A History of Mainstreaming the Fair Trade Market and Movement

Abstract

This chapter explores the processes through which the mainstreaming of fair trade has occurred and how this history is understood by coffee activists and ethically consuming citizens. The transformation of the relationship between the fair trade movement and corporate actors has been catalytic to its mainstreaming. During the course of approximately six decades, various political and economic transformations have impacted on the metamorphosis of fair trade from being the ‘business’ of solidarity groups to being part of the world of business. This recent stage in the history of fair trade has not been without turbulence. It has been followed by a change of sails which has seen corporations entering the market one at a time, signifying the presence of the marketopoly in coffee activism. The involvement of supermarkets and businesses which have bought into the fair trade market ranges from minor to major adoption of fair trade standards. I illustrate the changes that fair and solidarity trade initiatives have undergone by accounting for the consequences of mainstreaming coffee activism through an identification of the processes which have pulled coffee activism away from a niche and towards a normalised status. As a result, coffee activism has been directly influenced by processes which are instilled in the market, such as branding, fetishism and commodification, which repackage the politics of the cause into a capitalist-friendly activity.