Fair Trade Magazine - Winter/Spring 2016 Edition

FREE Winter / Spring 2016

fair trade C A N A DA’ S V O I C E F O R S O C I A L S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

Producers rise to the challenge of climate change

The truth about tea Small-scale farmers: Key actors on the global stage

Beautiful and functional, each piece of Lombok pottery is formed, fired and finished by the women of Lombok Pottery Centre, improving their lives and their villages one dish at a time.

Discover the amazing stories behind these and all our products in-store, at a festival sale or online at tenthousandvillages.ca

/VillagesCanada

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Climate Change

Changing weather patterns have destroyed crops across the world. Read about how fair trade supports hard-working farmers as they cope, adapt, and thrive in their struggle against climate change.

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Small Farmers, Big Impacts

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Fairtrade Carbon Credits

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Room for Growth

The next generation of small-scale producers are abandoning family farms for jobs in the city. Fair trade gives them a reason to stay.

Producer-led clean and renewable energy projects help offset the effects of global carbon emissions.

In recent years, many hotels have adopted environmentally friendly policies. Providing sustainably sourced coffee, tea, and linens could be next.

book review 30

The Fair Trade Revolution

on the cover Small Farmers, Big Impacts.......................................11 Climate Change...............................................................15 Bitter Leaves: The truth about tea

Fair trade coffee is available in mainstream grocery stores across Canada. But what about fair trade tea? We look at why choosing fair trade tea is worth the extra effort.

recipe

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Bitter Leaves....................................................................20

inside Publisher’s Letter.............................................................6 What Is Fair Trade...........................................................8 Fair Trade in Canada...................................................26

photo credits

Mocha Hazelnut Dacquoise

Made with Fairtrade-certified chocolate, coffee, sugar, and vanilla, this dessert will make your Valentine's Day a delicious one.

Gudkov Andrey: 3 (middle), 21, 22 (top)

Emilie Maine: 27 (top)

Mark Bliss: 3 (bottom), 28

Anna Nowaczyk: 26 (bottom)

Hung Chung Chih: 22 (bottom)

Neil Palmer (Wikimedia Commons): 15

Mélissa Dubé: 26 (top)

Alain Pereira: 27 (bottom)

Monika Firl: 3 (top), 16, 17

Natasha Pirani: 6

Monique Lauzon: 27 (middle)

Shutterstock: 11, 12, 20, 23-25

David Macharia: 18, 19

Éric St-Pierre: Cover, 8

Cover: A hornbill flies over the Yirgacheffe hills, Ethiopia, where members of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union grow fair trade coffee beneath the forest canopy. Éric St-Pierre's images originally appear in his book, Fair Trade: A human

journey (Goose Lane Editions, 2012).

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Publisher | Sean McHugh Managing Editor | Erik Johnson Proofreader | Bryce Tarling Contributers | Deb Bliss, Monika Firl, Dustin Johnson, Kimberly Leung, Marike de Peña, Will Richter Cover Photo | Éric St-Pierre Original Design | Wade Stewart Issue Layout | Erik Johnson We want to hear from you!

514 – 207 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7 1-604-685-6005 | editor@cftn.ca

Canadian Fair Trade Network Réseau canadien du commerce équitable

The Canadian Fair Trade Network (CFTN) is a non-profit organization that works with civil society and industry stakeholders to advance awareness and support for fair trade in Canada. It supports collaboration and best practices within the fair trade movement to increase Canadian commitments to international social responsibility. cftn.ca Fair Trade Magazine is published by the Canadian Fair Trade Network.

Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without publisher’s written permission. Not responsible for unsolicited editorial material.

The information provided in this magazine is for educational and informational purposes only. Fair Trade Magazine makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it provides but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions.

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We

fair trade.

Five of the ten designated Fair Trade Campuses in Canada have Chartwells as their dining services provider.* Chartwells is proud to continue working with the Canadian Fair Trade Network and our partners to support fair trade initiatives on campuses across Canada.

Together, let’s continue to build momentum. Choose, promote and fair trade on your campus.

*as of December 2015

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publisher’s letter

Why Looking Back Can Inspire Change

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onsider how the barriers of yesterday are no longer the barriers of today. In recent years, we have seen a number of dramatic—even radical—shifts. The world has begun to adopt renewable energy sources. We have cars that drive themselves and don’t spew carbon dioxide. The communication barriers we faced fewer than two decades ago have been trampled by a rush of technology that has interconnected our world. We carry computers in our pockets and we have access to information like never before. The world of not knowing is no more. And that gives us power.

This power allows us to make informed decisions. We can see, learn, and understand the impacts that each choice we make has on the planet and its people. And we can make decisions that ensure that these impacts are positive. We can choose to support better, sustainable business models through the companies we purchase from, and we can choose to not support those companies and products who haven’t made social and environmental sustainability a part of their business.

I believe we are at the edge of a new era, an era of unprecedented cooperation among nations, where people will

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come together to confront poverty, climate change, and other global challenges.

But the road ahead will not be an easy one. There will be advances and there will be setbacks. There will be tendencies to fight against change and there will be times of doubt, fear, and division. But we will persevere.

I maintain this hope because I believe that, despite our many differences, we all seek similar things in life: We all want to belong to productive, respectful communities that include our family, friends, neighbours, and colleagues. We all want opportunities to learn and grow, to challenge and be challenged. We all want to live by our values and principles.

We all want to spend time with people we love. This common ground can bring us together. It can allow us to put aside our differences and address global challenges together.

Change can seem slow, and meaningful change often seems beyond our reach. Yet we all know that there is no backup planet waiting to welcome us once we’ve exhausted this one.

We must, above all else, stay focused on what is possible. And by looking back at our recent accomplishments, we can see how the barriers of the past have ceased to be obstacles. We can see that a better world is possible.

Sean McHugh Publisher, Executive Director Canadian Fair Trade Network

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What Is Fair Trade?

Fair trade is a powerful tool that aims to empower marginalized producers to improve their own living conditions. With the proper resources, capacity, and access to key relationships, disadvantaged producers are able to earn their own means to a better life for themselves and their families.

