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While enjoying a fantastic cup of coffee courtesy of the Kuranda Coffee Republic up near Cairns, I remembered that I wanted to write something about the various “socially responsible” trade organisations, specifically those that have a strong association to the coffee trade. Of late, there are two main socially responsible trade systems vying for your conscience and your dollar: Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance.

Fair Trade is really a movement consisting of a number of principal organisations: Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), World Fair Trade Organization, Network of European Worldshops and European Fair Trade Association. While Fair Trade refers to the overall movement, Fairtrade refers to the certification given by FLO. In the rest of this article, I refer to Fairtrade, because when you’re in the supermarket shopping for coffee, that’s the label you will see. One of the defining features of Fairtrade is that it guarantees the coffee grower (or whatever the product happens to be; we’ll just be dealing with coffee in this article) a predetermined minimum price for his/her coffee.

You can look at Fairtrade as being just like free trade, except that the coffee being sold has been sprinkled with a range of “socially responsible enhancements”. As mentioned, chief among these enhancements is the knowledge that the farmer who grows the coffee beans that end up in your mug gets at least an agreed minimum price for the coffee, and his/her farm workers are similarly guaranteed a minimum wage. The idea is that the consumer is paying a premium for a superior product, because the coffee has been produced in a way that yields greater benefits for the farmers who grow the coffee. So, in this respect, the price of Fairtrade coffee is set by supply and demand, just like non Fairtrade coffee. There is an ethical dilemma here, however. An important criticism of Fairtrade, and one that I believe is completely valid, is that Fairtrade artificially inflates the price of coffee, encouraging more people to grow coffee, thereby increasing supply and, in the long run, placing downward pressure on coffee prices (non-Fairtrade coffee). This, of course, results in farmers receiving less and less for the coffee they grow. The ethical dilemma is that Fairtrade coffee is marketed as being socially responsible and fair, but the question must be asked “fair to whom?” Certainly not to the farmer who sees the price of his coffee going down because all his mates have decided to try to get a piece of the action. The already oversupplied coffee market becomes even further oversupplied. Consumers with a social conscience, I believe, ought to think twice about Fairtrade – it might not be as fair or as socially responsible as you think. Besides, I wonder just how many consumers of Fairtrade coffee take the time to find out what this minimum wage is, and what this minimum wage could buy in the given farmer’s country.

Rainforest Alliance has different goals to that of Fairtrade. Its mission is to

…conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.

Rainforest Alliance certification means that goods (coffee in our case) are produced in an environmentally sustainable fashion, in adherence to the Sustainable Agriculture Network standards. These standards set down criteria relating to water pollution, erosion, environmental and human health, wildlife habitat protection, waste, water efficiency, farm management and working conditions. An important distinction from Fairtrade is that there is no artificial minimum price set for the product. As such, there is no artificial incentive introduced for more farmers to produce coffee, and therefore no distortion of production levels and prices. For these reasons, I’d be more comfortable buying Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee than Fairtrade Certified coffee. Rainforest Alliance certification is gaining momentum, with some big corporations, no doubt trying to improve their image, serving up or packaging up Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee. These include McDonald’s and Kraft.

Of course, there are other kinds of certification as well, including UTZ and various organic certifications. There’s also direct trade, whereby a coffee roaster or boutique coffee shop establishes a relationship directly with a coffee grower. This allows the buyer to select a grower who meets their own set of ethical criteria. Because the buyer knows first hand how the coffee is produced, there is no formal certification required. See the Cooperative Coffees site for a good explanation of the most common kinds of certifications.

Meanwhile, back at the Kuranda Coffee Republic, Mike just serves cups of great coffee, which are each works of art and feats of engineering, with an ample helping of banter. His differentiation is that he sells only direct to people, spurning lucrative approaches by corporations. I guess you could call this extreme direct trade, so his coffee requires no further certification. It’s not about capitalism or not capitalism, he claims. It’s that he wants all of the beans he grows to be served with a “Hello, how’s it going” and a “Thanks for coming.” Sell to corporations, he argues, and you can’t be guaranteed that the shop assistant or barista will respect the beans and the experience. And here’s a tip: engage Mike in good conversation, say thanks for your coffee, and for your next cup he might just give you the discount he reserves for locals. Even at the standard price of $3 for a large cup, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better value coffee anywhere in Far North Queensland, or all of Queensland for that matter. Will I be going back to the Kuranda Coffee Republic next time I’m in Cairns? You bet.

Nick Holmes a Court had his Blackberry forceably confiscated from his person by NSW police after he filmed them conducting a search. Apparently, the police had no right to do this, thank goodness. Holmes a Court twittered his experience minutes after the incident.

I’ve previously documented my thinking on issues of surveillance, though I hadn’t specifically considered the situation where a member of the public films a police operation or an operation conducted by some other state agency. I think what I wrote in that article holds for this case, too. If anything, I’d expressly encourage this sort of surveillance. We still live in a free democracy, don’t we?

