I took some time out during yesterday afternoon’s unconference sessions to check in with some of my Twitter followers and get their take on what Fairtrade has come to mean to them and why.

I asked “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term Fair Trade?” and here are the responses I got:

- workers/producers wages and conditions
- coffee, chocolate & bananas
- Fair Trade Coffee
- not a great flavour with the stuff I have tried so far but love the cause regardless
- Coffee! I know it’s so much bigger and more diverse than that, but it’s the first thing that popped into my head
- Fair Trade = hope for an alternative way of living and engaging with the world

I continued the interview onwards with a couple of people with interesting results. Click on the image to view full size, read from the bottom in each case and feel free to continue the conversation in the comments:

@Greg_Collins

@gt_p

[collated using Tweet Convo]

The ‘producer led organization’ open space session: the values of fair trade are the most important thing you have to offer to the world. There is a need to upgrade skills (primarily producers so they can represent themselves). Consumers need to be hit in the face by what fair trade producers are doing.

Faire trade 2.0: technology as data. Big discussion about how is that data used? Changing the supply chain. Also how consumers can collaborate online by amplifying the fair trade message. A woman in the audience thinks that young people are trying to reinvent the wheel by putting debates that have gone before them online (hmm – even if they are simply ‘putting someone else’s ideas online’ surely that’s a good thing if people who would not ordinarily have seen them might come across them online?). Personal relationships that can be built online could have a positive impact in 20 years or so.

Who defines fair trade? Producers should define fair trade and consumers have the power to boycott or not. The WFTO is perhaps already there, and we hope FLO will get there in due course.

Equitable sharing of the labour: producers could work to build the structures of fair trade movement within their own continents. Meanwhile northern fair trade organsations could be lobbying, negotiating to get the fair trade movement forward in governance. The ‘one voice’ (with all working to their strengths, collaborating, communicating).

“Government should…” session. Should it be the government that is responsible? There is a sense of burn out amongst activists; they’re not sure where they’re going next. With issues such as corruption, they have lost a bit of faith. It is not just shopping; ‘don’t just buy, do’.

(This is an open space session so I will try and draw out the main themes of discussion as it flows).

Studio Allaya is a craft based organization that supports producers so that they can take charge of their own enterprises themselves. Climate change is a part of this.

Café Direct is at the end of a 3 year project: chaotic weather conditions had impacted sales however the producers did not see this as a result of climate change. There is a need for education of climate change alongside fair trade. It would make sense for fair trade organsations to partner up with organisations that specialise on climate change.

75% of the environmental issues of coffee trade is the kettle boiling over here, not where it’s made.

Sustainability is seen as an add on – it must be a part of fair trade.

Children and young people are ‘where it’s at’ with climate change – it sits well with this age group, they are open to learning and can carry it forward. They’re the future (and not corrupt!). Children of the 80s and 90s are ‘brand obsessed’ and move from one project to the next (we talked about children of the 60s/70s growing up worrying about the costs of electricity so cutting back on expenditure; and children of the 80s/90s not having money worries or long term concerns about energy resources and the climate – yes it was a generalisation; however children of today are the ones who will be living with what we do – or don’t do – now).

There is a short window of time to change as by 2050 we will see the impact of climate change and fair trade has to play a part of this now.

‘Our land is barren; not because we can’t grow on it but because we can’t sell from it’

Environment education is needed at both ends of the chain; producers and consumers.

‘Live simply’ : do we really need to buy flowers in winter? but if we stop now – we have already instigated the supply-demand… ‘To trade or not to trade: let it be fair trade’.

We need to address adaptation requirements of producers; what are the climate change implications for them? Should it be funded by the big organisations as they are getting so much benefit from fair trade?

The fair trade movement will need to move from an ‘enable-centric’ market to an ‘equal-centric’ market.

We need to adopt a more cautious approach to consumption: FLO (fair trade labeling) is one part and the other is the fair trade market run by WFTO-type organization.

Could social media could help change this?

- We held a first event like this 5 years ago – we wanted to revist the idea of a one day event in Oxford

- Fair Trade has been moving fast, and excellerating in the last 5 years – we want to ask more penetating questions of fair trade – 5 years ago we wanted to explore what fair trade was doing but not be too critical – the way FT has developed has been positive but has raised critical issues – up to the last 18 months FT has been under benign economic conditions – that has long since past, so the question now is how to continue to grow FT in times of recession. This is highlighting polictical questions to be answered by those involved in FT.

