January 28, 2005; Porto Alegre: I have been interested in the issue of Fair Trade for a few years now. Fair Trade means that a commodity is made or grown in accordance with certain ethical standards, and that the producers receive a fair price.

Fair Trade campaigns are usually won by getting consumers to apply pressure to companies. So, coffee drinkers – get out there and ask your local Starbucks to make your Frappachino from Fair Trade coffee. (Starbucks has Fair Trade coffee – you just have to ask for it.)

In fact, coffee is the object of most Fair Trade campaigns. Transfair, an American NGO, or one of its partners abroad, inspect and certify coffee cooperatives before allowing them to use the “Fair Trade” logo and name, like a brand. Then the cooperatives sell directly to roasters, which can be a large multinational company like Procter & Gamble, or smaller, socially responsible companies. This method avoids the local middle man or distributor who would otherwise use his monopsony power to buy low and sell high.

Now, Brazilians drink a lot of coffee, and I mean a lot! There are thermoses of coffee in every room at Viva Rio, the NGO where I work. You even get free cup of coffee with a hair cut. And everyone looks at me with raised eyebrows when I decline a ‘cafezinho’ for a glass of water when visiting friends.

So I wondered how a consumer campaign would fare here in Brazil, where they consume 780 million kilos of coffee annually. And much of the coffee is grown by Brazilians.

Jaoquim José de Souza is a family farmer and member of a worker’s cooperative that is part of CONTAG (National Confederation of Rural Agriculture Workers). He came to the World Social Forum to sell some Fair Trade coffee, and promote the cause. He is also here to network with other unions and campaigners on unrelated issues. Fair Trade coffee is just a small part of the CONTAG mission, which is to defend agricultural workers and promote other certification projects, similar to Fair Trade, within Brazil.

Raising awareness is not easy, but I think the case for Fair Trade coffee has to be easier to make when the consumers are from the same country as the growers they are helping. That, at least, seemed to be the line taken by Jaoquim Jose de Souza at the Social Forum. Jaoquim was selling delicious espresso for 1 real (about 40 US cents) a cup, which is a hefty price in a country where cafezinhos are usually free at restaurants or in offices. Yet Forum participants seemed impressed, and even eager to pay.

Jaoquim Jose de Souza, a Brazilian coffee farmer and member of the National Confederation of Rural Agriculture Workers (CONTAG), promoting fair trade coffee at the 2005 World Social Forum.

I spoke at length with Francisco Miguel de Lucena, the spokesman for CONTAG. He says most Brazilians still don’t know about Fair Trade. The market is growing, but very slowly, so the Forum provides a chance to spread the message to receptive buyers. The majority of participants at the Forum are Brazilians – and most surely the kind of Brazilians that will use their buying power to help a deserving farmer.

Mr. De Lucena says that the 5 million farmers in Brazil lack access to government policy-makers, and need representation. CONTAG’s literature goes further. It states that only 10% of the farmers are registered workers, that many are at risk from pesticide poisoning and are sometimes treated as slaves.

Mr. de Lucena also told me that many farmers are working without modern technology, which makes their jobs harder and their products more expensive. That is probably why family farms in Brazil account for only one-third of the farmland, but employ 77% of the farmers. It takes more workers to do the same work as a larger agribusiness.

Here is where I put my economist’s hat on. Part of the problem is that global coffee prices have fallen by around 50% in the last three years, to a 30-year low. The downward trend is due in part to the fact that consumers in America and other developed countries have coffee machines that are much more efficient. Less coffee grinds thrown down the drain means fewer trips to the supermarket to buy another bag.

Economically speaking, it might be a good thing for the coffee growers if some of them stopped growing coffee and if more of them formed cooperatives. That would allow them to take advantage of economies of scale, and become more competitive with agribusinesses. These options just aren’t available to most farmers in CONTAG and the developing world.

But even this is not the real problem. Even if there was more coffee available, and lower demand for it, the amount spent by consumers should still be enough to pay a living wage to the producers. For example, only $5.5 billion of the $70 billion in US annual sales goes back to the producer countries. If that were doubled, those extra billions could do a lot of good. And that is what Fair Trade is all about. Currently, only about 1.5% of the global coffee market is Fair Trade, but thanks to organizations like CONTAG and Oxfam the percentage is practically doubling every year.

So CONTAG is here at the World Social Forum – spreading the word about Brazilian agricultural workers. Jaoquim lights up when I ask him if it has been worth the trip. The answer is a resounding “Yes!”

He says: “The World Social Forum guarantees integration of cultures, of causes, of races, of everything. It is always a great chance to spread a message, make contacts, and learn.”