RE: A brilliant idea
Teresa
The book is thought provoking and compelling, as its author, John Bowes stresses that fair trade refers to the healthy environment, growers and consumers. Specifically, in the article “A brilliant idea”, he introduces the goals of fair trade organizations and the business process under fair trade condition. Also, as we have gained visibly achievement from the fair trade movement, he points out that fair trade market has far more potential to grow, which will positively affect on developed countries such as the UK and the US.
In the opening part of the book, the author tells us that a woman who spends her lifetime working in producing cocoa, had never eaten chocolate before. The impressive story reminds us the millions of producers at the end of the supply chain, since the fair trade situation nowadays is on the opposite. It’s quiet amazing that fair trade benefits to about 7 million of the poor, but is still in its infancy when compared to the 1.4 billion needy people. However, the fair trade is supposed to succeed so long as we spare efforts to establish sustainable farming as well as improve the life of producers in the developing countries.
Personally, the article helps me understand the fair trade movement profoundly, in which more international business should actively participate. Besides giving a reasonable wages to the farmers in the developing countries, the fair trade certification helps ensure the origins of agricultural products and maintain the basic needs in the farms. I am glad to know that in Europe, amounts of small fair trade farms has grown into strong organizations that can protect women labors and manage the business under transparency.
However, the movement needs more development, and more international corporations should take responsibilities for a fair business environment, as it is known that today 500 companies control 70% of world trade. Take coffee as an example, the US consumes one-fifth of the world’s coffee, but many small coffee farmers stay in poverty because they receive prices that lower than the costs. Thus, the big coffee retailers like Starbucks is asked to buy coffee directly from cooperative farmers and pay them a wage which supports their basic needs. Coffee is an important source of foreign exchange in the global market, if the big coffee companies like Starbucks, Costa and Illy can take action to change their business structure, profiting the producers under fair trade, then millions of the poor in the developing world can improve their life.
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