Protections versus rights Many international development programs are geared toward establishing protections for workers around the world, yet workers wouldn't need these protections if they had proper rights to begin with. Fair trade aims to empower producers and workers by ensuring that they have access to the basic rights they deserve. Fair trade also encourages producers to take control of their own production practices and trading relationships.

Process and verification Because production and trade standards cannot be verified by looking at a final product, certification and labelling systems are used to verify each step of production or processing along a product’s supply chain.

Why is fair trade important?

Because there are an estimated 700 million people still earning less than US$1.90 per day, the current global poverty line established by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

These are often small-scale farmers, the people who grow the majority of the world’s food. They lack basic access to healthcare, education, adequate clothing, and shelter. Many small-scale producers and hired labourers live in nations where minimum wages aren’t enforced. Others face human rights abuses in their workplaces: gender discrimination and inequality, unreasonable working hours, brutally low wages, and child labour.

Goals for fair trade •

Pay a fair price that covers the costs of production for small-scale producers and provides adequate living wages for hired labourers.

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Establish transparent, direct trading relationships between producers, businesses, and consumers, where producers receive greater access to credit, markets, and industry knowledge.

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Pay a premium, in addition to a fair price, that producers can use to grow their businesses and invest in their communities.

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Ensure safe working conditions that respect the environment and human rights, free from child and forced labour, as well as discrimination against culture and gender.

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The global fair trade movement Fair trade goes beyond outdated models of international aid, which see wealthy nations extract resources and profits from poorer countries through exploitive trading practices and then return a fraction of it in some form of aid. Fair trade promotes a more diverse and inclusive business model that seeks fairness from within the production and trading practices themselves. By opening new markets, building long-term and more direct trading relationships, improving access to credit, and delivering technical training and support, fair trade

With fair trade, producers get better access to financing, wider markets, global pricing information, technical support, and long-term direct trading relationships.

empowers producers and their communities to successfully manage their own operations and step out from under the shadows of poverty.

The fair trade movement in Canada

THE ART OF

SHOPPING WITH A PURPOSE

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Committed to 360° Fair Trade

www.pureart.ca

Fair trade is about being aware of global issues. It’s about rethinking our production and consumption systems, and recognizing the role we play in creating a fair and sustainable world. Despite its long history among niche markets, fair trade is relatively new for many mainstream markets, and it is still evolving. The fair trade of today won’t be the fair trade of tomorrow.

It is our responsibility—whether it be as a consumer, business, institution, or certifier—to ensure that our vision of fair trade continually evolves to meet the needs and challenges of producers. We have the power to make choices that support greater accountability and transparency. By supporting the awareness and availability of fair trade products, we encourage a more responsible vision for the future while contributing to the development of sustainable communities.

Every Canadian has the power to change the world, one purchase at a time by choosing to support respectful and transparent businesses.

Leading the way are 21 Fair Trade Towns, 10 Fair Trade Campuses, and 4 Fair Trade Schools,* groups dedicated to building a more fair and sustainable world. They’re doing it on an institutional level, buying fair trade products whenever possible and moving us closer to a fairer world.

*as of December 8, 2015

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The Van Houtte® brand has been a proud partner of Fairtrade Canada since 2000 - since the organization’s inception. For years, Van Houtte® has worked with the firm belief that to offer its consumers a quality product, it must also pay special attention to the work performed in the country of origin. Our relationship with Fairtrade Canada ensures that Fairtrade Certified coffee purchases have made community investments possible for small scale coffee producers, and promote farming practices that protect the environment.

DISCOVER some of our 19 varieties of Fairtrade Certified coffee at your local grocery store.

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growing change

Small Farmers, Big Impacts

BY M A R IK E DE PEÑA

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ive hundred million small farmers feed 70 percent of the world’s population. Often, they grow food in ways that take good care of natural resources and promote biodiversity— using techniques that can enable future generations to continue farming. Small farming also has potential to uphold ethnic diversity and cultural traditions, and ultimately improve living conditions for rural populations in the global south.

But many forms of small farming are not sustainable. Most small farmers struggle to survive on the income they generate through their crops, whose quality and

yields are negatively affected by climate change, shortages of land and water, and limited access to technical and financial resources. Many are unable to feed and take care of themselves and their families. Yet without small farmers, food supply chains would struggle to meet consumer demand.

The average small farmer in Latin America is over 57 years old, and the next generation is not stepping in.

Young people don’t see farming as a way to make a decent living. Instead, they leave their family farms to work in urban centres or on larger industrialized farms.

These jobs often lack formal contracts, adequate wages, and safe working conditions. Without a viable reason to continue working in their communities, young people descend further into poverty while their parents struggle to keep their family farms productive. This is a global trend: In the last 50 years, over 800 million people have moved to cities from rural areas. As this continues, feeding our planet will become an even greater challenge. We need to act quickly to prevent more families from losing their land, their sources of income. We cannot allow them to fall further into CF TN.C A |

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extreme poverty and let wealth concentrate in the hands of a costs of production. Plus, producers receive the Fairtrade few. Consider how serious the consequences will be for both Premium, funds they can use to improve their operations or people and the environment. pay for collective needs.

Small farmers are important actors in local development. Despite its incredible potential, Fairtrade has not changed The money they spend on food, household supplies, agricultural the conventional way of trading commodities. Most consumers equipment, and other necessities fuels rural economies in still choose “cheaper” before “better.” This favours large-scale the global south. In this, small farmers play a key role in the production and vertically integrated multinational businesses. well-being of their local communities. Successful small farms The world we have created offers temporary well-being for reduce poverty, guarantee some, through the exploitation of foo d se c u r it y, prot e c t many. Ultimately, this system natural resources, move local is ruinous to human lives and economies, and invest in our planet. We need to build an Once young people see community needs. It is time economy that serves people and to establish sustainability guarantees global well-being for what’s possible through in trade, not just to satisfy current and future generations. consumer demand, but to This starts with paying a fair Fairtrade, they will put ensure farmers can build price to farmers, which can their energy into building a decent life and escape reduce poverty, secure the poverty. This will encourage production and consumption of their family farms, more young people to work healthy food, and protect natural on their family farms and resources and cultural traditions instead of fleeing them. contribute to the economies for the next generation. of their villages.

