Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fair Trade

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Responsible Consumption and Production

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definition

Fair Trade is a popular social and economic movement that seeks to increase equity between developed and developing countries (Nicholls and Opal 2004). This is done through a market-based model that leverages mainstream economic structures to benefit of producers rather than to alter the underlying the market mechanisms within which free trade operates. A number of third-party organizations certify products as Fair Trade, with nearly 1.2 million producers worldwide participating in Fair Trade programs. The brand is well-known to consumers in the United Kingdom, though certified products are expanding rapidly within the USA and globally. While originally focused on handicrafts, the main commodities certified through Fair Trade programs are coffee, cocoa, textiles, and increasingly, fresh fruit such as bananas. While the growth and expansion of the movement theoretically contributes to improved social relations and global environmental health, the scale and complexity of the...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Andorfer VA, Liebe U (2012) Research on fair trade consumption – a review. J Bus Ethics 106(4):415–435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett-Brown M (1993) Fair trade: reform and realities in the international trading system. Zed Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartley T (2003) Certifying forests and factories: states, social movements, and the rise of private regulation in the apparel and forest products fields. Polit Soc 31(3):433–464

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coe NM, Kelly PF, Yeung HW (2007) Economic geography: a contemporary introduction. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowe R, Simon W (2000) Who are the ethical consumers? Cooperative Bank, Manchester

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairtrade Foundation (2005) MORI poll shows leap in public recognition of Fair Trade mark. www.fairtrade.org.uk/pr150504.htm

  • Fairtrade International (2012) For producers, with producers. Fairtrade International. https://www.slideshare.net/fairtrade/fairtrade-international-annual-report-201112-for-producers-with-producers

  • Frank D (2003) Where are the workers in consumer-worker alliances? Class dynamics and the history of consumer-labor campaigns. Polit Soc 31:363–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Getz C, Shreck A (2006) What organic and fair trade labels do not tell us: towards a place-based understanding of certification. Int J Consum Stud 30(5):490–501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giesler M, Veresiu E (2014) Creating the responsible consumer: moralistic governance regimes and consumer subjectivity. J Consum Res 41:849–867

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman MK (2004) Reading fair trade: political ecological imaginary and the moral economy of fair trade foods. Polit Geogr 23(7):891–915

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greiner AL (2014) Visualizing human geography. Wiley

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths P (2009) Fairtrade is not fair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzzXijnICKY

  • Guthman JH (2000) Agrarian dreams? The paradox of organic farming in California. University of California, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatanaka M, Bain C, Busch L (2005) Third-party certification in the global agrifood system. Food Policy 30(3):354–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herz R (2017) Why you eat what you eat: the science behind our relationship with food. WW Norton & Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hockerts K (2005) The fair trade story. INSEAD, Fontainebleau

    Google Scholar 

  • LeClair MS (2002) Fighting the tide: alternative trade organizations in the era of global free trade. World Dev 30(6):949–958

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levi M, Linton A (2003) Fair trade: a cup at a time? Polit Soc 31(3):407–432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levinson M (2016) The box: how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McDonough W, Braungart M (2010) Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mendoza R, Bastiaensen J (2003) Fair trade and the coffee crisis in the Nicaraguan Segovias. Small Enterp Dev 14(2):36–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mutersbaugh T (2002) Ethical trade and certified organic coffee: implications of rules-based agricultural product certification for Mexican producer households and villages. Transnat’l L Contemp Probs 12:89

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholls A, Opal C (2004) Fair trade: market driven ethical consumption. SAGE Publications, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E (1999) Self-governance and forest resources. Center for International Forestry Research, Occasional Paper 20

    Google Scholar 

  • Prasad M, Kimeldorf H, Meyer R, Robinson I (2004) Consumers of the world unite: a market-based response to sweatshops. Labor Stud J 29(2):57–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Raynolds L, Wilkinson J (2008) Fair trade in the agriculture and food sector. In: Raynolds L, Murray D, Wilkinson J (eds) Fair trade: the challenges of transforming globalization. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Renard MC (2003) Fair trade: quality, market and conventions. J Rural Stud 19(1):87–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Townsend RE (1995) Fisheries self-governance: corporate or cooperative structures? Mar Policy 19(1):39–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Utting-Chamorro K (2005) Does fairtrade make a difference? The case of small coffee producers in Nicaragua. Dev Pract 15:3

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jennifer Bernstein

Authors
  1. Jennifer Bernstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Bernstein .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Science, HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Ctr Neurosci & Cell Biology, 1 Floor, Univ Coimbra, Edf Fac Medicina, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. Istinye University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pinar Gökcin Özuyar

  5. International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. La Rochelle Business School - Excelia Group, La Rochelle, France

    Morgane M. C Fritz

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Bernstein, J. (2019). Fair Trade. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71062-4_74-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71062-4_74-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71062-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71062-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation