The Global Food Crisis and Fair Trade

by Zarah Patriana

Published February 19, 2009 @ 11:15AM PT

The global food crisis is a serious deal with nearly one billion people in the world starving. I've mentioned the importance of finding a solution to the crisis through the help of small farmers and there have also been calls for the Fair Trade movement to finds its voice in order to help deal with the crisis. Well folks, ask and ye shall receive. The Fairtrade Foundation has just released a report called The Global Food Crisis and Fairtrade: Small farmers, big solutions? addressing all the issues we've been talking about. According to Chief Executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, Harriet Lamb,

These are tough times for everyone, but they’re desperate times for many poor communities and small farmers in developing countries. They urgently need support to keep producing the food we all eat, and to provide a future for their families. We are calling on governments, North and South, and businesses to ensure this crucial small farmer sector is placed centre stage in strategies to tackle the food crisis and boost agricultural production.

The report has been released in preparation for Fairtrade Fortnight that is starting next week where there will be a conference discussing Fair Trade's role in addressing the global food crisis. The mechanism of helping small farmers through Fair Trade has already been in place, it is just now with the global food crisis being so serious, it is time for the Fair Trade movement to strengthen its work and increase demand. According to Ugandan vanilla farmer, Joseph Mbusa,

Access to the Fairtrade market has given us hope, otherwise we would have been wiped out. Without hope farmers would be harder hit, and would be degraded. The hope for our future is Fairtrade sale.

Fair Trade farmers are able to secure better prices by being organized in a cooperative than they could as individuals who middlemen and coyotes tend to exploit. The extra income from Fair Trade helps farmers during times of skyrocketing food prices and the Fair Trade premium helps the farmers develop and improve their businesses and communities.

However, the report also concludes that Fair Trade alone cannot help these farmers to solve the global food crisis. While it is important to increase demand for Fair Trade products in the market, the food crisis will be solved by a joint effort from all movements and through the support of governments and institutions. Northern governments should increase their aid to agricultural efforts and Southern governments should streghthen producer and farmer organizations. Harriet Lamb concludes,

Put quite simply, we’re calling on all major players to put smallholders at the heart of their agricultural policies. Everyone can do their bit by increasing the size of Fairtrade markets, but there also needs to be a concerted effort by governments, international institutions and business to shore up agricultural support systems so that small farmers can stay on the land, produce food for local consumption, as well as get a better deal from trade so that they can also play their part in tackling poverty and contributing towards the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals, to which governments have committed.

The mechanisms are all there, we just have to follow through on these big solutions in order to help small farmers in this crisis.

[photo: reuters]