A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to be invited to one of those social clubs for executives that were so popular a few decades ago. No the health club type, but the lounge with really expensive furniture where gentlemen of the highest social spheres get together to read the newspaper and change the world. When I read Martin Varsavsky effort to once create a site for the smartest people in the world, I couldn’t help but chuckle and imagine them all sitting in such a lounge, smoking their cigars, drinking coffees made of exotic beans and entertaining the notion of maybe one day putting their brilliant ideas to work. Sorry, I shouldn’t dismiss the effort as I know Mr. Varsavsky is a first class entrepreneur and would’ve accomplished many things.
The idea I’m challenging is the fact that you need to get many people together in order to accomplish something meaningful. Even in this blog I have used the notion that a community of Global Citizens would create tremendous value, but now realize that such an organization doesn’t need to have a certain size before it is effective. In fact, large communities tend to be refuges for passive members that enjoy the benefits of the community but create little value, a well known effect of today’s popular social networks.
While not everyone has access to an expensive lounge to enjoy their exotic beans, it is becoming more and more popular to put some effort into finding good fair trade coffee. Increased access to information about the repercussions of big coffee producers on local communities has awaken a certain level of social responsibility. Unfortunately, with the number of people subscribing to this idea, companies have taken note and have developed entire marketing campaigns trying to exploit this trend.
Take for example Cocoacamino, a chocolate label that claims to follow Fair Trade practices and even provides extensive information about La Siembra, a co-op of farmers which even though it has a spanish name, is located in Ottawa, Canada. Fair Trade is all about the trade, so you have to be suspicious when a Canadian label claiming to adhere to this principle is buying the product from a local producer. Furthermore, I happen to know a thing or two about how farmers in Canada accomplish their quotas and in many cases (although I can’t speak for this particular one) it is by exploiting migrant workers living under very controlled conditions.
Enough of criticism. What can be done about this? It takes global citizens with knowledge of the world around them. For example, I happen to know a few farmers in poor regions of Mexico. They do have a real co-op and would be thrilled to be able to sell their product to a brand looking to adhere to real Fair Trade principles. Do you know anyone with the skill and access to a market to make a successful product? That is all we need. Little connections like this one.
I would pay premium for coffee or chocolate like this.
Update: On April 2008, La Siembra was listed in the WorldBlu Most Democratic Places. I guess I should’ve researched their organization a bit more before using them as example in this post. I’ve been in direct contact with farmers in the South of Ontario and their lives are thorn apart by a system that tries hard to make them invisible. Any transparency efforts in this industry should be praised.
Hi!
Was surfing the net and came across this blog post about what you mistakenly perceive La Siembra Co-op and Cocoa Camino to be.
You imply that La Siembra/Cocoa Camino are somehow piggyback marketing on the concept of Fair Trade, which is a rigourous third party certification system guaranteeing co-operatively organized co-ops not just a fair price but long term contracts, access to low interest credit (if the farmers want it) etc.
Had you taken a bit more time to explore the site you would have discovered that La Siembra is NOT the name of a co-op of farmers, but rather the name of the worker owned co-op behind the Cocoa Camino brand name. Where pray tell do you think cocoa grows? Canada?
It is grown near the Equator, namely the cocoa in Cocoa Camino is grown in the Dominican Republic and Peru, which La Siembra then buys from the farmers in the south. They were actually the first company to import and sell Fair Trade cocoa and sugar products in North America. They operated under Fair Trade principles for their first three years of existence since cocoa and sugar were not yet on the registry of approved Fair Trade products, all the while establishing the relationships and assisting the co-ops down south in getting Fair Trade certified and assisted Trans Fair Canada (the certifying body in Canada) to get cocoa and sugar on the registry. Cocoa and sugar weren’t fully certified until 2002. La Siembra does have a spanish name, it means ‘the sowing’ as in seeds as in seeds of change. They adopted that name as well as the co-op business model in solidarity with their producer partners in the south.
Before you start making inaccurate and misleading statements, do a bit of research.
The story is all here on the website
http://www.lasiembra.com/en/coop.php
Cocoa Camino is one of the pioneers of Fair Trade chocolate in not just North America, but the world.
If only more business were as transparent as they were in their dealings and business practices.
Good luck with your research.
Wendy
(By the way, their chocolate also kicks ass!)
This post could not be more on the level..