We also need to balance This level of change the power in trade and connect requires consumer awareness producers in the global south to and commitment throughout more markets. With improved the supply chain. It requires access, producers can negotiate an equal distribution of better prices a nd bring a benefits among those who greater selection of products produce, those who process, to consumers. With greater and those who trade. We selection, consumers can choose also need to be sure that the best options. When this consumers pay a price they happens, fewer resources stay in can afford. If we embrace the hands of the companies that this simple thinking, based presently control global trade, on the vision that people production, and consumption. should receive an income

Over the last 25 years, that allows them to build Fairtrade has shown that these a decent life through their goals are achievable. Trade has work, small farmers won’t proven to be a powerful tool have to choose between for development, if we work feeding their families and selling for export. They will be able within the market to change the market. More consumers to do both. are aware of the importance of buying ethical products, and Fairtrade makes a huge difference for small farmers. governments understand the importance of regulating trade.

They receive a better income and are able to lift themselves Banana farmers that sell more than 67 percent of their crops out of poverty by working together and investing in their as Fairtrade in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and the Dominican communities. Fairtrade consumers pay a fairer price and Republic move rural economies. These farmers employ local Fairtrade farmers receive an income based on their actual workers, invest in health and education projects in their

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communities, and spend their earnings locally on food and other necessities. Co-operatives of coffee farmers must take on the huge challenges created by the changing climate. But thanks to Fairtrade, these organizations are much stronger. In the face of losses due to coffee rust, farmers claim supply chain support to reinvest in their farms. Cocoa producers in Africa work with the support and guidance of Fairtrade in their local communities to identify risks, protect their children, and eliminate the worst forms of child labour.

Fairtrade empowers farmers by encouraging them to become active members of democratic rights–based organizations, groups whose voices claim justice and equity, groups that are able to negotiate better deals and create stronger positions in the markets.

Despite all the progress achieved by creating consumer awareness and changing the agenda of business, young people are still reluctant to commit to farming. We need to do far more and we need to do it faster. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an opportunity to work with governments, businesses, and like-minded organizations in a common mission to end poverty and hunger, secure quality of life through access to health and education, and promote sustainable production, consumption, and trade practices that encourage economic growth and reduce inequality.

Small farmers will play an active role in planning how to achieve these goals, and young farmers should take the lead, participating in policy development and implementation.

These small farmers, who live in poverty, are the real experts in defining their challenges and identifying solutions.

Fairtrade is a logical tool for achieving the SDGs. Fairtrade encourages and challenges businesses and governments to change the rules of trade so that trade works for producers, consumers, businesses, and the planet. Fairtrade also makes it possible for small farmers to make a decent, sustainable living.

Once young people see what’s possible through Fairtrade, they will put their energy into building their family farms, instead of fleeing them. When this happens, small farmers will move closer to reaching their potential and be able to provide the world with good healthy food for this generation and the generations to come.

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Marike de Peña is director and co-founder of Banelino, a banana cooperative in the Dominican Republic, the chair of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Small Producer Organizations, and the chair of Fairtrade International’s board of directors.

NuTerraCereal.com (Québec only)

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COFFEE CHANGES Photographer: Nathalie Bertrams

FARMERS’ LIVES

Fairtrade Canada certifies to Fairtrade International Standards designed to tackle poverty and empower coffee producers in some of the poorest countries in the world.

With our new Fairtrade Climate Standard, you will be able to purchase Fairtrade Carbon Credits, enabling producers to reduce emissions while strengthening their communities against the effects of climate change. Now Fairtrade can help make coffee communities even stronger and protect them for future generations.

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Climate Change: An unrelenting battle for small-scale farmers

BY MON IK A FIR L

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ver the past 25 years, my work has taken me across the gamut of coffee industry niches, from

Central America, where I spent the better part of a decade working with small-scale farmers to develop organic production techniques, to my home base in Montreal, where I presently manage import, communications, and production-improvement projects for CoopCoffees. These experiences have shaped how I view my morning cup of coffee, and when I partake in that familiar routine, I often think about the farmers I’ve worked with and wonder how they are managing the effects of climate change.

Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, according

to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, have almost doubled in the past 50 years, with more than 10 million tonnes emitted between 2001 and 2011. If left unchecked, these emissions will continue to rise—by as much as 30 percent before 2050—and continue to alter weather patterns and affect the livelihoods of farmers everywhere.

The widespread destruction of leaf rust The effects of extreme weather patterns can be seen in the ongoing leaf-rust crisis that has plagued Latin American coffee farmers and debilitated the productive capacity of millions of coffee plantations, large and small.

For vulnerable, small-scale coffee farmers in

Central America, the 2012–2013 production season was particularly devastating. Enabled by peaks of abnormally high temperatures, a prolonged rainy season, and vulnerable soils and trees, the orange-glow of leafrust fungus spread like wildfire. Once the fungus hit its tipping point, it consumed coffee trees across Central America. The producers who work with us at CoopCoffees reported decreases in yields ranging between 15 to 85 percent of previous production levels depending on the local conditions.

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Leaf rust, or “roya” as it’s known in Spanish, attacks a coffee plant’s leaves, limiting photosynthesis. This hinders the growth of in-season coffee cherries, and potentially causes next season’s flowers to drop. Depending upon the intensity of the infestation, roya can kill a branch or an entire tree, affecting the current harvest, and harvest yields for many years to come.

According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO), leaf rust caused losses in excess of 2.7 million 60-kilogram sacks of coffee, approximately US$500 million in farmers’ income, during the 2013 season alone.

Now—two full production cycles later, and following a myriad of high-level summits and industry retreats, new resilience proposals and supplier strategies, extensive laboratory research into rust-resistant varietals, and ongoing recovery and field renovation lending programs—the total global spending on leaf-rust recovery is truly incalculable.

