The Persistence of Poverty

Abstract

The most fundamental goal of fair trade is to improve the lives of developing-world producers. If it fails in this goal, the rest of the project is completely immaterial. In fact, if developed-world consumers were paying $12 for a bag of coffee that failed to improve the social and environmental conditions for coffee growers, the whole project should undoubtedly be abandoned. Fair trade promotional literature is littered with anecdotes about how fair trade transformed producers’ lives from those of destitution and hopelessness to survival and optimism. These testimonials are from the former TransFair USA site:

The fair price is a solution. It has given us the chance to pay a good price to our farmers. Those who are not in Fair Trade want to participate. For us it is a great opportunity. It gives us hope.

—Benjamin Cholotío

Thanks to the Fair Trade market, our standard of living has substantially increased. With your support, we look forward to a more promising future.

—Miguel Trigoso, Marketing Manager, APARM coffee