On The Importance of Sourcing
Fair-Trade Can Be a Local Value
World Fair Trade Day was this past week, and we celebrated in our bakery by highlighting some of the suppliers that we source fair-trade ingredients from. Many of them are structured as worker-owned cooperatives themselves, and others source from small farmer-based cooperatives. Many focus on education as a way to empower farmers to choose organic and biodynamic practices, and some even have their own training farms for exactly this purpose. Favorite ingredients like sugar, chocolate, coffee, and spices are highest on our list of fairly-traded imports that we use in our bakery, and knowing that the farmers who grew these ingredients halfway around the world were compensated fairly is important to us practically and spiritually.
There has been a lot of news recently about various chocolate companies relying on child and slave labor. Many have pledged to do better but have been slow to follow through with lasting changes. To get cheap chocolate to an American consumer, somewhere along the line somebody was taken advantage of. Many cocoa farmers work every single day of their lives, many suffer health consequences from repeated exposure to pesticides, and many have never even tasted a chocolate bar. That’s why fair-trade is so important for things like chocolate that are frequently grown in situations of poverty and often have long, opaque supply chains.
But, there are many more ingredients that we use which come from within a hundred miles of our bakery. It got us thinking, can American grown products be fair-trade too?
What About American Grown?
When choosing a chocolate bar at the grocery store, it’s easy to spot which ones have that classic “fair-trade” symbol and to vote with our dollar for those values. But when buying American-grown products, it’s not so easy. The assumption at the grocery store may be that if something was grown in the United States, it’s a part of an economically just system. While there may be a cartoon of a smiling farmer on the packaging, that’s not necessarily an accurate portrayal.
It’s not because Americans aren’t aware that small farmers in this country are struggling financially. Many people in rural parts of the country interact with farmers daily, usually at their second jobs. The majority of household income for families operating small farms doesn’t come from the farm itself. On average, more than half of the money small farming families need to survive comes from outside employment. [1]
There’s also been plenty of news coverage recently about how cuts to USAID negatively impacts American farmers. The data about our government halting their usual spending of $2 billion is everywhere, as are direct quotes from farmers who have invested thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars into their crops and are now unsure how they will ever get that money back. [2]
But despite these challenges farmers face, the disconnect between what’s on our plates and how it got there keeps American consumers in the dark and American farmers at a disadvantage. We rely so heavily on pre-processed foods and grocery supply chains that, while we know farmers are struggling, taking any meaningful action to change this seems impossible.
Fair Trade Used to Exist in the U.S.
In most situations, farmers do not sell directly to eaters. Usually, there is some sort of middleman, or rather several, who each get a cut of the profits. If you buy a head of lettuce for $4.99, then subtract the salary of the cashier who rung it up, the cost of the electricity that powered the refrigerator in the store, the cost of the box that was used to transport it, the fuel of the truck that shipped it from California, and then divide what little profit is left between the grocery store owner, the trucking company owner, and the farmer, you get a sense of how the farmer was compensated. If farmers want to reach consumers in America, they are forced to participate in this system which takes advantage of them.
It seems like the evils of this system is necessary, but they really aren’t at all. Surprisingly, it didn’t used to be so hard for those on the producer side of the food chain. Fair Trade used to exist in the United States, and convenience for the consumer didn’t always come at the cost of the farmer.
In 1937, in response to concerns about how price discrimination and “race to the bottom” tactics created the financial conditions which lead to the Great Depression, the Miller-Tydings Act was passed. It allowed food producers to set a minimum retail price that grocery stores had to meet, preventing price undercutting and protecting healthy competition. This policy lasted over a decade until Congress amended the Federal Trade Commission Act. However, antitrust enforcement still effectively prevented grocery store mergers and protected small grocery businesses until the 1980s. President Reagan took a new approach to economics, and in 1982, the antitrust guidelines were loosened. “Reaganomics” effectively ended most competition protections for small businesses, leading to unprecedented mergers of grocery stores in the 1980’s and 90’s. [3]
As we all know, monopolies cause higher prices for the consumer. But they also are equally damaging to the producer. If there is only one channel through which a producer can get their goods onto someone’s dinner plate, they’re forced to accept whatever terms they are offered. The monopolizing chain store sets the rules for all parties involved.
How Can We Help?
It seems the pressure is on us, the average American consumers, to support our small farmers. If we’re already paying a little extra for the fair-trade chocolate bar, bringing those same values to our local food economy seems obvious. After all, it’s our local farmers who work and preserve the land we live on, contribute to our communities, and feed us and our neighbors. But how can we support them?
The best method is to find ways to pay farmers directly. If there are no middlemen taking a not-so-small cut, we know every dollar we pay a farmer supports them directly. Farmer’s Markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs are two great examples of this. And, many farmers of more shelf-stable items, such as grains and legumes, have websites themselves or sell online through alliances and networks. If you’re unsure how to buy from a farmer directly, just ask.
Sometimes a middleman is necessary, but remember that you have a choice in who that middleman is. Food co-ops are a great example of how we as consumers can still enjoy the convenience of a grocery store without sacrificing our values. Because the core values of food-coops are based around people, not profits, they do an excellent job of balancing the needs of the farmer and of the consumer.
Buying local is always a great option because the less distance food travels, the fewer hands it passes through. That means fewer middlemen and more profit for the farmer. It also means that less fuel was used for transportation, making the entire process a bit greener. However, there are some things that just don’t grow in certain regions, and local is not always an option. Still, there are ways to make sure we’re selecting the best product we can. When we buy things like citrus for our bakery, we always ensure that what we select organically grown, meaning at least we know the farmer wasn’t exposed to pesticides.
This week’s recipe is for Orange Walnut Cake. Oranges don’t grow anywhere near our New York City bakery, so we make a special trip to our local food co-op to buy organic oranges just for this cake. It’s worth the effort. Just one fragrant, juicy orange flavors the entire cake, and knowing we’ve done our best to support the farmer who grew that orange makes it all the more delicious. Let’s get baking!
Sources
2. https://betterworldcampaign.org/blog/what-us-farmers-get-from-americas-engagement-in-the-un
3. Grocery Story by Jon Steinman, pages 34-38
One of the most informative and in-depth article about fair trade issues. Thanks for supporting small farmers.