Fair Trade Twitter Experiment

Published December 16, 2008 @ 11:18PM PT

Twitter-ers. There's a Fair Trade experiment a-brewin'. Fair Trader, Tim Davies is on the lookout for cafes out there that will actually serve your Fair Trade Certified coffee when you ask for it.

Have you asked for the Fairtrade option in a coffee shop that advertise it as an extra and been met by a bemused look from the person serving, been told that it’s out of stock, or simply been told they don’t sell Fairtrade coffee, in spite of the big Fairtrade logo on their menu?

I have. Quite a lot of times. And it’s really frustrating.

Tim decided to take action on the internets and created the twitter account @askforfairtrade for fellow twitter-ers to report on businesses who actually follow through on their promise to serve Fair Trade coffee.

Very similar to GreenLAGirl's Starbuck's Challenge that called out to folks to go to their local Starbucks and ask for their Fair Trade Certified blend and see if they would actually serve it or not. Starbucks has told their consumers that when you ask for Fair Trade coffee, the barista is supposed to French-press a cup of coffee of their Estima blend, which is the only Fair Trade coffee line that they currently carry. It shouldn't cost extra either.

I've taken the Starbucks challenge many times, even before knowing about GreenLAGirl's campaign, and Starbucks hasn't really delivered. I've gotten confused looks from baristas, have been told that they only brew Fair Trade coffee once a month (sometimes twice!), deny they have a Fair Trade blend, have received the stink eye because they didn't want to bust out the French press (which by the way makes the best tasting coffee) and have heard "No, but we do have a nice Holiday blend for you" pretty often. Only once or twice have they actually brewed me a Fair Trade cup and that was after they talked to the manager about it. Yes, I am that guy.

The purpose of Tim's experiment and GreenLAGirl's campaign is a great way to show companies that consumers really are asking for Fair Trade and that the demand is there.

Big companies are actively misleading consumers, giving the impression that their coffee is ethically produced and certified to Fairtrade standards, when in fact, Fairtrade is only available as an optional extra, and no effort is taken to actively encourage customers to ask for Fairtrade. In fact, from my experience, the level of service when trying to ask for the Fairtrade option actively discourages it.

By collecting reports of whether or not coffee shops and chains are living up to their promise to provide a Fairtrade option we can put pressure on them to make sure staff are trained, and products are in stock, for choosing the Fairtrade option to be the easy option. And we can demonstrate the consumer demand for Fairtrade as standard.

My most recent 'ask for Fair Trade' experience. Was at Peets coffee a few weeks ago and saw the TransFair logo next to one of their coffees. Asked for it and the barista seemed very hesitant telling me that it would take a very long time. Didn't look like she wanted to do it. Then tried to discourage me more by telling me that their other coffee is 'better than Fair Trade'. She also told me it would be $5. $5! My medium coffee at my local bakery is $1.25 everyday and they only carry Fair Trade. So, it doesn't have to cost that much. Even Starbucks isn't charging you extra. No thank you, Peets.

Have a story of your own? Share it. Follow @askforfairtrade, tweet your experience and show us all who's living up to their word.

[image: tim davies]

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Comments (8)

Hi,

I haven't see any fair trade organizations on Twitter yet?
http://twitter.com/nonprofitorgs

Know of any?

Thanks!

Posted by Heather Mansfield on 12/17/2008 @ 08:10AM PT
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The fair trade organization Global Goods Partners recently signed up for a Twitter account.
Check us out at www.twitter.com/GlobalGoods!

Posted by Global Goods Partners on 12/17/2008 @ 10:16AM PT
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Does anyone have a sense of how many Fair Trade-friendly people are also avid (or even casual) Twitter-ers?

I've asked around, and have only come across one.

I'm wondering if this sort of thing could be organized into a successful campaign.

Posted by Michael Zelmer on 12/18/2008 @ 08:17AM PT
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Fair Grounds Coffee in Norfolk, VA is all Fair Trade all the time. Bravo on this experiment!
-Susan

Posted by Susan Posey on 12/21/2008 @ 05:38PM PT
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Thanks for the positive feedback.

I've not found much talk of Fairtrade through Twitter search - so keen to see if the @askforfairtrade experiment could help catalyse discussion...

I've set up a bit more of a home for the project asides from my blog at http://askforfairtrade.wordpress.com and would love to hear suggestions from people on how this could develop as a larger campaign...

Posted by Tim Davies on 12/24/2008 @ 10:41AM PT
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@heather: I know that Equal Exchange is on twitter. I see Solidarity Cloth is on there too. Global Exchange is on twitter as well. I really think twitter would be a good outlet for Fair Trade orgs to reach out to more people out there. I know there must be a lot of Fair Trade twitter-ers out there. I just don't think the twitter search feature is a very good one right now.

@Michael: There is something called Flock up on twitter. I see up a 'Fair Trade' flock in hopes to gather Fair Traders out there. Feel free to add yourself, or other people you know on there.
http://flockup.com/flocks/fairtrade

@Susan: Kudos on being Fair Trade all the time! Perhaps I can feature your coffee shop as a Face of Fair Trade sometime. :)

@Tim: Thanks for posting and for starting this experiment. I will be posting about the blog and hopefully start a bigger discussion on how to make this work. You should check out GreenLAGirl's campaign for her Starbucks challenge. That worked really well.

Posted by Zarah Patriana on 12/27/2008 @ 10:47AM PT
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Tim Davies should post an easy access list of cafes and coffeehouses that have been reported Fair Trade friendly. As far as I've found, he hasn't yet.

Posted by Jacqueline Maloney on 02/24/2009 @ 05:39AM PT
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Hey Jacqueline

I've not yet compiled a list as there haven't been all that many direct reports to @askforfairtrade yet (though it has sparked lots of Fairtrade related conversations)...

However - you can find most of the reports (from anyone who has their twitter account set to public) here:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%40askforfairtrade

Posted by Tim Davies on 02/24/2009 @ 05:46AM PT
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Author

Zarah is the Operations Manager for the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store, a project of the international human rights organization, Global Exchange. Alongside her work with marginalized communities from all over the world to get their products into the international market, Zarah serves to educate and inform the public about a more just and sustainable trading system.