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Current Projects

1)Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization

2)Faith-based Traditions in the Fair Trade Movement

3)Fair Trade and Labor Rights

4)Conscious Consumption: Linking Global and Local Issues

5)Comparative Certifications: Environmental and Social Dimensions

6)Sustainable Tourism: Certification and Social Change in the World’s Largest Industry

7)Fair and Alternative Trade in Northern Markets: Shifting Dynamics

8)Assessing the Impacts of Fair and Alternative Trade on Producers

1) Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization

Project Summary:

Fair Trade is expanding rapidly around the world. This movement offers important opportunities for empowering producers and alleviating poverty in the global South and for increasing Northern consumer consciousness and action promoting global social justice. Yet, the expansion of Fair Trade into new types of commodities, production regions, and retail venues is raising important new challenges. How can Fair Trade face the challenges ahead and fulfill its promise, broadening and deepening its positive impacts now and in the future?

This project enhances the capacity of a North / South network of institutions addressing issues of fair and alternative trade and undertakes a four continent comparative research project. Our research focuses on: (1) Identifying the key trends, promises, and challenges associated with Fair Trade's rapid expansion into new commodities, production regions, and market venues; and (2) Analyzing how the Fair Trade movement and market can best meet these challenges both internally and via collaborations with other groups fostering global social justice.

CFATS Personnel:

Douglas Murray and Laura Raynolds (Directors); Michael Long and Andrew Heller

Collaborators:

John Wilkinson and Gilberto Mascarenhas - Federal Rural University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Stephanie Barrientos and Sally Smith - Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, England; Michael Conroy - Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT, USA; Andres du Toit and Sandra Kruger - University of the Western Cape, Belville, South Africa; Marie-Christine Renard - University of Chapingo, Mexico

Funding:

Ford Foundation, Community and Resource Development Program; Institute of International Education

Products:

Collaborating institutions are hosting a series of workshops to build regional and global networks which enhance ties amongst researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, communicate research findings, and identify further research needs.

Already in its second printing, Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization, edited by Laura Raynolds, Douglas Murray, and John Wilkinson (Routledge 2007), presents full project findings including case study chapters from four continents and analytic chapters covering Fair Trade’s empirical and theoretical dimensions.

For a summary of our conclusions, see our Policy Brief: Laura Raynolds and Douglas Murray, The Fair Trade Future. Carnegie Council, New York.

2) Faith-based Traditions in the Fair Trade Movement

Project Summary:

Fair Trade has been transformed over recent years from a relatively obscure social movement into a powerful market-based mechanism for social change. While some publications mention Fair Trade’s faith-based roots, scholarly research has largely ignored the ongoing importance of faith to the movement as a whole.

This project explores the ongoing role of faith within the Fair Trade movement. We analyze the historical, contemporary, and potential future relationships between faith-based organizations and Fair Trade development. We operate from the assumption that current Fair Trade tensions are not necessarily a negative force, but are rather an indicator of movement resiliency. This project seeks to uncover how faith-based organizations will continue to inform the Fair Trade movement as they possess the ability to provide a human face to an increasingly bureaucratized “Fair Trade industry” and can demonstrate an ongoing commitment to the original values and goals of the Fair Trade movement.

CFATS Personnel:

Douglas Murray and Mary Littrell (Directors); Jennifer Keahey

Funding:

The Mennonite Central Committee

Products:

Full research findings will be made available through academic articles, general interest articles and the CFATS website.

3) Fair Trade and Labor Rights

Project Summary:

Fair Trade and Labor Rights initiatives are often seen as divergent approaches to improving social conditions in the global economy. Yet these strategies focus on many of the same issues and encounter many of the same problems. This project explores and seeks to bolster the synergies between these two approaches to enhancing democratic global governance. International Framework Agreements, negotiated between multinational corporations and global union organizations, represent a promising new institutional innovation at the crossroads of Fair Trade and Labor Rights efforts. This project analyzes the effectiveness of International Framework Agreements, heightening their visibility and deepening the collective understanding of this new approach among scholars, policymakers, and civil society groups.

CFATS Personnel:

Dimitris Stevis and Laura Raynolds (Directors)

Products:

Full research findings will be made available through academic articles, general interest articles and the CFATS website.

