After I posted a fairly negative review of the Fair Trade Futures Conference last week, my new friend, Martin, left a comment asking me to describe the conference’s positive elements.  Since I don’t want to be a Debby Downer on the conference, I thought I’d write a brief note on the good things that came out of the conference (for me).

First of all, I think the first positive is that there is no shortage of enthusiasm for fair trade.  Yes, there are varying thoughts and views on where fair trade should go from here, but those are details.  The fact of the matter is that consumers really relate to the fair trade philosophy and considering fair trade’s growth despite the less-than-ideal economic conditions of the last couple years, the negative sentiment I previously discussed is a healthy result of the fact that mainstream companies are interested in getting involved in the movement.  Its a rich man’s problem (as in its a problem that arose because of the movement’s success), and that’s not a bad problem to have.

Second, I was very impressed by Sophi Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate.  Divine is a very successful UK-based fair trade chocolate company, and Ms. Tranchell spoke at a couple of sessions during the weekend.  I really enjoyed how she spoke about the state of fair trade in the UK – The UK fair trade market is much further down the road than it is in the U.S., so we should have all been taking good notes on how we can grow the movement.  Personally, I would love to see continued interaction between U.S. and European fair trade advocates.  I keep in touch with some of my European counterparts in the apparel industry, and I think cross-Atlantic discussions (or mentoring) would help us Americans continue to strengthen the movement.

Finally, I had some great 1 on 1 conversations throughout the conference.  Just about everyone I met was working on an interesting project, and alot of people were genuinely interested in Tompkins Point.  Which was encouraging.  But this made for an interesting dichotomy in the conference – when speaking to individuals or small groups, everyone was wildly supportive of each other.  But then when it came to discussing things as a group, things got real.

So to conclude on the weekend, I would have to say that my experience at the conference was positive overall, but it was worrisome (as I discussed in my previous post).  Since I didn’t expect to encounter the wave of frustration relating to the growth of the fair trade movement, it took me by surprise, which is why I blogged about.  Sorry if that posting made you think that I thought the conference was a bust, which it wasn’t.  PHEW!

Last weekend was a huge weekend in the fair trade world – the Fair Trade Futures Conference.  Now, for those of you who are just dipping your toes into fair trade, this conference may have flown under your radar, so I’ll explain.  It is a once every 5 year (or so) get-together for the leaders of the U.S. fair trade movement.  It is a place where everyone can get together and talk about the issues facing fair trade and the best ways to expand the movement.  All while drinking copious amounts of fair trade certified coffee.  There was no dozing at this pow-wow.

I went into the conference expecting an interesting, dynamic dialogue.  I thought alot of heated debate would take place regarding the standards, principles and future of fair trade.  Unfortunately, I found that I was really turned off by the negative energy at the conference – most of which was focused on demonizing big business.  There was fear that big business would water down the fair trade movement into just another catch phrase used by exploitative corporations to soften their image.  And I felt a general sense that big corporations have no role to play in the U.S. fair trade movement.

Some of the concerns and tensions about big business in fair trade are well warranted.  Big business is in it for the money and they will most likely try to take shortcuts on social programs to increase profits.  But its important to remember that as the fair trade movement gains steam, more people will demand fair trade products.  And as this happens, more corporations will be interested in using fair trade as a marketing tool to differentiate their products.  Yes, big corporations are in it for profits, but they’re in it nonetheless.

With that, corporations should not be seen as the enemy; rather, they should be seen as a desirable partner for fair trade.  For example, Cadbury’s is in the process of transitioning their chocolate to fair trade certified in Europe.  As reported by the BBC, this will triple the amount of fair trade certified chocolate being sourced from Ghana, to 15,000 tons (holy diabetes!).  At the same time, the UK’s most popular chocolate bar will have a fair trade certified mark, which will provide the fair trade movement a tremendous amount of exposure to mainstream consumers.  These are all good things.  And they’d do great things for the fair trade movement in the United States.

What I found most concerning was that the crowd at the conference seemed to be focused on corporations as the villains, instead of thinking about the best way to work with them.  When you strip it all away, we (fans of fair trade) need to get corporations on board to continue to grow the movement, but we need to do so in a way that ensures that the spirit of fair trade can not be manipulated.  In other words, we need to focus our energy on keeping the certifying bodies honest.  We need to make sure that they do not compromise their standards as they are being wooed by the potential of big corporate partnerships.

The negative energy at this conference really should have been focused on increasing transparency and strengthening fair trade standards.  Since fair trade advocates want to impact as many farmers, artisans and factory workers as possible, we need to leverage the scale of big business.  Luckily, we know why corporations are interested in fair trade ($), so with that as a context, we should be focused on how we can most effectively use certification standards to ensure that corporations can not manipulate the movement.  And if we can work with big corporations and encourage them to adopt fair trade practices while ensuring that the spirit of fair trade remains intact, the true potential of the fair trade movement will be realized.