A farmer in Ghana displays beans in the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative, which grows all the cocoa used by Divine Chocolate, a fairtrade chocolate promoted by Catholic Relief Services. Photo by Phil Grout / Courtesy of Catholic Relief Services / CNS.By Andrew Conradi
The B.C. Catholic
This is the first part of a two-part article.
The question has been raised: is fair trade really a poverty solution? (The B.C. Catholic, Sept. 12). Obviously un-fair trade is not!
The term "social justice" was first used in 1840 by a Sicilian priest, Father Luigi Taparelli d'Azeglio, SJ. His influence was reflected in Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which sought to correct the excesses of capitalism and free enterprise. It emphasized the worker's right to a living wage for the care and protection of his family, and his right to form trade unions.
Economic debate over the last 30 years or so is a reflection of the ideological struggle between those who support social justice and those with the conservative neo-liberal view that free markets can do no wrong.
The fair-trade debate reflects the tension between a purely neo-liberal model of the economy and ethical considerations favouring intervention in the market.
In 1985 Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) characterized the neo-liberal belief in Symposium on Church and Economy. He wrote:
"The market's inner logic should free us precisely from the necessity of having to depend on the morality of its participants. The true play of market laws best guarantees progress and even distributive justice. The question about market and ethics has long ceased to be merely a theoretical problem."
"The inherent inequality ... the free play of the market ... intensified the existing inequality. The result is that broad sectors of the Third World ... now identify the ground of their misery in the market economy, which they see as a system of exploitations, as institutionalised sin and injustice."
Pope Benedict has said the ongoing global economic crisis has demonstrated that the free market is not capable of regulating itself in a way that promotes the common good.
The assumption that the economy can go along happily without government intervention and moral standards "is based on an impoverished notion of economic life as a sort of self-calibrating mechanism," the Pope told members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences May 2, 2010.
If unrestricted markets perpetuate poverty then they qualify as what Pope John Paul II called "structures of sin."
In the words of Vicente Felipe, OFM: "Structures of sin may be defined as all those mechanisms, such as social habits, laws, institutions, organizations, examples, and influences, which do not respect the dignity of the human person: 'financial and social mechanisms which, although they are manipulated by people, often function almost automatically, thus accentuating the situation of wealth for some and poverty for the rest' (Solicitudo Rei Socialis, 16)."
The biggest buyers of raw coffee beans are the largest multinational buyers, dominated by four firms: NestlÇ, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee. They account for about 70 per cent of the market.
This qualifies as an unequal market and is open to manipulation by speculators. When it leads to impoverishment of already poor farmers it can be considered a structure of sin.
I ask Catholics who are confused by the anti-fair-trade arguments of those who seek to undermine fair trade to bear the following in mind. The Church supports a minimum wage or a living wage or a just price. Whether it is price-fixing or not, the Church supports it.
The various arms of Caritas Internationalis in the western world (CAFOD in England and Wales, CRS in the USA, and CCODP in Canada, to identify just a few) and the male and female religious Superiors' Unions (USG and UISG) consistently support fair trade, as do several religious orders (some Benedictines, Basilians, Franciscans etc.)
Since 2005 eight Catholic dioceses in England and Wales supported by CAFOD qualified as "fair-trade dioceses" according to the Fair Trade Foundation's criteria. At least one Irish diocese is also qualified as fair trade. Several others in the British Isles are working on it.
Among the many who support fair-trade products are the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; Archbishop Emeritus Roussin, SM; Newman Theological College; Plato's Cave Cafe at Corpus Christi College; and some Knights of Columbus Councils.
The CWL National Conference passed a resolution encouraging fair trade in 2000.
The support of Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB is clear. He accepted a proposal from the Office of Service and Justice that offices of the archdiocese be asked to purchase only "fair trade" products for use in their building and at diocesan events.
"This decision promotes authentic development by ensuring that farmers and other producers in poor countries are fairly compensated. It also sets an example for the parishes and people of the archdiocese," said the archbishop (The B.C. Catholic, Aug. 30, 2010). The website of the Office of Service and Justice reflects this support.
Are all these supporters of fair trade wrong? In the U.K. the fair-trade movement has taken off and become mainstream. It's on its way in B.C. also. Let's hope the trend accelerates.
Andrew Conradi is a member of CCODP. Part two of this article will appear in next week on The B.C. Catholic's website.