4) Conscious Consumption: Linking Global and Local Issues

Project Summary:

Conscious consumption is growing across the global North as consumers increasingly look for assurances that what they buy is produced and traded under socially just and sustainable conditions. This growth in consumer consciousness supports a range of fair and alternative trade initiatives in international, national, and local agro-food systems.

This project raises public awareness of conscious consumption issues, provides information exchanges, and fosters social action. We analyze the rise of ethical consumption nationally and in our local community of Fort Collins, Colorado. Our research reveals the spread of conscious consumption beyond niche markets into the North American mainstream. Through community outreach and local engagement we raise public awareness of existing ethical consumer practices and facilitate dialogue between local organizations, individuals, and businesses around this issue.

CFATS Personnel:

Douglas Murray and Laura Raynolds (Directors); Dawn Thilmany, Michelle Glowa, and Michael Long

Funding:

The Bohemian Foundation, Pharos Fund

Products:

The Conscious Consumer Report outlines the availability of Fair Trade, alternative trade, organic and locally produced food products in the Fort Collins community. An interactive Google Earth component allows the user to "fly" to each of the listed businesses and get directions. If you would like to install the Google Earth program to view the interactive portion of the report, click here.

CFATS has helped fund the 2006/2007 Fort Collins Area Be Local Coupon Book, produced by the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Association. Our engagement highlights the linkages between local and global ethical consumption.

At the national level, our chart on Ethical Consumerism in the US summarizes the key findings from recent studies on the nature and extent of ethical consumerism.

Related Projects:

Michael A. Long, Ph.D. Dissertation project, "Consumption of Fair Trade Agro-Food Products in the U.S.: Consumer Movement or New Corporate Market?"

5) Comparative Certifications: Environmental and Social Dimensions

Project Summary:

Over recent years we have seen the rise of a growing number of certification and labeling initiatives that seek to enhance environmental and social sustainability. This project analyzes the expansion of these private regulatory efforts in coffee and other key sectors. We compare major certifications (such as the Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Utz Kapeh, and Shade/Bird Friendly initiatives), outlining and contrasting their governance structures, environmental and social standards, and market positions.

We argue that certifications that seek to raise ecological and social expectations are likely to be increasingly challenged by those that seek to simply uphold current standards. The vulnerability of these initiatives to market pressures highlights the need for private regulation to work in tandem with public regulation in enhancing social and environmental sustainability.

CFATS Personnel:

Laura Raynolds and Douglas Murray (Directors); Andrew Heller

Products:

2007 - Raynolds, Laura T., Douglas Murray and Andrew Heller, “Regulating Sustainability in the Coffee Sector: A Comparative Analysis of Third-Party Environmental and Social Certification Initiatives.” Agriculture and Human Values 24: 147-163.

2006 - Raynolds, Laura T. “The Organic and Fair Trade Movements: Fostering Global Ecological Sustainability and Social Justice” The Optimist Magazine, Geneva: Green Cross International, Autumn. Douglas Murray and Laura Raynolds, "Pesticides and Fair Trade: The Dilemmas of Mainstreaming a Movement" Under Revision.

6) Sustainable Tourism: Certification and Social Change in the World's Largest Industry.

Project Summary:

Tourism is the world's largest industry, linking travelers and hosts both economically and personally in ways like no other North / South exchange. Tourism’s potential in bolstering global links as well national and local economies makes it a popular development tool. Yet large scale tourism may cause a host of societal and ecological problems. Sustainable tourism initiatives have recently emerged, including a set of certifications that seek to shape destination choices through assurances of a high quality experience and increasingly that tourism will be beneficial to local economies, cultures and ecosystems.

This project compares the relative effects of different sustainable tourism certification systems, especially in their ability to empower host communities and protect the environment. Current research is being carried out in collaboration with the United Nation's Environmental Programme on the emergence of the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council, the first global certification body for sustainable tourism.

CFATS Personnel:

Douglas Murray (Director); Daniel McLane

7) Fair and Alternative Trade in Northern Markets: Shifting Dynamics

Project Summary:

This project analyzes the shifting dynamics of Fair and Alternative Trade markets in the Global North. We map new market trends across major Northern markets. Analysis focuses particularly on the United States which has emerged as the world’s largest Fair Trade market. The US has seen a tremendous growth in certified Fair Trade coffee sales and certification is now expanding to include a range of new commodities, like bananas, flowers, and fresh produce. Yet growth continues also in more traditional, typically non-certified, cultural products sectors.

