Abstract
Today, various types of fair trade systems propose new forms of relationships between producers and consumers. If several studies have provided accurate understandings of consumers’ motivations to buy fair trade products, the specific kinds of consumer involvement that are emphasized in those systems remain partly unknown. In France, controversies about the regulation and organization of fair trade with producers from Southern countries has led to broader debates about how consumers can best express their solidarity with producers. In these debates local food networks are often portrayed as good examples of fair trade and as having potential to redefine the role of the consumer in the marketplace (or in commercial relations). Based on examination of the type of mechanisms used to enrol consumers in local and fair trade networks, we have distinguished two main kinds of consumers’ involvement. The first one may be called “delegation” and is based on market mechanisms. The second one is called “empowerment” and is based on contractual mechanisms between consumers and producers and on the construction of collective choices. This latter kind of consumer involvement points out the capacity of alternative food networks to empower consumers in a more broadly political sense.
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Notes
Association to maintain small scale farming.
This article is based on two field studies. The first one is about the attempt of regulation of fair trade activities in France and has been conducted between 2005 and 2006. In-depth interviews of several people (n = 35) from main fair trade organizations, from the French Agency of Normalisation in charge of the project and from anti-globalization movements supporting the idea of extension of fair trade to local food networks. The second field study is an ethnographic analysis of French AMAPs based on in-depth interviews (n = 50), participation in various meetings of the network at regional level between 2002 and 2007 (n = 20), and observations (e.g. distribution of the boxes, interactions between farmers and consumers, farm visits).
The Minga Network gathers several thousands of very small companies operating in fair trade as private actors without belonging to any International Fair Trade Associations, receiving public funds, or using labelling schemes. Their aim is to prove the economic sustainability of the concept of fair trade by organizing exchanges that do not rely nether on public funds or on voluntary work, on the contrary to historical organizations in France which are NGOs. They rendered their position public when they decided in 2004 to quit the French Professional Association of Fair Trade (La Plate-Forme pour le Commerce Equitable).
Different institutional documents provide a broad definition of fair trade activity that does not limit it to solidarity organizations: the orientation document produced by the French Standardization Agency, AFNOR, published in January 2006; the Law about Small Firms published in August 2005 that plans ahead the creation of the National Commission for Fair Trade which will officially recognize faire trade standardization organizations.
This Union is not the dominant farming union, but the alternative one, Confédération Paysanne, and the rural development organization network is FN CIVAM.
The government position may be understood as economically logical, since Max Havelaar is the most well-known operator in the market for the public. Max Havelaar also gained institutional credibility with the French government by participating in an international organization that developed international standard from Fair-Trade Labelling Organization (FLO) on fair trade.
In Provence, for example, the network is considering hiring a former farmer as a technical consultant.
We interviewed consumers that expressed their surprise that fair trade orange juice tastes no better than the ordinary orange juice!
The economic degrowth theory is a philosophy that promotes the decrease of consumption, defending the thesis that the only solution for sustainability is neither economic growth nor sustainable development, but the general decrease of production and consumption.
Shops of small retailers are specific place where consumers may progressively become aware of the ecological and social footprint of their consumption habits, especially because of NGO-sponsored publicity of such subjects nearby the supply of products. On their side, AMAPs organise debates where such subject are addressed.
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Acknowledgements
This work was carried out with the financial support of the «ANR—Agence Nationale de la Recherche—The French National Research Agency» under the «Programme Agriculture et Développement Durable», project «ANR-05-PADD-C3D». http//:www.c3d.cnrs.fr. The authors thank the anonymous reviewer of GeoJournal and Daniel Niles for their fruitful comments on a former version of this paper. A special thanks to Daniel Niles for the editing he proceeded on the paper.
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Dubuisson-Quellier, S., Lamine, C. Consumer involvement in fair trade and local food systems: delegation and empowerment regimes. GeoJournal 73, 55–65 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9178-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9178-0