There is a concern that traditional market systems of trade maximize economic profits for the global North, while costing the South not only economically, but also socially and environmentally.
Early Years
The Fairtrade movement arose during the post-World War II rebuilding period. Globally, this was a period of time when organizations were formed in an attempt to standardize financing practices and development policies.
The idea of "development trade" began with European and American organizations and churches linked with impoverished communities. These groups would purchase goods from people in developing countries and sell them to customers in developed countries.
Throughout the 60's and 70's the number of these organizations – known as Alternative Trade Organizations or ATOs – increased (including the organization Ten Thousand Villages which still exists today). The ATOs were most heavily concentrated in Europe where alternative trade shops sprang up selling goods bought directly from producers or producer organizations.
Many of the secular ATOs in Europe were associated with the political Left and worked to build bridges with communities in countries such as North Vietnam, Cuba, and Nicaragua after the Sandinista revolution. Fairtrade's commitment to "solidarity" comes from this leftist tradition.
Trade, Not Aid
In the 80's, development organizations were championing the slogan "trade, not aid" as the proper method to sustainable development. In reaction to the corruption and systems of dependency created by foreign aid to large organizations and directly to governments.
The solidarity networks that formed during the 60s and 70s were working together to propose a fundamentally different market system as a challenge to the global capitalist system. It was at this point the term "fair trade" was connected to the movement as opposed to the "free trade" policies of the time.
Max Havelaar Label
In 1988 an indigenous coffee cooperative from Oaxaca, Mexico drafted a proposal for Dutch ATO, Solidaridad, to buy and sell large quantities of coffee. Rather than creating a bridge between the one Mexican group and the European market, Solidaridad came up with the Max Havelaar label. This label could be placed on any coffee where the producer was paid a "fair return".
This certification process was mimicked by other groups, including Transfair and the FairTrade Foundation. At the same time, ATOs were increasingly working together. In 1989 the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT) formed between dozens of organizations to create a global support network.
Fairtrade Labeling Organizations
In 1997, the various fair trade certification organizations formed an international organization incorporating the ideals of all of the separate labels into one. The Fairtrade Labeling Organizations (FLO) group created a set of standards and systems of accountability to ensure the standards are met.
Starbucks and the Future of Fairtrade
In 1999, fair trade coffee was introduced in the United States, the world's largest coffee consumer. Advocacy groups, such as Global Exchange, began to demand that mainstream companies, particularly Starbucks, begin buying and selling fairly traded coffee. After a crafty "Roast Starbucks" campaign convinced the company to sell fair trade coffee, other roasters in the United States took notice and began buying and selling fair trade coffee to conscientious consumers. Demand for fair trade coffee exploded in the following decade and continues to grow. In the mid 00's, mainstream industries such as Dunkin Donuts, Costco, Target, and Proctor and Gamble (the producer of Folgers) all had fair trade labelled coffee.
In 2009, Starbucks doubled its consumption of fair trade coffee, making it the world's largest consumer of fair trade coffee. Advocates are deeply concerned that this is just a move to "tradewash" the company and that this gives one consumer a disproportionate amount of control over the fair trade movement.
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