Praise for Fair Trade from the Ground Up “Pulls back the curtain on the Fair Trade movement, and offers a compel- ling look at the nuances that make up the Fair Trade effort, integrating individual stories with well-researched analysis that is both astute and fair minded.” —Paul Rice, President & CEO, Fair Trade USA “In Fair Trade from the Ground Up April Linton brings together all the ingredients that have made Fair Trade what it is today. Referencing a good range of the literature available, she explores the world of the farm- ers who grow the crops, how they decide and ultimately spend the extra income Fair Trade delivers, and how they invest in their businesses and communities. She looks at the companies that develop and sell Fair Trade products and the challenge of Fair Trade becoming more mainstream. Through eight interviews she discovers how activists have built the move- ment and the market in their communities, universities, faith groups, or local buying co-ops. “She doesn’t hide from the difficult questions but gives us all enough information and context to understand the choices ahead and sets us the delicious challenge: when, where, and how Fair Trade participants can maintain a transformative agenda while successfully marketing a variety of products. “Everyone who cares about a more just world-trade system, or simply a better deal for the people who work to make the treats that we all enjoy every day, should read this book and help us to make Fair Trade the norm in the USA.” —SoPhi TRanchell, Managing Director, Divine Chocolate Ltd. “Professor Linton does a great service to the fair trade movement by offer- ing a comprehensive review of research related to the practices of Fair Trade certification. In an accessible manner she contextualizes current debates in the fair trade movement, while sharing informative examples of the system’s successes. This book will be a useful resource for students, advocates, and professionals who wish to understand how fair trade has had a positive impact on farmers, businesses, and communities.” —Jackie DecaRlo, author of Fair Trade: A Beginner’s Guide “This book makes some important, fresh contributions to assessing the impacts of Fair Trade for producers and to learning from advocacy efforts. While academics have done lots of case studies about Fair Trade, very few have begun synthesizing the results of the scattered evidence and methodologies the way April Linton does. Similarly, the book’s analysis of a Fair Trade University initiative is new and insightful.” —Jeff GolDman, Executive Director, Fair Trade Resource Network “A great strength of this book is the breadth of the original surveys of everyone from producers to business owners to activists and institutional players. I don’t know of any other work with such a broad assemblage of empirical pieces.” —maTT WaRninG, University of Puget Sound “April Linton is an incredible ally to farmers, workers, and activists around the world. A must-read for anyone looking to make a real difference with their actions and purchases, and a blueprint for building even more success in transforming the way the world does trade.” —Billy linSTeaD GolDSmiTh, National Coordinator, Fair Trade Towns USA University of Washington Press Seattle & london © 2012 by the University of Washington Press 16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro- duced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. University of Washington Press PO Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145, USA www.washington.edu/uwpress Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Linton, April. Fair trade from the ground up : new markets for social justice / April Linton. p. cm. iSBn 978-0-295-99172-6 (pbk.) 1. International trade. 2. Social justice. I. Title. hf1379.L563 2012 382’.3—dc23 2012004003 Printed and bound in the United States of America Designed by Ashley Saleeba and Thomas Eykemans Composed in Garamond, Myriad, Wisdom Script, and Poplar The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1984.∞ In loving memory of Esther Linton Contents Acknowledgments ix IntroductIon 3 Chapter 1 FAIr trAde From the Ground up 14 Chapter 2 FAIr trAde coFFee In GuAtemAlA 37 Chapter 3 how do producers spend the socIAl premIum? 55 Chapter 4 sellInG And BuyInG FAIr trAde 76 Chapter 5 FAIr trAde ActIvIsts In the unIted stAtes 101 Chapter 6 A FAIr trAde unIversIty 120 Chapter 7 GrowInG FAIr trAde 145 notes 165 references 173 contributors 185 Index 187 Acknowledgments his book would not exist without the interest and encourage- T ment of my friend and mentor Margaret Levi. In the wake of the 1999 “Battle in Seattle,” where environmental activists wearing turtle costumes united with hard-hatted unionists, larger-than-life puppets theatrically drew attention to global injustices, Gore-Tex–clad locals came out in droves, and the WTO Ministerial Conference was effectively shut down, Margaret instigated the University of Washington’s WTO History Project.* As her team—in which I assumed a small role—interviewed activ- ists; collected documents, maps, costumes, and ephemera; and collaborated with amazing librarians, some of us began thinking about how to study “global citizenship” as it is embedded in social movements that mobilize the resources of activists in the global North to abet the efforts of activists in the global South. We focused on campaigns that were strong in our locale, notably Fair Trade coffee. The rest is history, a bit of which I recount in this volume’s introduction. I did not research this book alone. I am immensely grateful to Renee Chou, Rebecca Kahn, Kira Luna, Louise Ly, Marie Murphy, Rebecca Jo * WTO History Project (http://depts.washington.edu/wtohist), accessed September 7, 2011. ix