Fair trade and staple foods: A systematic review

Abstract

Sustainability certification schemes such as FAIRTRADE, FLO, WFTO and FT-USA have gained increasing markets. The significant growth of the fair trade (FT) movement in the last decades draws attention to ethical consumption. FT’s aim at improving the livelihoods of producers in developing countries and promotion of social change is considered a model that shows the benefits of trade to development. Although conveying a large number of publications, important questions about the movement remain under-explored. The literature is prolific on coffee, cacao, flowers, wine, and gold. In contrast, the engagement with staple foods – a prominent globally traded food category – seems minor. The primary objective of this review was to map the existing literature about FT and staple foods; then, to investigate the role of staple foods in the FT movement. The search strategy was designed to retrieve publications on the intersection of FT and staple foods. To date, there is no review about FT and staple foods nexus. Our systematic review addressed this gap considering FT as an alternative capable of addressing unsustainable food consumption and production impacts. Our research protocol included keywords searching across four databases, screening, and comparative analysis. From 283 documents retrieved, 49 were deemed relevant to reflect the role of staple foods in the FT movement. This systematic review discusses challenges and opportunities for the FT model to further engage with staples and recommends improvement of its environmental credentials. The present study can contribute by informing decision makers, policy makers, businesses, NGOs, producers, and consumers.

UK Consumers’ Preferences for Ethical Attributes of Floating Rice: Implications for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in Vietnam

“…"Rice is an emerging [fair trade] product" [45], such that the fragrance and flavor characteristics of some rice varieties have facilitated fair trade certification [27,46], earning a premium price. Studies have provided evidence that farmers can receive significantly higher gross margins for specialty rice varieties that are produced using environmentally friendly methods [35,47]. This enables smallholders to earn a higher income and improve their livelihoods without jeopardizing their family's food security.…”

Fair trade governance: revisiting a framework to analyse challenges and opportunities for sustainable development towards a green economy

“…While the fair trade movement is regarded as providing high standards for ethical production and consumption for small farmers, we expect their level of stringency to be extended to large business partners [ 1 ] and urge greater attention to their internal governance mechanisms to improve performance. The analytical framework proposed here has demonstrated that there is some room for improvement.…”

“…Analysis of fair trade initiatives around the world regarding food products is now well established in the literature [ 1 – 13 ]. The increasing reach of this alternative trade model is attributable to a range of factors, such as the growing acceptance of new forms of governance; innovative business structures; new organisational, ethical consumer, and political attitudes and behaviours and new market strategies.…”

“…The fair trade movement is of major interest for our research given its approach to production and consumption within food systems explicitly aimed at tackling the economic, social and environmental dimensions that determine sustainable development. While the balance of these three dimensions within each fair trade organisation and fair trade standard is unclear, the goal of sustainable development and social responsibility are explicitly stated in the mission, vision, aims, and impact study reports of the main fair trade organisations [ 1 , 12 ]. In a context of increasing consumer awareness about the effects of unsustainable production and consumption patterns and the attempts of the fair trade model to address environmental protection, social inequalities, work conditions, and human rights, this form of global sustainability governance has gained attention from private and public decision makers, consumers, and scholars.…”

“…Many studies have sought to examine whether and how efficient fair trade schemes can be at promoting sustainability aims. This article draws on previous contributions to the debate about global environmental and sustainability governance [ 1 , 14 – 18 ] to understand how the fair trade governance structure is organised to comply with its stated aims and intended sustainability outcomes or outputs. To do so, we synthesise an analytical framework to assess the governance structure of major fair trade organisations to then highlight how the scheme could broaden its contribution to a greener economy.…”