And on the topic of “Fair Trade” …

Oxfam coffee ‘harms’ poor farmers

Caroline Overington

April 28, 2007

TWO Melbourne academics have lodged formal complaints against Oxfam Australia over the sale of Fairtrade coffee, saying it should not be promoted as helping to lift Third World producers out of poverty because growers are paid very little for their beans.

You can read the rest of the article, but here’s the summary: Tim Wilson, a research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, and Sinclair Davidson, professor of institutional economics at RMIT University, have lodged a formal complaint against Oxfam with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, under the Trade Practices Act. They charge Oxfam with “misleading or deceptive conduct.” Fairtrade coffee is “sold at a premium,” “to lift Third World producers out of poverty.” But Fairtrade harms these poor coffee farmers. To become “certified producers” the poor men have to fork over $3200!! Thus their “costs are … higher than on the open market.” And the workers who pick the beans are paid less than the official minimum wage…

(via Sudha Shenoy)