Sustanability and Fair Trade

Dear Wandering Goat Customer,

We want to take the time to write to you about some changes taking place in the realm of Fair Trade certification in the United States and their implications for Wandering Goat.

Earlier this month TransfairUSA, the US organization that oversees Fair Trade Certified roasters, announced that they were pulling out of the FLO.  The FLO, Fair Trade Labeling  Organization, is the international governing body that oversees all Fair Trade producers and retailers worldwide.  The FLO has been the overarching structure that ensures that coffee (and other products) farmers, as well as roasters and retailers, are held to the same high standards across the world.  This is the same system that has been in place ever since the beginning of the Fair Trade movement.

In the ‘old’ system, when green  Fair Trade coffee was purchased from an importer or co-op, the higher price of the coffee was passed back to the farmer.  This price was based on the Fair Trade minimum level set by the FLO and its affiliate groups (TransfairUSA in the US).  Once the coffee was roasted an addition per pound fee was paid to TransfairUSA for their operating expenses (administrative, advertising, etc.).

In the early days of Fair Trade the system was made up of sustainability-focused roasters and retailers so TransfairUSA, receiving their income from those roasters, were obviously responsive to the needs and demands of small conscious companies.  Over the years, as Fair Trade became more popular, companies like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and Sara Lee began adding Fair Trade coffee to their lines and therefore became the primary financial supporters of TransfairUSA.  Even though Fair Trade coffee made up  a small percentage of their total coffee volume they paid the vast majority of TransfairUSAs income.  Over time TransfairUSA became more responsive to the demands and needs of these large entities rather than to the sustainability-focused companies that gave them their start. In effect, we have been paying money for TransfairUSA to represent and promote Starbucks and Wal-Mart.   A gradual loosening of the standards has been the result.

One example of the resulting conflict was that small roasters asked that TransfairUSA give some sort of visual recognition (through labeling) to companies who carried Fair Trade coffee as a majority or totality of their coffee line.  This was refused because it was lobbied against by the ‘big’ companies who didn’t want to be made to look like they didn’t have a true commitment to sustainability (which they did not).

In many ways TransfairUSA had ceased to truly represent the commitment of those of us who deeply care about economic and social sustainability in the coffee industry long ago.  We have been struggling with these and numerous other issues for some time now and with this recent news we feel that things have finally reached a breaking point.  Without oversight and participation in the international system of Fair Trade we do not feel that we can continue to participate with and fund an organization that no longer represents our high standards of sustainability.

At this point TransfairUSA is giving very little real detailed information about their reasons for leaving the FLO or what the new system will look like.  This in and of itself is deeply disturbing.  Sustainability must have true transparency at its foundation or it should be considered suspect.  There is a lot of talk about increasing the number of Fair Trade producers and retailers but no information given about how this is to be done.  It is easy to jump to the conclusion that they will simply loosen the standards so that more companies and farmers will fall under their umbrella and increase the system in that way.  It is our sincere hope that this is not the case and only time will tell what the motivation for this move truly is.

The time has come for us as a company to strike out on our own path towards our goal of truly sustainable coffee.  We have begun making these steps with our Direct Trade purchases from the Menendez farm in El Salvador and we anticipate more programs like this in our future.  It has become apparent that Wandering Goat has higher standards of sustainability than any current certifier can offer us.  We will continue to pursue these standards into the future and do our part to make a true difference in the lives of the farmers that produce the coffee that we roast and serve at Wandering Goat.

As we leave the Fair Trade system behind we want to re-commit to our customers complete transparency in our green coffee purchasing.  At any time and for any reason, any customer has the right and ability to access any and all information pertaining to any coffee we carry or have carried in the past. This includes specific lot numbers, farm or co-op information, milling/processing details, shipping details, information regarding growing conditions, and price paid at or above the Fair Trade minimum.  Just call us and we can tell you everything you need to know to be assured that our coffees are grown and purchased in the most sustainable way possible.  No exceptions.

This being said, we do want to voice our continued support for what the Fair Trade system is accomplishing.  The lives of farmers are being changed for the better as a result of what groups like the FLO and TransfairUSA are doing.  We feel, however, that Fair Trade is becoming more applicable to the conventional coffee world rather than the specialty coffee industry.  Fair Trade does and will continue to have its place but there is something beyond Fair Trade out there and Wandering Goat wants to help lead the way to the next level of sustainability.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Thank you,

Michael Nixon, owner

Wandering Goat Coffee Co.

541-344-5161