- Second big area is question of mainstreaming – how to take the movement into the mainstream – the achellenges and issues of mainstreaming and scaling and the are the more problematic issues

- Last time we did this we were aware it was very much talking at the audience – we want you to drive the issues and the programe so the afternoon is about forming discussion groups facilitated by the organisers – we want to get YOU involved in the conversation as much as possible (AG- the perfect Amplified event!)

How do you measure the impact of supporting fair trade producers? It’s a qualitative & quantitative process but how do we get everyone’s views?

We could build relationships with producers directly but you need to fully understand the relationships within that and how they work together.

Rather than just using the data Comic Relief collects themselves they will try and share it with chains (e.g. Sainsbury’s) so they fully understand it.

Comic Relief’s Fair Trade Focus on Africa, committed £5m over 5 years to support fair trade producers in Africa to building the capacity and accountability of the African fair trade network.

What are the key factors for ensuring that women workers and producers benefit equitably from trade?

What change has been made? (how can we prove the impact)

HOW has that change been made? (improving the impact).

How can all the key players share that data?

Joan Karanja, from COFTA, speaks about the role of producers; the importance of including them in standards development

COFTA is a network of fair trade producer organisations in Africa, working to eliminate poverty, by strengthening African membership in fair trade. COFTA is a grassroots network working with all levels of fair trade. It is a forum for collaboration and networking with over 100 members in 24 African countries touching 250,000+ beneficiaries. Currently there is no data / stats – this is something they are trying to measure.

Joan explains some of the issues encountered by producer organisations in Africa. Some cannot pay the fee to be accredited fair trade when they may well be practicing fair trade (the fee is $2000 – seems high).

Common producer challenges:

Collaboration and cooperation; business planning and production efficiency; product quality and product innovation; market understanding – e.g. there are no seasons in Africa so if selling to the West it’s important to know the seasonal market; gaining direct market access; access to finance is difficult as it is seen as an informal sector (so banks don’t lend); local infrastructure – important to understand all the nuances; and communication is essential.

COFTA programs focus on:

• Network development
• Membership development
• Advocacy and lobbying
• Market access (improving south to south trade not just access to Northern markets).

‘The overall idea of fair trade is to change the market’ (Joan Karanja), for example scaling up production through clustering (Swaziland, SWIFT) and Common Coordination (COFTA networks).

Fair trade is against child labour: the question is raised, ‘what is the solution when the head of a household is 17 and needs to earn a living?’

Joan suggests the solution is spending morning at school and the afternoon at work; we must remember the idea is to protect the young.

In providing direct market access for exporting in to Europe, COFTA provides linkages but currently is unable to supervise this any further.

80% trade is non food handicrafts. Issues surrounding coffee production and food are very different to craft – is it often forgotten? Do we need a fair trade mark for craft? Standardisation?

If we think producers should be involved in defining ‘fair trade standards’ – how to organise local producers (by broadcasting? Use of Technology?). A discussion for the open space session…

TWIN only works with small holder farms, building democratic systems. They believe in a better equitable distribution of risks and rewards; a different kind of relationship (networks of alternative trades). Part of their role is being an intermediary between buyer and seller, strengthening governance of farming organisations; enabling basic business management with a focus on quality. TWIN works to influence trade, with practical support on how to do this.

The development of brands such as Cafe Direct, Divine chocolate, Agrofair, Liberation, has helped change UK attitudes to food sourcing policies and to underpin the Fairtrade market in the UK.

Case studies presented by Ian:

Divine & Kuapa Kokoo: Participation in Divine has improved confidence in farmers after their trading suffered; it is now recognised as one of the best coffees.

Ian spoke about their partnership with Southern African Nuts. Integrated supply chains were developed; 2005 saw the first sales through the fair-trade market (the co-op), and supermarket partnerships in 2006; liberations established in 2007 (42% farmer owned); aflatoxin testing was brought in (2008), and mechanised processing in 2008/9.

Established fair trade supply chains have since been used to feed in to nutritional supplements (tested in Darfour, with significant improvement measured).

The fair trade premium is not hugely different to mainstream.

There have been various studies to show that fair trade in the region has captured more than just monetary value.

Ian talks about the international nut producer cooperative.

‘Liberation’ works by bringing the producers together to explore issues with the whole value chain. By understanding the complex distribution chain producers can be empowered to contribute to decision making about the strategic direction of their businesses.

By promoting democratic structures at community levels, greater governance issues can be brought down to the grassroots. As shareholders, famers have a direct link to the West; and a more democratic process has helped the farmers get involved in all aspects.

