History of fair trade
The ideology behind the fair trade movement has existed in North America and Europe long before it was institutionalized following World War II. In the 'early days' fair trade was seen as a charity, mainly managed by religious groups and individual traders. The abolitions of and public distancing to slavery, led to boy cuts of goods produced by slaves, which can be considered the first formalized agreements that are taking the living and working conditions of producers into account.
After World War II trade regulation committees were founded concerned with the development of just trade supply chains in developing countries, that had been largely destroyed by the war, but it wasn't until the 1960s in Europe that the fair trade movement developed as a reaction to neo-imperialistic power structures with Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs). Many ATOs were founded during the 1960s and 1970s, working to find markets for products from countries that were excluded from the mainstream trading channels. This was achieved by selling products at small markets, in the back of churches, from activists' own homes or in some cases in fair trade shops like Ten Thousand Villages, that was the first of its kind in USA. It was also in this time that participants at the United Nations Conference on Aid and Development adopted the "Trade not Aid" concept, hereby bringing fair trade into development policy.
Worker co-ops started appearing, with Equal Exchange being the first in North America in 1986. These co-ops sold produce from co-ops in the developing world and were hereby founded on the same democratic principles that the fair trade movement was advocating in the developing world.
The first of many fair trade labeling initiatives was Fairtrade International, known as Max Havelaar at the time, which was founded in 1988, and it was now possible to buy Max Havelaar labeled coffee from Mexico in Dutch supermarkets. During the late 1980s and early 1990s fair trade organizations were founded in countries across Europe and in North America under the Max Havelaar or TransFair brands (amongst others TransFair USA), and the departments were united under FLO in 1997. The brand became widely acknowledged on the American and European markets.
In 2011 TransFair USA changed its name to Fair Trade USA and at the same time announced its resignation from FLO to pursue a different set of visions. The resignation was widely criticized, by Equal Exchange amongst others, and the controversy at stake takes its point of departure in this organizational clash.
After World War II trade regulation committees were founded concerned with the development of just trade supply chains in developing countries, that had been largely destroyed by the war, but it wasn't until the 1960s in Europe that the fair trade movement developed as a reaction to neo-imperialistic power structures with Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs). Many ATOs were founded during the 1960s and 1970s, working to find markets for products from countries that were excluded from the mainstream trading channels. This was achieved by selling products at small markets, in the back of churches, from activists' own homes or in some cases in fair trade shops like Ten Thousand Villages, that was the first of its kind in USA. It was also in this time that participants at the United Nations Conference on Aid and Development adopted the "Trade not Aid" concept, hereby bringing fair trade into development policy.
Worker co-ops started appearing, with Equal Exchange being the first in North America in 1986. These co-ops sold produce from co-ops in the developing world and were hereby founded on the same democratic principles that the fair trade movement was advocating in the developing world.
The first of many fair trade labeling initiatives was Fairtrade International, known as Max Havelaar at the time, which was founded in 1988, and it was now possible to buy Max Havelaar labeled coffee from Mexico in Dutch supermarkets. During the late 1980s and early 1990s fair trade organizations were founded in countries across Europe and in North America under the Max Havelaar or TransFair brands (amongst others TransFair USA), and the departments were united under FLO in 1997. The brand became widely acknowledged on the American and European markets.
In 2011 TransFair USA changed its name to Fair Trade USA and at the same time announced its resignation from FLO to pursue a different set of visions. The resignation was widely criticized, by Equal Exchange amongst others, and the controversy at stake takes its point of departure in this organizational clash.