Book Review: Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization Edited by Laura T. Raynolds, Douglas L. Murray, and John Wilkinson. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. 240 pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-77203-7. $29.95 Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival Daniel Jaffee. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. 331 pp. ISBN: 978-0-520-24959-2. $22.95

Abstract

Over the past two decades since its inception in 1988, the fair trade certification system for agricultural commodities and handicrafts has provided one of the most effective buffers for impoverished rural households against the chronic economic insecurity endemic to the neoliberal era. In particular, fair trade coffee has helped hundreds of thousands of small coffee growers weather the most profound crisis in the commodity's history. The fair trade certification system guarantees small agricultural producers and artisans a minimum price for their products and supports their organization into democratically governed export businesses. The emergence of fair trade over the past decade has led to a flurry of journalistic and academic publications attempting to explain, justify, or critique its effectiveness. One set of questions has probed the characteristics of the system itself: the causes and consequences of its rapid growth, the scale and scope of its operations, its governance structure, its potential to change the norms of international trade, and its limitations as a niche market attracting mostly privileged consumers. Another set of questions address the issue of its effectiveness as a poverty-alleviation and small-producer empowerment tool. How well does the system work in providing benefits to small farmers and artisans? Are these underprivileged groups adequately represented in the system itself? How does participation in fair trade intersect with small producers' local communities and cultures? Is fair trade a vehicle for transformative change in marginalized communities, or merely a superficial palliative: a Band-Aid solution to a fundamental structural problem with global capitalism?Two recent volumes address these questions systematically. The edited volume Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization, put together by a team of researchers at Colorado State University's CFATS, or Center for Fair and Alternative Trade Studies, addresses the first group of questions broadly. Sociologist and journalist Daniel Jaffee, in his book Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival, addresses the second group. Readers more interested in system-wide issues should begin with the Colorado State volume, while those more interested in a unified, in-depth narrative about a group of the system's beneficiaries should choose Jaffee's work. Jaffee also addresses systemic issues in his book's introduction and later chapters. Both books are appropriate for teaching, but will thrive in different classroom settings. The Colorado State volume is geared towards economic sociology or business studies, at an advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate level. The Jaffee book will find its best fit as part of an interdisciplinary rural development curriculum for intermediate to advanced undergraduates.The Colorado State volume is as broad a look at the myriad dimensions of the new and rapidly expanding world of fair trade as one is likely to find. The book is divided into three parts: the first se...