At the AGM for the international nut producer cooperative (where 5 candidates are elected to represent farmers) debates are held with farmers from Brazil, Bolivia, Malawi, Mozambique. All are engaged and addressing problems, brainstorming, everybody contributing together. Fairly. This is ‘democracy in action’. It is solidarity; people coming together from different environments as equals.

Sales yield premiums which is important but there are other benefits, such as the importance of social empowerment. Increasing the self esteem of farmers can impact many other areas.

Trade is not enough; Ian talks about the other aspects TWIN gets involved in. The quality of the product must be good enough; businesses must be run effectively; risks must be managed. Enhancing income, access to expertise and ability to influence all need to be considered.

To create long term sustainable impact, long term real commitment is required. This involves investment in capacity, collective action/network, transparency and trust, participation in decision making, connecting further up the chain (ownership) results in sustainability, increased confidence /accountability, enhanced capacity and influence.

The TWIN model is a bottom up approach, using farmer organisation partnerships. But are they really taking control themselves?

How can producers have more of a voice in fair trade?

We discussed the concept of ‘fairness’ in fair. Who decides what is fair? Farmers need to be involved in the strategy of determining what is fair. Imposing democracy v fair trade.

What is the real impact of co-operatives? (needs more research).

What about the mainstream? In terms of Twin’s work with Africa and South America, competing in a global market will have a significant impact particularly with competition from China. Ian believes the time to invest is now – though he acknowledges the risks.

Fair Trade 2.0 conversation starts with a focus on RFID tagging and data:

- On the consumer end you run the risk that through electronic tagging consumption habits ever more closely monitored

- people talk about the internet of things - the moment something is produced it is RFID tagged. The question is whose data is it? When the product is no longer just physical – but physical product + data – should commercial data be public? knowing behaviour impacting your world is critical

- Data asked for by companies is out of touch with current lives – In USA in order to buy online you often have to put in your landline number – I have 4 children and none of them have ever had a landline

great comment about data control – ‘if you want marketing data from me YOU can pay ME’

Q – how much do data chips cost and how would a producer get them??

A 3-5pence each – if wallmart wants to do deals with you they will provide you with chips and feed the cost into their agreement with you

- Now that its possible to have digital data on things – and in things – there must be a legal aspect (data protection) – tracking products could be great for being aware of the whole life cycle – but do you want someone to impinge that much on your life? Issues around privacy – the transparent consumer

- If this technology is spreading – is there any way this could be subverted for the balance of power between corporations and consumers -so it’s not the corp gaining the information but actually the consumers gaining more information about those corporations and how we  can change the terms of that relationship

- My assumption is that in Fair Trade 2.0 the corporation doesn’t exist -you should be able to buy your products direct from the producers -ie- buying your olive oil direct from Gaililee

- It would be great if I could use the technology to subvert the supply chain and enable a disintermediated transaction - I haven’t found any Fair Trade producers on Twitter yet but it would be great if there were – I could tweet an  idea for a product up, someone could reply and offer to make it for their chosen price and I could do the transaction directly through social media.

Q – but would you put your unique idea on Twitter? (fear of copyright / intellectual property)

A – the key is about disintermediation so on the issue of would I share this – yes- I’ve got many of ideas that i can’t / don’t want to exploit – creating mini-marketplaces for ideas – looking at the examples of Etsy and Folksy – handcraft sold online – which is a marketplace with very little intermediation – lots of producers can sell whatever handcrafted goods they want. Many of them are Fair Trade.

(my comment – issues of standardization being raised – is the issue about more Fair Trade certification or better products?)

Robin: I am working with a new org called Serk(sp?) in US which is taking the concept of an online workshop where artisans collaborate with designers to create new products – because fair trade is fundamentally about participation. Conscious consumers are investors, they are people who know where they want their money to go - so the idea of investing time, values and money to create a more sustainable economy is where we’re heading.

Tim:  looking at networked invidualism - it follows the same thing as mentioned earlier about how we’re moving from stories about groups of producers to stories about  individual producers -  how do we help people engage in that story?

Robin: Marketing is driven by one word – aspiration, that is now being replaced by inspiration. These are fundamental shifts we’re seeing. the I is absolutely critical – if you haven’t got the balls to go online and talk about yourself you won’t engage with the WE or the US – the world won’t change without that

Laura: social media isn’t all about ME it’s about sharing – it’s social history, sharing information, forging relationships online

- Individuality and uniqueness is important needs to be celebrated for consumers- especially in fashion – story is important – more individuals are trend setting now than ever before

- We need to do more knowledge and skill sharing without worrying too much about somebody nicking our idea

Q – What is the next step in capturing the market - what should people who are active in the FT community be looking for?

