concept, but the organization that receives the applications and allows suppliers to use its label on products?

I was buying some organic coffee at a local roaster in New York one day when I realized there wasn't a single "Fair Trade" label in the room. A little troubled by this, I asked the manager, who explained that in order to receive that designation, a company has to pay Fair Trade a fee, effectively ratcheting up the price of its product. The owner of this store, meanwhile, just chose to be ethical on his own. He paid a fair price for his supply and only bought from people with whom he had a healthy, ethical business relationship. And his coffee is both excellent and much cheaper than any other gourmet coffee in the city. Moreover, I believed that he was an ethical businessman.

For a thorough critique of Fair Trade, check out this essay on the Organic Consumers Association Website.

Critiques aside, though, the Fair Trade initiative -- which began conceptually around 50 years ago, evolving and growing ever since -- has generated $60 million for farmers and suppliers worldwide thus far.

And now, Fair Trade has announced an educational program to teach K-12 students about "Fair Trade and related themes." The Focus on Fair Trade Curriculum is divided into three sections: Chocolate Explorers, for kids in kindergarten through 2nd grade; Banana Bonanza, for kids in 3rd-6th grades; and Coffee Connections, for 7th through 12th graders.

This seems like a great way to teach kids about the global interdependence of our economy, and quite simply, where our food and clothes come from. It's a good early education in what Karl Marx called "alienated labor" -- a phenomenon borne of the Industrial Revolution that's grown more pronounced with each passing decade. And it might just make the next generation socially and economically conscious enough to reverse the tide of our destructive consumer habits and bring about global prosperity.

But what if Fair Trade is just another scam, as the coffee store manager suggested? Would that affect the value of its teachings?

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