I see the roya crisis as merely a sign of things to come.

If we are not able to curb the rate of climate change and simultaneously enhance producer resilience to extreme weather variations, we should expect these kinds of production catastrophes on a more regular basis.

A snapshot of sustainable coffee production

Fluctuations in weather can distort the growth and ripening of coffee cherries, bringing disease that can harm existing cherries, next season's flowers, branches, and, in severe cases, entire trees

At CoopCoffees, we wanted to respond to our producer partners’ needs quickly and with concrete gestures of support.

We agreed to an extra premium that would go directly to farmer organizations confronting leaf rust. As the crisis continued, we joined forces with the Progreso Foundation and Root Capital to match and leverage our investments. And as satisfying as it was to be an active participant in support programs, I needed to better understand what was at the core of this problem, and

Roya can be held in check when fields are kept in ecological balance

Mulching with saturated coco husk (or other natural materials) helps soil maintain humidity. This protects trees from wind, sun, and erosion and encourages the cultivation of beneficial microorganisms

how we could respond more effectively. Thus I was flung, headfirst into an intensive learning journey.

I travelled to Honduras and stood at the edge of Oscar Alonso’s regenerative-organic, 5-hectare plot. His field was packed with lush, green, and excessively productive trees.

Meanwhile, his neighbours, who used conventional farming

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techniques, were struggling to achieve even minimal production. The contrast was stark, and it changed everything I thought I understood about agriculture.

It wasn’t just that Oscar had managed to achieve such impressive yields. It was that he achieved them while farmers around him were failing, while mainstream agricultural experts continued to promote intensive fungicides and rustresistant varietals, despite the success of alternative organic solutions.

So why was leaf rust side-stepping Oscar’s fields in order to attack his neighbours?

The answer was in his soil. Oscar was trained and encouraged by the technical and management team at Café Orgánico Marcala (COMSA), his co-operative, to nurture the microbiological life in his soil and let his healthy soil protect the trees.

And as it turned out, Oscar was a model student. He reverted to a simple, yet intensive, plan to strengthen the natural systems in his fields: He increased the quantities of organic matter, strengthened the quality of his compost with locally produced beneficial bacteria and fungi, sprayed compost teas over vulnerable leaf surfaces, and mulched with water-logged coconut husks to support soil life with stable humidity.

Roya is a naturally occurring fungus that affects coffee plants across the world. But it can be held in check when fields are kept in ecological balance.

An extensive study into leaf rust conducted by the University of Michigan Evolutionary Biology and Natural Resources team suggests that the crisis stems, ultimately, from an over-simplified regard for a “complex web of ecological interactions, a web that defies simple one-on-one attempts at management.” The study’s authors concur that “it could be the larger ecological structure of the agroecosystem that needs to be considered, which echoes the many recent calls for a more nuanced approach to the management of ecosystem services, in general, and to pest control, specifically.”

Maybe it’s time we return to an intensive appreciation of common sense. We need to focus on the whole, in order to understand its parts. And we need to highlight and celebrate the success stories beginning to emerge from this challenging context.

Let’s start from the ground up: helping small-scale farmers achieve healthy, living soils and to reconstruct healthy and stable ecosystems in their communities.

Monika Firl is special projects manager for CoopCoffees. Her article “Cooperative Solutions” appears in the Winter / Spring 2013 Issue of Fair Trade Magazine.

In Latin America, millions of coffee seedlings will be planted to replace dead, damaged, or failing trees

Porfirio Ortiz, president of Las Marias 93, a co-op in El Salvador, shows the extent of the damage caused by the leaf rust fungus

Felipe Dominguez shows one of the proposed 40,000 new coffee saplings that will be transplanted in coffee fields across El Salvador

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growing change Zeddy Rotich, a coffee farmer and member of Kabngetuny Women in Coffee in Kericho County, Kenya, prepares a meal with her biogas stove

Investing in Producer-Led Clean Energy Projects Through Fairtrade Carbon Credits

BY ER IK JOH NSON

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ave you ever wondered how carbon trading works to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions?

When a business can’t meet its carbon reduction targets, it can buy credits on the carbon market to offset its surplus

Carbon Credit (FCC) system. The program is designed to encourage small-scale producers and communitybased organizations to seek out clean, renewable energy projects that can reduce emissions and improve the

Fairtrade Carbon Credits combine Fairtrade principles and standards with the existing carbon market emissions. Basically, these credits are investments in projects that actively reduce carbon and greenhouse gases, provide renewable energy, or sequester carbon dioxide.

At the beginning of 2016, Fairtrade International launched the Fairtrade

viability of their agricultural operations as they adapt to the effects of climate change.

Developed alongside the Gold Standard Foundation, an international carbon reduction standards and certification body, the FCC system

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combines Fairtrade principles and standards with the existing carbon market by offering investments in small-scale producer–led renewableenergy projects, afforestation and reforestation initiatives, and efforts to improve energy efficiency.

“For all types of projects, smallscale producers are characterized by a marginalization in terms of market access, resources, information, technology, capital, and assets,” says Lisa Zentner, director of marketing and communications at Fairtrade Canada.

In Gimbi, Ethiopia, 20,000 coffeeproducing families have swapped their wood-burning stoves for cookstoves that burn cleaner, use less energy, and leave more trees in the ground.

This project was among those being assessed for certification by Fairtrade International when this issue went to press.

The FCC system is part of the recently launched Fairtrade Climate Standard, which, according to Zentner, “aims to bring about long-term developmental changes and positive impacts on rural communities.”

The climate standard was developed to “provide information and facilitate training,” says Zentner, “so that smallholders and rural communities play an increasingly active role while receiving technical support, and generate climate finance opportunities to fund both mitigation and adaptation activities.”