Tim: there are two things that FT organisations need to do – one is take FT as a concept into people’s online lives – it’s about content – is there a way I can easily display my affiliation with your brand / cause on my social media? Using content more people can take their FT identity into their online lives (looking at Amplified as an example!) -  the other thing is looking at the Long Tail – the reach outside of the mainstream

Q – how do u move from a consciousness of duty to a consciousness of fun – and difference? And how can you use people’s sense of play and competitiveness in this direction?

- Actually there’s lots of fun in FT it’s just not in the newspapers or in the advertising – it’s not in commercial spaces so the problem is the connection

Tim: young people ask what’s in it for me? how can you make this fun and there be something in it for me as well to take to my community. The challenge is how can we take this idea of competition and imagine an online scenario where you are competing with other people to get a share of the profit from marketing FT to your community - the key with online is we can try these things, be playful and scale up of they work rather than the economics of traditional advertising

- concept of value – we need to turn concept of value on it’s head – the only way that can happen is through social media, networks, and community initiatives

with social media it’s the way of communicating that’s changing, not the ideas themselves

Trade negotiations may seem dull but when it comes to rich countries ripping off poorer countries the fair trade movement can understand this and empathise with this so should be a part of that process. (Mike Gidney).

How far do we see campaigning for long term sustainable change going? Buying fair trade does help of course; but for the long term we need to be campaigning in a more robust and coherent way.

The EU is trying to downgrade the political component and look at the technical negotiations. These do not make headlines though; as you need to fully understand these technical aspects in order to report as a journalist (also it is not very exciting!). EPAs campaign has done a good job of raising the profile but still the ACPs are in a weak negation situation. There is a race between the EU and the US for a market share in China.

‘Engagement v boycott’

This was later summed up in the closing session: ‘from the producers’ perspective, networks are not succeeding as much as they could as they have been sidelined somewhat in political activism; dissipated somewhat as fair trade has gone mainstream. This is a travesty for the 76 countries from the ACP; we must bring this to light. It is treated as a technical issue but it’s not – it will kill people’.

Fair Trade Futures: conversations from Ben Walker on Vimeo.

We’ve seen dozens of conversations happening this afternoon in the Open Spaces at FTF09. This video just captures a few moments.

For many it’s the first time they’ve taken part in such an unstructured conversation format at a conference, and it has given people a freedom to bring their ideas to groups of like-minded people.

Some sessions veer wildly off topic, but the topics are intentionally informal. Some people would prefer to have an uninterrupted platform from which to speak, but that’s not always what the audience wants…

above – the key notes generated during the discussion by the discussion leader

Q – do we think that an international organization should be more comprehensive?

-  already have WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization) – and FLO (Fair Trade Labelling Organisztion – set up as a labelling org for sales) – they have shared charter of fair trade principles (with EFTA – the European FT association) – issue is that these two organizations are preeminent in Fair Trade but they work in very different ways – divergent understanding of fairness that underpins WFTO and FLO – but they are doing diff things with a different focus – if FT globally is to succeed we have to find ways of the FT movement working together. The shared charter has fantastic initiatives but nothing has been produced since

The idea of a producer managed organization for FT? what about groups of producer organizations? Within the WFTO you have regional networks, country networks and producer networks -but below the NFTO the producer organizations aren’t actually the producers – there’s an assumption that these people are producers but they aren’t really

We need to push the values not the principles of FT into the world – honesty, transparency, reciprocity - the way to move FT on is to unlock these pockets of interest and open these values out to the world, ie the banking system

The people on the board are the leaders of their organizations – in principle people can work their way up from producers to the board

- Producers value the role of the mediating organizations – so they don’t have to deal with the consumers – felt the distance is a good thing

- Disagree – A woman I met who wasn’t educated beyond the age of 12 is now the treasurer of million pound generating coffee cooperative – some women and men don’t want to – but she said that it was TWIN working in those communities, talking with the women and helping the understand that they could speak out and get their voice heard make them feel they could be assertive and claim their place

Moving into a networked world- but we are not good at working as networks yet – openness of communication channels are there but we have trickles only right now – we don’t need to centralise or turn into hierarchies – we need to invest in the skills and the capacity to exist as networks. Networks rely on the skills of their nodes. Culture of  collaboration – sharing skills through the network. Values of FT can be shared very  fast through networks – people not part of FT cos they can’t afford it – the values are what count – the way people think and behave – need to get out of silos

FT links producers and consumer – what’s missing is a clear, simple message that this movement gives as  a whole – It is important for the Fair Trade movement to speak to the world with one voice