In the nineties, when fair trade became more of a thing, I really began to pay attention,
I was becoming pretty idealistic about a lot of things, even though I was already hitting my forties, when for most people, cynical conservatism, or should I say, conservative cynicism, are supposed to really begin to start setting in. Some famous wag, I believe it was Winston Churchill, once said that when you are twenty, if you are not idealistic, then you don't have a heart, but when you are forty, if you are not conservative, then you don't have a brain. Or something like that. But I have always tended to do things backwards. Even though I have always voted for progressive parties, I really became increasingly radical as I aged. In my twenties I was involved in quite a lot of social activism, especially for world peace and nuclear disarmament. After spending my thirties much more intensely focused on persons and individuals, I reemerged in my early forties in anti-globalization and other movements, then in my fifties and ever since, I have been particularly preoccupied with antipoverty and homelessness activism.
But fair trade simply made sense, especially for a luxury like coffee...Yes, Gentle Reader, you heard me right! Coffee is a luxury. It is not a necessity. We can live without it. Unlike food and water and clean air. When I started to purchase fair trade, as it became more available, boy did I suddenly start to feel good about myself. You know, virtue signalling. Telling the whole darn world how good we are!
But there was also something inherently satisfying, knowing that my modest purchase of coffee at a slightly higher than normal price, would also be contributing to better working and living conditions for the workers who picked and processed the beans. Easy peasy. Then, I had two little wake up calls. The first occurred when I read on the package of my fairly traded purchase that thanks to my generously spent First World dollars, a farm family in Peru could now send their kid to university. I felt all warm, and good and damp inside until I considered one glaring little truth. I myself was unable to complete my own post secondary education, because I could not afford to. That's right, here in the First World. In Canada, you say? The True North Strong And Free Canada? That Canada?
And no one was funding any of the low wage survival work I was doing in order to see that I would have the option of finishing university, getting my degree, and entering into a decently paid profession. That's right, Gentle Reader! Here in Canada, the Great Northern Paradise! The Great Global Envy. One of the richest per capita nations on earth, where everyone wants to immigrate to and live for their own slice of our big fat prosperity pie. But I, born and raised in this vast and wondrous country, have had only humble pie to eat. And here I was, so obliviously and so virtuously shoving out a little extra cash per bag of coffee, so that a poor agricultural family in Peru could send their kid to college. I who have never been able to do the same for myself, neither were there sufficient programs and supports available for me. Canada is after all a meritocracy. No free lunch. Education and housing are not considered human rights in this country. And no one in other rich countries is about to shell out for us because we are, well, one of those rich countries!
The other little wake up call came from a worker in the same fair trade store where I was buying the coffee, when she mentioned to me, when I commented on the high price of the also fairly traded cocoa that I was purchasing, that fair trade is aimed at a niche market. Which is to say that I was really punching above my weight. That's right. I am on a low income. People like me are not expected to shop fair trade. People like me, because we are poor, are assumed to be too stupid to know anything at all about fair trade, or about anything else that matters in the world. because higher education is still the purview of the middle class and the wealthy. Silly me! Well, Gentle Reader, I will comment further on this tomorrow!
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