The standard states that eligible projects must make use of approved carbon methodologies and work toward “bringing sustainable benefits to producers and their communities.” The standard limits renewable-energy projects to a maximum output of 15 megawatts and energy-efficient projects to 60 gigawatt hours per year. For eligible forestry projects, 50 percent of the work must be done by producers, their families and neighbours, or co-op members.

FLO-Cert, Fairtrade International’s certifying body, ensures that FCC investments cover the average costs of running these projects and that Fairtrade standards are met for safe work conditions, hired labour, and environmental practices. Producers also receive the Fairtrade Premium in addition to the FCC investment. This allows them to develop new carbon-reduction projects, upgrade existing ones, grow their agricultural operations, or add and upgrade community facilities in their towns and villages.

Businesses that want to invest in FCCs must first assess their carbon footprint, initiate a carbon reduction plan, and take action to reduce emissions. If they still fall short of their goals, they can purchase FCCs to offset their remaining footprint.

Credits are now available for purchase—by individuals and businesses—on the voluntary carbon market.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Fair trade, Organic & Worker-Owned Co-op Online ordering available at justuscoffee.com

Traditional wood-fire stoves can be replaced by biogas cook stoves, which reduce cooking time and smoke exposure for women farmers

Part of a town, campus, school or event?

Explore Fair Trade Programs!

Learn more at cftn.ca/programs

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feature

Bitter Leaves: The truth about tea

BY W ILL R ICHTER

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t this point anybody who knows even a little about fair trade knows about fair trade coffee. It’s there on the supermarket shelves and sipped at the local coffee shop. It’s a regular addition to the holiday gift basket, a present on behalf of a better world.

But what about tea? For whatever reason, fair trade tea hasn’t penetrated the Canadian consciousness to the same extent as coffee. We need only to look at the number of Canadian companies selling each product to see the disparity. The Canadian Fair Trade Network’s website currently lists 98 companies selling fair trade coffee in Canada. And tea? Eighteen, and several of those mostly sell coffee.

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From this imbalance, consumers might get the impression that regular, non-fair trade tea is produced more ethically than coffee. Maybe the absence suggests there is no need for fair trade certification. Nothing could be further from the truth. The story of tea, far from benign, is instead an ugly tale of precarious livelihoods, of brutal worker exploitation, even of child labour. If there is one product that deserves a rethink on the part of Canadians, it’s tea.

A tea picker’s life Imagine that tomorrow morning, instead of waking in your bed here in Canada, you awake in a small, companyowned shack adjacent to a tea garden in Assam, Northern India. You’re a tea picker. So were your parents, and maybe their parents too. One day your children will also join you, if they haven’t already.

Your home is a shack you pay for out of your wages, leaving you with little left (US$1.13 per day, on average). You and your family share it with four or five other families. It is two rooms. Your latrine is an unenclosed pit f lowing into a cesspool that seeps into the yard.

This is better than at the neighbouring estate, where each house has a moat of human waste. When you and the other workers ask management to fix the broken latrines, they do so sporadically or, in many cases, never.

Your water comes from a companyprovided tap, which flows, untreated, directly from a contaminated river.

The company turns on the tap three times a day, for half an hour. Cholera and dysentery also come out of that pipe, everyone says. The water is filthy. It kills people.

Such details from life at the tea gardens of Assam and nearby West Bengal come to us via a 2014 report by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, in which researchers

conducted multiple visits to 17 tea plantations and interviewed hundreds of plantation workers. It goes on to describe perilous and deplorable working conditions, including accounts of unsafe agrochemical use. When spraying pesticides, some workers wear only cloth masks and tarpaulins to protect themselves. Others spray without any protective equipment at all. In some cases, the report says, these sprayers are told to use the chemical endosulfan, which is subject to a global ban.

earn less than half of what is considered a living wage. In Rwanda, as in India, child labour is common.

So where’s the fair trade tea?

“You go to the supermarket, you go to the café, everybody serves fair trade coffee now,” says Rakesh Shah, director of coffee and tea at Kitimai Tea & Coffee Inc., based in Ontario.

And fair trade tea? “It’s a tough sell,” Shah admits.

Kitimai, which sells both fair trade

The story of tea is an ugly tale of precarious livelihoods, of brutal worker exploitation, even of child labour And problems within the industry are certainly not isolated to India.

Indeed, according to one Oxfam report, average wages for tea pickers in Assam are 40 percent higher than for pickers in Malawi, where pickers’ earnings remain below the World Bank’s extreme poverty line of US$1.25 per day. Pickers in Kenya

teas and coffees, is a family business.

Shah’s father founded the company in 1978, and Shah has been around it “pretty much my whole life,” as he puts it. In that time he has seen fair trade coffee sales take off, leaving tea behind.

At present, tea accounts for only about 10 percent of Kitimai’s fair trade sales.

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“I think people really need to understand that tea farmers are in the same boat as coffee farmers,” says Shah. “They need to earn a living wage,

The good news? Consumers have the power to end the cycle. “Just look for the Fairtrade Mark,” says Shah. “If consumers continue to look for the Mark

companies they work for.

“Especially in the Western world, I think sometimes we take it for granted how much work goes into your coffee

If there is one product that deserves a rethink on the part of Canadians, it’s tea and the places where they produce fair trade teas, you'll see it’s made quite a bit of change, whether it's nurseries being built, or all sorts of initiatives that take place on those farms or co-operatives.”

Part of the problem, says Shah, is a lack of demand on the part of consumers, which creates a discouraging cycle: consumers don’t request fair trade teas, so retailers don’t stock them; importers don’t bring them into the country, and, since they aren’t on the shelves, consumers don’t know to ask for them.

and insist on Fairtrade-certified tea, we’ll be able to to bring in more.”

A choice of teas Canadians are a tea-drinking people.

In 2012, we imported over 18,000 tonnes of the stuff, with the most recent government estimates pegging annual per capita consumption at almost 80 litres. That’s a lot of tea. It’s an amount that could make a real difference in producers’ lives, provided we choose to buy tea that benefits them, not just the

or your tea,” says Shah. “It's hard, backbreaking work, and some of these plants, they take years and years to develop. Farmers have nurtured these plants, but they haven't seen the profit— they haven't seen a cent yet.”

