On Fair Trade

Having been brought up on coffee/cardamom/cocoa experimental plantations in India I have great sympathy for the Fair trade concept, and was a subscriber for years to Green Mountain Coffee at work.

I am not sure what the minimum economically viable plantation size in Latin America and Africa are, in India it is around 20+ acres. That being the case, most plantations are family or company owned where the labour, usually seasonal (except for a few), are the ones who may have to starve during the hiatus in non-season. I am not sure how exactly FT works, but I know that it assures a minimum price on the coffee. That probably is good for the family or company that owns the plantation, not necessarily the labour. It would probably have been more beneficial for the labour if Fair trade funneled the funds to directly benefit the labour (schools, hospitals, etc.)  rather than funnel it through the price paid to the plantation owners. 

I was in India during october/november and travelled extensively through the coffee growing area (especially Coorg, in my mind one of the places on earth closest to heaven, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodagu_district) where I saw small children walking in batches along the highway through forests for miles to go to school (the plantation families send their children to fancy boarding schools or have them chauffeured to the local schools). There are no health facilities except at the county seats, unless the plantation owner is a physician (many are) and provide help.

Cooperatives are an excellent idea, but I doubt they are that popular in coffee plantations. They have had much better luck in dairy farming in third world countries.