Rather extreme measure I would have thought.

(AAP)

Have you seen the Kevin Rudd memorabilia store? It’s a hoot. My favourite items are the Kevin Rudd Decisive Action Doll, and the School Computer.

I certainly had a laugh, but one does have to wonder whether the Liberals might have found a better use of their limited funds…

Nah!

It is a rare election that, by its outcome alone, achieves something so profound as the recent US presidential race. Ultimately, Barack Obama will, rightly, be judged by his accomplishments as the 44^th President of the United States of America. He ascends to the presidency at a time of global economic turmoil; an era in which many scientists would have us believe our decisions and non-decisions will define the future of our planet and our place on it; and a decade that has seen the US and its allies engaged in wars on two fronts. It will not be an easy presidency.

Yet, for all that, his election in and of itself has given hope to millions of his fellow countrymen and women, and perhaps billions of people around the world who happen to share his skin colour. One gets the feeling that it is the kind of hope accompanied by equal parts relief and outright joy, particularly for those who have lived long enough to witness some of the various events in US history that each contributed to the moment of Barack Obama’s victory speech. What’s sad is that it has taken so long for this day to come. What’s sad is that the colour of someone’s skin still matters. History, too, is sure to remember him primarily as America’s first black president, regardless of what he achieves or fails to achieve over the next four or eight years.

Whether you agree with his politics or not (or, if like me, you feel there was so little depth to the presidential campaigns of both the major parties that it is nearly impossible to tell what policies will be pursued), you must admire Obama’s terrific achievement. To overcome McCain and Palin so definitively is an enormous feat; but to have first defeated the machine called Hillary and Bill Clinton is, when you think about it, incredible.

Living in a small country across the Pacific Ocean as I do, with any luck I will not be chastised for confessing that, perhaps more than anything, I look forward to being wowed by Barack Obama’s indisputably sublime oratory skills. A president with a command of the English language: how novel. Our very own prime minister might take a leaf out of the President-elect’s book, and infuse some inspiring words into his rather mundane speeches.

Republican Colin Powell, Secretary of State during George Bush’s first term as president, has endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

Via James.

Here’s a presentation from Slideshare about the economic meltdown. Really good.

Believe it or not, some of the best commentary I’ve found on the financial crisis sweeping the globe has been on the Essential Baby forum. Two posts by someone called LucyE, made in the week leading up to the approval of the bail out plan, are particularly good. The second post is the better of them. I just thought that this was an excellent, easy to understand high-level explanation of the current situation and what is likely to happen. LucyE’s posts were obviously appreciated by many of the members of that forum.

I also appreciated the below video explanation of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), which are at the heart of the current problems. Worth a look. More in depth than LucyE’s analysis, but still understandable for the lay person. (Via Presentation Zen.)

Georgia, it seems, may finally have reason to celebrate after what’s been a tough few weeks for the former Soviet nation. A revised tally of the 2008 Olympic gold medal count, which adjusts the tally according to carbon emissions, puts Georgia at the top of the rankings, well ahead of its nemesis, Russia. Jamaica, Ethiopia, Kenya and Cameroon round out the top 5 in the revised tally.

Australia, Russia, China and the USA are left trailing by some margin, as shown in the figure below.

Armenia tops out the revised ranking when all medals are taken into account.

It gets even worse for the traditional powerhouses of Olympic sport.

Notes:

1. The medal tally is from the official overall medal standings for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
2. Emissions data is from CDIAC – A Compendium of Data on Global Change. This means the emissions data is from 2004 (i.e., it is a little out of date). Anyone know of a complete set of more up to date data?
3. This article is, of course, for your amusement only; this analysis is completely meaningless, and should not be cited as evidence in any argument (in pubs, courtrooms, scientific conferences or elsewhere).

What were the big ideas emerging from the 2020 Summit? In amongst the calls for reviews of this system and that (after all, calling for a review of something is a mindbogglingly novel idea) and the establishment of commissions here, there and everywhere, there were some interesting ideas, but very few novel ones.

The idea of a citizens’ cabinet online was broached, as was the idea of smart energy and water meters so that people can measure their personal environmental footprint. There were a number of other interesting ideas, but I’d say many of them belong in the private sector (including the smart meter idea). The Healthbook idea, for example, is one that might be useful, but should involve the government as little as possible (i.e., perhaps in a regulatory role only).

After the summit, Tim Costello and Kevin Rudd were accused of hijacking the outcomes document. Some of the delegates say that a few of the top ideas appearing in the outcomes document were barely, or never, discussed. Other delegates complain that they were railroaded by the facilitators.

Overall, I’m incredibly disappointed with the “top ideas” that made the summary document. I’m sure there were other, more novel ideas that were raised which haven’t been included.

The trouble with these sorts of exercises is that either certain people in positions of power get to assert their ideas at the expense of others, or the “top ideas” are actually a kind of lowest common denominator consensus, which means none of the truly great ideas make the cut.