“I think they're banking on us to be fair with them.”

Will Richter is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.

His previous contribution to Fair Trade Magazine, “Giving Spice Producers a Fair Shake,” appears in the Summer / Fall 2015 Issue.

An Alternative to Plantations In an industry dominated by tea plantations employing hired labourers, independent smallholder farmers are increasingly turning to economic models like co-ops and associations to create opportunities for themselves and their communities. A good example of this is the Sukambizi Association Trust (SAT) in southern Malawi. Sick of late payments from a national tea company, 4,000 smallholder farmers formed the SAT in 2003 to negotiate a better deal with a different company. In 2008, the group received Fairtrade certification, qualifying them for the Fairtrade Premium. The benefits have been many: •

In an area where 25 percent of children are unable to attend secondary school,

most SAT members now send their kids to school.

•

While only 20 percent of local farmers have bank accounts, 90 percent of SAT

members do.

•

SAT members have seen improvements in food security, housing, local maternity

care, schools, and water sanitation. They have also been able to purchase an

ambulance, saving patients 40 kilometres of travel by other means.

Such benefits, and others, have not gone unnoticed—at least not by other local farmers. The SAT has now grown to over 8,000 members.

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WORKING

to overcome poverty

C R E AT I N G

a better society

INSPIRING

ENGAGING

people around us

the world

a

R I FAAD E TR

P ro

to ud

c

be

p am

us

www.sfu.ca/fairtrade What you buy when you buy Fairtrade tea Fairtrade-certified teas are often grown on farms that employ hired labourers. To receive Fairtrade certification, organizations must adhere to a long list of requirements, including the following hired labour standards: •

Freedom of association and collective bargaining,

including the right to form independent unions.

•

Equitable working conditions, with salaries equal to or

higher than the regional average or minimum wage and

strong health and safety measures in place, which are

subject to audit.

•

The establishment of a Fairtrade Premium Committee

to manage the Fairtrade Premium. Committee

members use the Fairtrade Premium, which applies to

all Fairtrade-certified products, to better the lives of the

workers, their families, and their communities, as decided

by the workers themselves.

•

Minimum age of hired labourers is 15 years. For children

over 15, work must not interfere with schooling.

Fairtrade Standards also apply to small tea-producer organizations such as cooperatives or associations.

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growing change

Room for Growth: Fair trade in the hospitality sector

BY K IM BER LY LEU NG

M

ost people don’t wash their towels on a daily basis, but it wasn't long ago when many hotel guests expected a stack of fresh towels every day. These days, “reuse your towel” signs are displayed atop counters in hotel bathrooms everywhere, urging guests to think about the cost associated with needless laundering. With well-known hotel chains such as Hilton and Marriott installing water-efficient fixtures, using low-energy lighting, and working on waste-reduction strategies, it's obvious that green initiatives within the hotel industry are becoming mainstream. Sourcing fair trade products should be the logical next step for any establishment looking to do more.

What is standing in the way?

For a mass-market hotel, however, fair trade sourcing can be a tough sell. While many popular green measures can directly reduce a hotel's or restaurant's operating costs (i.e., reduced water and energy costs), properly certified fair trade goods tend to cost more. Steven Strecker, executive sous-chef at ERA Bistro, located in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, agrees. As he puts it, “Years of cheap, unethical products have led to a market that fair trade products struggle to compete in.” Strecker is an advocate for the use of fair trade products, but he sees challenges in regularly featuring them on his menu. While ERA Bistro is committed to using fair trade products including spices, coffee, tea, wine, and chocolate, there are times when some items are no longer practical to use. Strecker compares the

demand for fair trade to that of organic foods, which took several decades to catch on with the average consumer. He notes that the public generally supports fair trade in principle, but practical concerns over cost often take priority. “We as a society and restaurateurs must start supporting fair trade products and the start-up costs associated with them if we hope to see a reduction in cost and make it a more affordable and appealing choice for the consumer.”

Among international hotel chains, fair trade sourcing sometimes exists as a component of a larger sustainability initiative. As a part of their Green Partnership program, several Canadian Fairmont Hotels and Resorts properties offer carbon reduction options, energy and water conservation initiatives, as well as the use of fair trade food products, usually coffee and tea. However, the demand and feasibility of implementing fair trade products varies by region.

Mubashar Shahab, the executive director and head of global procurement for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts notes that there is a lack of suitable supplier partners to service their properties in some parts of Asia and Africa.

Outside of food and beverage, fair trade in the hospitality industry is an initiative still in its infancy. In Amsterdam, the Steigenberger Airport Hotel is a leading the way, offering fair trade bed and bath linens in certain rooms. While large-scale changes are unlikely to happen overnight, decision makers in the hospitality industry can research fair trade suppliers and find new ways to incorporate fair trade sourcing into their businesses without

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significant disruption. For example, with the widespread availability of fair trade coffee and tea, hotels could provide these options as a value-added experience for clients, while publicizing their support for fair trade and overall corporate responsibility.

Choosing fair trade sends a message to clients A move to fair trade sourcing could be beneficial to a hospitality brand looking to pull away from the pack. According to the Deloitte Hospitality 2015 report, to appeal to travellers in a saturated market, properties “will need to differentiate themselves from their competitors even more than in the past.

Brands that can offer something truly unique or compelling are likely to win market share and the ability to innovate will be crucial for success.� Offering and marketing fair trade goods and services can be a distinct, effective way to set a restaurant, resort, or hotel apart.

For travellers, supporting businesses in the hospitality industry that offer fair trade options is vitally important.

Customers can begin by requesting or inquiring about the use of fair trade products at establishments they already frequent. Not surprisingly, evidence of demand is a major driver of industry decision making. When client money is spent according to their values, it sends a clear message to a business, telling them where to invest theirs.

Ultimately, fair trade sourcing presents an opportunity that can benefit hotels, guests, and producers. Ideally, the average hotel room in the future will display a second countertop sign, one that tells guests that the linens, toiletries, coffee, and tea provided by the hotel are all fair trade certified.

