10 Reasons Fair Trade Coffee Doesn’t Work
(From the Huffington Post, August 7, 2014) I see you, smugly smiling over your morning cup of fair-trade coffee, gratified at the unimaginable impact your thoughtfully chosen beans must be bringing to poor coffee growers overseas.
Well, think again.
The academic evidence for any positive effect of fair-trade coffee on coffee growers is mixed at best. Several recent studies by researchers at Harvard, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California indicate that fair-trade coffee has small to negligible effects on coffee growers, especially the poorest ones. The University of California researchers find that the lack of impact stems from the ill-conceived design of the fair-trade system. Indeed, a consensus among development economists indicates fair-trade coffee to be one of the least effective means for reducing poverty in developing countries. Click here to read more…