Study claims wages on Fairtrade farms are below what is paid by comparable employers - Polidicks

[quote] Sales of Fairtrade-certified products from Uganda and Ethiopia are not benefiting poor farmworkers as profits fail to trickle down to much of the workforce, says a groundbreaking study. The Fairtrade Foundation is committed to "better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world". But a UK government-sponsored study, which investigated the production of flowers, coffee and tea in Ethiopia and Uganda, found that "where Fairtrade flowers were grown, and where there were farmers' groups selling coffee and tea into Fairtrade certified markets, wages were very low". Christopher Cramer, an economics professor at the University of London and one of the report's authors, said: "Wages in other comparable areas and among comparable employers producing the same crops but where there was no Fairtrade certification were usually higher and working conditions better. In our research sites, Fairtrade has not been an effective mechanism for improving the lives of wage workers, the poorest rural people." Researchers who collected detailed information on more than 1,500 people said they also found evidence of the widespread use of children being paid to work on farms growing produce for Britain's leading ethical label. Fairtrade, started in Britain 25 years ago by development and consumer groups including Oxfam and the Women's Institute, has grown into one of the world's most trusted ethical schemes, with 1.24 million farmers and workers around the world. Fairtrade products contribute to the funding of schools, health clinics, sanitation and other "social projects" in rural areas. To join the scheme, farmers must agree to meet social, labour and environmental standards. In Britain it is a £1.78bn enterprise backed by government, Comic Relief, churches and supermarkets. Fairtrade tea and coffee from Ethiopia and Uganda have proved popular with millions of British consumers. Starbucks, the House of Commons and Virgin Atlantic are among many organisations advertising that they serve Fairtrade produce from these countries. Generally, the study found, wages were higher on farms that were larger, commercial and not Fairtrade-certified. Even comparing different smallholder sites, wages were generally lower in the areas dominated by Fairtrade producer organisations. Social projects, paid for partly by the Fairtrade premium, were found not to provide equal benefit to all. The researchers reported that many of the poorest did not have access to facilities. In one Fairtradetea co-operative the modern toilets funded with the premium were exclusively for the use of senior managers. The study also found that young people were widely used as labourers on both Fairtrade and other farms. "When wage workers aged over 14 years were interviewed, a very large proportion of them said they had been working since the age of 10, or even earlier," it said. "What is clear ... is that very significant numbers of young, school-age children are having to work for wages in the production of agricultural export crops, including Fairtrade-certified commodities." [/quote] A partial rebuttal is made by Fairtrade later on in the article but it does not address all of the problems raised by this study. [url]http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/may/24/fairtrade-accused-of-failing-africas-poor[/url]

Lol "trickle down"

[QUOTE=Saxon;44898483]Lol "trickle down"[/QUOTE] More like "trickle up"

[QUOTE=The golden;44898380]Is there anything in this world that isn't choked up by fucking corruption?[/QUOTE] Denmark

[QUOTE=The golden;44898380]Is there anything in this world that isn't choked up by fucking corruption?[/QUOTE] Canada [editline]24th May 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Sprockethead;44899550]Denmark[/QUOTE] >:(

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;44899581]Canada [editline]24th May 2014[/editline] >:([/QUOTE] Must be the flag colours

[QUOTE=Sprockethead;44899550]Denmark[/QUOTE] Denmark would be great, if I didn't have to learn Danish to live there. :( [editline]24th May 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Daniel Smith;44899581]Canada [editline]24th May 2014[/editline] >:([/QUOTE] The only "bad" thing about Canada recently was Rob Ford, and he was more adorable fuck up than corrupt shit dick.

[QUOTE=draugur;44899753]Denmark would be great, if I didn't have to learn Danish to live there. :[/QUOTE] Danish people worth talking to know english.

[QUOTE=Sprockethead;44899931]Danish people worth talking to know english.[/QUOTE] Yeah, but the process of becoming a Danish citizen requires me to know Danish, there's a test for it.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;44899581]Canada [/QUOTE] Quebec is corrupted as all hell

Sadly, most producers of homogenous products often have to deal with low wages. Because of minimal or zero differentiation, the market is insanely competitive for producers. How much does it actually cost for a farm to be Fairtrade certified? I actually find this rather ironic. Even if their is a cost associated with recognising a farm as Fairtrade certified, that farm still needs to compete against non-Fairtrade farms by offering their homogenous product at the same or a similar price. Although coffee can be advertised as Fairtrade certified in supermarkets, a significant amount of coffee still goes to places like Starbucks who could not care less about whether the coffee is ethical. The customer doesn't need to know. If they are going to keep a sustainable profit, they are going to have to find cuts somewhere. It's not like you could cut material costs down in such an industry, and overhead would already be optimised for as simple of an operation as coffee growing. This is probably why wages are lower in the Fairtrade farms. It would be rather ironic if that's actually the case. A certification committed to decent working conditions being the cause of wages having to be cut to ensure the sustainability of the certified producers.

[QUOTE=draugur;44899753]The only "bad" thing about Canada recently was Rob Ford, and he was more adorable fuck up than corrupt shit dick.[/QUOTE] Only? You have obviously never heard of our Prime Minister.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;44900354]Only? You have obviously never heard of our Prime Minister.[/QUOTE] Sad to say I don't keep up with Canadian politics, I get enough bullshit having to deal with U.S. politics and UK politics.

[QUOTE=draugur;44899753]Denmark would be great, if I didn't have to learn Danish to live there. :( [editline]24th May 2014[/editline] The only "bad" thing about Canada recently was Rob Ford, and he was more adorable fuck up than corrupt shit dick.[/QUOTE] Rod Ford wasn't corrupt. He was an alcoholic crack-addicted mongoloid who made the city look bad. He also did a bunch of horrible things to the budget, but not because he was corrupt, but because his ideology is terrible. [QUOTE=Daniel Smith;44899581]Canada [/QUOTE] Canada has it's fair share of corruption/mismanagement of funds: [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocall_scandal[/URL] [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastCat_Fiasco[/URL] [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsorship_scandal[/URL]

[QUOTE=Krype;44900039]Quebec is corrupted as all hell[/QUOTE] lol yes only quebec as corruption.