Kimberly Leung is a social services program coordinator and freelance writer based in Toronto. She moonlights as a volunteer for several health and community non-profits.

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Fair Trade in Canada Canada

Fair Trade Campus Week To celebrate the 3rd Annual Fair Trade Campus Week, 39 colleges and universities organized dynamic awareness activities. Twenty-two businesses donated Fairtrade-certified products like bananas, soccer balls, coffee, chocolate, tea, ice cream, spices, coconut milk, shea butter, cookies, and dehydrated bananas. More than 16,000 students and staff participated across the country.

Fairtrade Awards Fairtrade Canada held its 4th Annual Fairtrade Awards reception to celebrate leaders in 11 independently judged categories including the newly added Fair Trade School and Fair Trade Event Awards.

PRAGOR Visit Fairtrade Canada hosted Gustavo Vallejo Esquivel and Salvador Romero Lozoya from the PRAGOR producer group. The pair made their way through Ontario and Quebec, sharing their perspectives and discussing the impacts and benefits of being part of the Fairtrade system.

Vancouver

Handmade Buying Guide In October 2015, the Fair Trade Federation and CFTN published “Handmade,” a buyers guide that showcases hand-crafted fair trade apparel, art, and decor made by artisans in the developing world. cftn.ca/products/handmade-items

PRAGOR producers visit Hudson, Quebec

International Soccer Fesitval Hundreds of players and volunteers participated in the 11th Annual Vancouver International Soccer Festival held on July 3–5, in tandem with the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Final. The festival's values of inclusion, equality, and respect have helped make it Canada's only continuing Fair Trade Sporting Event.

Calgary

Fair Trade Campus On September 21, the University of Calgary became Canada’s 10th Fair Trade Campus. The designation kicked off Fair Trade Campus Week and was celebrated at a special event at the university’s Sustainability Resource Centre.

The University of Calgary, Canada's 10th Fair Trade Campus

Fiesta in the Market At the Market on Macleod on September 12, Fair Trade Calgary offered salsa made of local and fair trade ingredients including olive oil, avocados, chilies, and pepper. The group’s salsa-dancing Fairtrade banana was a big hit!

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Pathways 2 Sustainability From across Alberta and the rest of Canada, 185 delegates learned a little more about fair trade while attending the Pathways 2 Sustainability conference in Olds, Alberta. The conference was designated a Fair Trade Event, and featured leaders in innovation and strategy development for sustainability. Fair trade products were integrated into the meals, door prizes, and volunteer gifts.

St. Kateri, Canada's 3rd Fair Trade School

Fair Trade School On June 24, St. Kateri became Canada’s 3rd Fair Trade School. “This foundation of knowledge about fair trade has definitely opened students' eyes to how they can help make the world a better place,” said Valerie Dyck, principal of St. Kateri.

World's Largest Smoothie After hours of intensive chopping and blending, the University of McGill set a new Guinness World Record with an impressive 3,121-litre smoothie.

The beverage was made with 300 kilograms of fair trade bananas and Quebec-grown strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

Olds

Fort McMurray

Montreal

Fair Trade School On December 3, Cavelier-De LaSalle became Canada’s 4th Fair Trade School. “It is an honour to say that my school is a Fair Trade School!” said Gabriella Popescu, student.

McGill University, home of the World's Largest Smoothie

Québec Sans Frontiéres 20th Anniversary Celebration Volunteers from past and present gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Quebéc sans frontiéres. This international solidarity internship program has given unforgettable experiences to over 7,000 youths through the years. Fair trade coffee, tea, bananas, and a 20th anniversary cupcake with fair trade ingredients were served at the event.

Quebec City

Déjuener Équitable On November 12, as part of Journées Québec sans frontiéres, more than 20 social economy businesses and local organizations took part in a fair trade breakfast to network, explore potential business partnerships, and discover new fair trade products from local organizations.

École secondaire Cavelier-De Lasalle, Canada's 4th Fair Trade School

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recipe

Mocha Hazelnut Dacquoise

BY DEB BLISS

W

ant to impress somebody this Valentine’s Day? Here’s a dessert that tastes even better than it looks, which is pretty incredible. With layers of rich hazelnut dacquoise and mocha buttercream covered in a silky layer of dark chocolate ganache, this is one cake that is sure to make a statement—any way you slice it. Plus, these aren't just empty calories: With Fairtrade-certified chocolate, coffee, vanilla, and sugar, baking this cake helps support producers in the global south.

Hazelnut Dacquoise Prepare this dessert at least a day in advance.

Preheat oven to 250 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a bowl or cake pan, draw three 8-inch circles. Flip the parchment paper over so that the ink side is down.

Combine hazelnut meal and cocoa powder in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt at a low speed until frothy.

Gradually increase speed to high and slowly add sugar until egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form. Using a spatula, fold in the hazelnut and cocoa powder mixture into the egg whites until just combined.

Fill a piping bag with the dacquoise mixture and pipe onto the parchment paper or spread the mixture with an offset spatula.

Bake for 90 minutes. Turn the oven off and let cool in the oven for another 90 minutes or overnight.

Mocha Buttercream In a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix butter until smooth and creamy. Sift cocoa powder and powdered sugar together and add to the butter mixture. Cut one vanilla bean pod lengthwise and scrape the vanilla bean seeds into the coffee. Add the coffee and the whipping cream to the butter mixture slowly while the mixer is running at low speed. Mix until buttercream is smooth and fluffy.

Ganache Heat cream and chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a double boiler stirring until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Remove from heat and let cool at room temperature. The 2 8 | F A I R T R A D E M A G A Z I N E ¡ C A N A D A’ S V O I C E F O R S O C I A L S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y

What you’ll need for the hazelnut dacquoise 6 egg whites 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 1/8 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups Fairtrade-certified sugar 1/3 cup Fairtrade-certified cocoa powder, sifted 1 cup hazelnut meal

What you’ll need for the mocha buttercream 1 cup salted butter, room temperature 1 cup Fairtrade-certified cocoa powder 4 cups Fairtrade-certified powdered sugar 1/4 cup Fairtrade-certified coffee, warm 1 Fairtrade-certified vanilla bean pod 1/4 cup whipping cream

What you’ll need for the chocolate ganache 12 oz Fairtrade-certified dark chocolate 1 1/2 cups whipping cream

ganache can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge before reheating to room temperature for assembly.