The project analyzes the expanding commodity range and distribution systems involved in this Northern market expansion. Significant attention is placed on the impacts of mainstreaming on Fair and Alternative Trade movement goals.

CFATS Personnel:

Laura Raynolds (Director); Siphelo Ngcwangu, Michael Long, and Jennifer Keahey

Funding:

CSU College of Liberal Arts, Research and Artistry Enhancement Initiative, Academic Enrichment Program.

Products:

2008 - Raynolds, Laura T. and Ngcwangu, Siphelo U. “Fair Trade Rooibos Tea

Networks:

Connecting South African Producers and American Consumers.”

2007 - Raynolds, Laura T. “Fair Trade Bananas: Broadening the Movement and Market in the United States.” Pp. 63-82 in L. Raynolds et al. (eds.) Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization, London: Routledge.

8) Assessing the Impacts of Fair and Alternative Trade on Producers

Project Summary:

This project was initiative via a study of the implications of Fair Trade coffee production for poverty reduction in Latin America, undertaken with the assistance of Desarrollo Alternativo (DESAL) and Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social (CIESAS) in Mexico.

The study reveals the critical role of Fair Trade in the survival of Latin American producers and identifies the key financial and non-financial benefits derived from participation in Fair Trade for farmers, families, communities, and cooperative groups. We present a set of policy recommendations based on an analysis of the central challenges facing this approach to poverty alleviation in the coffee sector. Ongoing work in this area focuses on the impact of Fair and Alternative Trade engagement on producers across a range of commodity areas and regions.

CFATS Personnel:

Douglas Murray and Laura Raynolds (Directors); Peter Taylor, Maureen DeCoursey, Aimee Shreck, Andrew Heller, and Siphelo Ngcwangu.

Collaborators:

Ernesto Mendez - University of California, Santa Cruz & Programa Salvadoreno de Investigacion en Desarrollo y Medio Ambiente (PRISMA); Sarah Lyon - Emory University; Frans VanderHoff Boersma - Union of Indigenous Communities in the Isthmus Region (UCIRI); Josefina Aranda and Carmen Morales - Oaxacan State Coffee Producers Network (CEPCO); Victor Perezgrovas and Garza Edith Cervantes Trejos - Union Mojomut; Ronald Nigh and Amalia Gonzalez Cabanas - Centro de Investigaciones Economicas, Administrativas y Sociales (CIECAS); Maria Elena Martinez Torres - Desarrollo Alternativo (DESAL); Marie-Christine Renard - University of Chapingo, Mexico

Funding:

The Ford Foundation, Community and Resource Development Program

Products:

2008 - Raynolds, Laura T. “The Organic Agro-Export Boom in the Dominican Republic: Maintaining Tradition or Fostering Transformation?” Latin American Research Review 43 (1): 161-184.

2007 -Raynolds, Laura T. “The Impacts of Cafédirect’s Business Model: A Comparative Analysis of Producer Partners in Peru and Mexico.” Consultancy Report prepared for Cafédirect.

2006 - Murray, Douglas L.; Laura T. Raynolds and Peter L. Taylor, “The Future of Fair Trade Coffee: Dilemmas for Latin America's Small-Scale Producers.” Development in Practice 16 (2): 179-192.

2005 - Taylor, Peter Leigh, Douglas L. Murray and Laura T. Raynolds, “Keeping Trade Fair: Governance Challenges in the Fair Trade Coffee Initiative.” Sustainable Development 13: 199-208.

2004 - Raynolds, Laura T., Douglas Murray and Peter Leigh Taylor, “Fair Trade Coffee: Building Producer Capacity via Global Networks.” Journal of International Development 16: 1109-1121.

2003 - Murray, Douglas, Laura T. Raynolds, and Peter Leigh Taylor, One Cup at a Time: Poverty Alleviation and Fair Trade in Latin America.

Related Projects:

Andrew Heller, Ph.D. Dissertation project, "Competing Coffee Certification Schemes in Guatemala: Who Wins and Who Loses?" Recipient of Fulbright Graduate Student Fellowship for field work in Guatemala.