Comments on: Fair Trade and Second Cup

By: J.O.B.

J.O.B. — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Hi JH,

You are correct that Tea is a big issue as well. No easy answer. An interesting rebuttal to the merits of Fair Trade can be found here: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/12/munger_on_fair.html

Though I don’t agree with everything they say, it does raise some interesting points worth considering. Thanks for the comment, Jonathan.

By: JH

JH — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:50:00 +0000

I, too, have been wondering about the labour and trade practices of Second Cup. A few years back, the hospital corporation in Hamilton, Ontario, decided to outsource their cafeteria and coffee services to Cara and Second Cup. Previously, the workers had been unionized employees with health benefits and a living wage. One of the smaller cafes also had the option of fair trade coffee.
I appreciate the results of your letter–although the Second Cup response seemed definitely like a prepared PR response….
Perhaps letters like yours will go somewhere in creating the consumer demand for revised ethical standards, consistent with its attempt to reflect a friendly and distinctly “Canadian” image. On another note, neither Starbucks, nor any other major coffee retailer, however, has a commitment to Fair Trade teas…something which garners a fair bit of interest for me since the majority of tea production occurs in countries with much lower levels of popular democracy and popular labour mobilization….(e.g. Sri Lanka, India, China, Kenya…)
The tea trading story continues!

By: Louis Burroughes

Louis Burroughes — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:31:00 +0000

Although that corporate email reads as though the recipient’s email client filters went off after finding “fair trade” in the body, it does seem relatively authentic.

What a friendly email, though!

I too, am interested in their definition of “premium” pricing on their purchased product – I hope you keep us (have any other readers?) posted vis-a-vis any answer you receive.