Bringing it all together Gently peel the parchment paper from the dacquoise discs.

Spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache on two of the discs and let the ganache harden in the fridge for about 10–15 minutes. Assemble the dessert by spreading a layer of buttercream on top of the ganache and stacking the two discs together. Place the remaining disc on top and cover with the remaining buttercream taking care to smooth out the sides and top with an offset spatula. Chill in the fridge until the buttercream has set. Warm the ganache over a double boiler or in the microwave until it has a pourable consistency. Spoon the ganache over the set dacquoise allowing the chocolate to glaze the top and sides. Cool in fridge until ganache has set.

A chemical engineer and mother of four, Deb Bliss often applies her lab skills in the kitchen, filling beakers with Crisco, milk, and eggs and yielding delicious chocolatey compounds. She is often assisted by her young apprentices.

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book review The Fair Trade Revolution Edited by John Bowes Pluto Press, 2011 240 pages, $24.95 ISBN: 978-0745330785 Reviewed by Dustin Johnson

F

rom the revolution in Nicaragua, where international support of embattled co-operatives sowed the seeds of fair trade in the 1980s, through the massive expansion of fair trade in the UK in the mid-2000s, to the current challenges of climate change, multinational corporations, and competing ethical labels, the essays collected in The Fair Trade Revolution take a wide-angle portrait of the movement. Offering the perspectives of both producers and consumers, the collection is insightfully compiled by John Bowes, who as a top manager with the Co-op, UK’s fifth largest food retailer, designed and implemented the chain’s responsible retailing program and introduced many fair trade products to their stores.

Three essays in particular make this book worth reading.

The first is “Nicaragua: The Road to Freedom” by Pedro Haslam and Nicholas Hoskyns, who were both involved in the Sandinista revolution. The essay describes how organizations such as Equal Exchange found loopholes in the United States embargo and imported Nicaraguan coffee and bananas. These acts of solidarity supported the Nicaraguan people, and the Sandinista land reforms that favoured co-operatives of smallholder farmers. In telling this story, Haslam and Hoskyns remind readers that fair trade finds its impetus in the global south, as people challenge oppressive systems and discover ways to reach international markets. They also remind us of the progressive and revolutionary ideas that have helped drive the success of fair trade in Nicaragua, and elsewhere, including the empowerment and liberation of women, and the struggle against neoliberal policies.

“Tricky Waters” by Tomy Mathew, a founder of the Fair Trade Alliance Kerala in India, discusses the greatest challenge currently facing fair trade, and the entire world: climate change. While many of us in the north fret about how much gas our car is burning and how much electricity our lights consume, Mathew reminds us that the effects of climate change will fall first and hardest on the world's poor, especially those whose livelihoods are supported by farming.

Much environmental destruction in the global south has been driven by monocropping and the fluctuating commodity prices that force producers to resort to unsustainable

methods of production. Mathew describes how farmers who grow fair trade crops are able to invest in sustainable and environmentally sound farming techniques. Such farms are islands of biodiversity that promote food security, often far lusher than surrounding monocrop plantations. As we worry about the carbon emitted by the transport of our coffee, Mathew demonstrates how fair trade has fostered sustainable agriculture and food security in the global south, and argues that it must be expanded in the face of climate change.

In “Raising the Bar or Directing the Flood,” Robin Murray, a major force in fair trade in the UK who has served at various times as chairman of Twin, Agrofair UK, and Liberation Foods, argues that innovation and integrity are necessary to ensure that fair trade lives up to its promise and maintains its standards as it expands. Many advocates, supporters, producers, and dedicated fair trade companies are uncertain about the entry of multinational corporations into fair trade, yet Murray explains how the movement can improve as it grows and becomes mainstream. Using the example of Cadbury, Murray suggests that large corporations should develop longterm relationships with producers in the south and provide funding and technical support beyond what the standards require. Murray also calls for increased producer ownership and representation on the boards of northern companies.

This would give producers more say over the trade of their products and a larger share of the profits. Finally, he calls for the creation of a fair trade college to provide training and education for those entering the movement. Murray envisions this college as a place for serious debate and reflection, to help unify and advance the culture of fair trade and turn it into something more than just paying producers a little extra for their labour.

Emphasizing the role that producers have in driving change and making progress in the movement is a common theme throughout the collection. Fair trade is, at its basis, about ensuring that the products we buy return the maximum benefit—financial and otherwise—to those who do the hard work of farming, gathering, weaving, and more. The Fair Trade Revolution is full of examples of why we in the north should stand alongside the long-exploited and oppressed people in the global south and give them equal say in the movement.

Dustin Johnson is vice president of the CFTN's board of directors, and has served on the board, representing Atlantic Canada, since 2013. He recently graduated from Dalhousie University with a masters in resource and environmental management and is beginning his career in humanitarian aid. Dustin is originally from Los Alamos, New Mexico.

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M ADE WITH LOVE C UST OM DE SIGN ED. ET H ICA L LY SOU RC ED. M A DE I N T ORON T O.

Fair Trade Jewellery Co. 523 Parliament St. Toronto 647.430.8741

#madewithlove @ftjco ftjco.com

ON HER: STAR SIGN SOLITAIRE IN 18K RECYCLED, NICKEL-FREE GOLD SET WITH A 1-CARAT SIRIUS STAR CANADIAN DIAMOND STACKER BAND IN 18K FAIRTRADE NICKEL-FREE GOLD & CANADIAN DIAMONDS / ON HIM: BEVELED-EDGE BAND IN 18K RECYCLED, NICKEL-FREE GOLD