CONSUMER ACTIVISM AND

ACCOUNTABILITY

Presented by: MOHD. ARISH

Journal Research for ConsumersIssued on 2002

This article outlines the Fair Trade issues surrounding coffee and cocoa production.

This article is show the condition of farmers and workers.

They live with Poverty, Illiteracy, and a long legacy of economic colonialism.

The Consumer Activists have been putting pressure on big coffee retailers to buy directly from cooperative farmers and pay them a price that represents a living wage.

Fair trade is the name of this movement.

ARTICLE INTRODUCTION

Consumer activism is activism undertaken on behalf of consumers, to assert consumer rights.

Consumer activism has yet to be identified 

for what it is – a coherent set of activities 

in which citizens use their consumer identity to press political claims – so it’s not surprising that research on this 

phenomenon is limited

DEFINITIONS

The Revolutionary Movement of fair trade is start in 1980.

Coffee is the largest single product in the Fair Trade Movement.

Equal Exchange is now the largest Fair Trade coffee importer in the US, purchasing 1.76 million pounds of green beans in 2001.

Returning an unprecedented $960,000 in Fair Trade over-market premiums directly to farmer cooperatives.

The FTF, and its sister organization the Fair Trade Resource Network, works to increase public awareness about Fair Trade and increase the sales of Fair Trade products in the US.

HISTORY OF

FAIR TRADE

In 2008, Fair trade certified sales amounted to approximately €2.9 billion (US $4.08 billion) worldwide, a 22% year-to-year increase. As per December

2008.

FAIR TRADE TODAY

1. Fair Trade Sustainability and Survival.

2. Fair Trade on Producers and their Organizations.

3. Poverty Alleviation and Fair Trade .

4. Assessing the Potential of Fair Trade for Poverty Reduction and Conflict Prevention

IMPACTS OF

FAIR TRADE

Goals include making goods and services available to consumers safer, better quality, environmentally friendly, and more readily available.

The activists and consumers in the movement hope to provide security and healthy standards for employed consumers

The state should protect against profiteers, disease, unemployment, and market fluctuations.

The ideal goal is to push consumers to question the morality of a purchased product's origins.

Consumer activist tactics can include boycotts, petitioning the government, media activism, and organizing interest groups

OBJECTIVE AND

TACTICS

The coffee crisis gives new urgency to efforts to promote the alternative--Fair Trade.

Fair Trade offers a mechanism for small farmers to receive higher prices as an alternative to the "tyranny of the C market“.

The most important requirement is a minimum price of $1.26 per pound, paid directly to organized farmer cooperatives-not to middlemen.

Fair Trade importers also must provide farmers with credit at fair terms and commit to long-term trade relationships.

The recipients of Fair Trade benefits are some 550,000 farmers organized into 300 cooperatives in 21 countries in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia.

ALTERNATIVE OF

FAIR TRADE

10 STANDARD OF

FAIR TRADEWFTO prescribes 10 Standards that Fair Trade Organizations must follow in their day-to-day work and carries out monitoring to ensure these principles are upheld:

1. Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers.

2. Transparency and Accountability.

3. Trading Practices .

4. Payment of a Fair Price .

5. Child Labour and Forced Labour . 

6. Non Discrimination, Gender Equity and Freedom of Association .

7. Working Conditions .

8. Capacity Building .

9. Promotion of Fair Trade.

10. Environment . 

QUESTION'S

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THANK YOU