Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival [Paperback]

Daniel Jaffee (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520249593 | ISBN-13: 978-0520249592 | Publication Date: April 27, 2007 | Edition: 1

Fair trade is a fast-growing alternative market intended to bring better prices and greater social justice to small farmers around the world. But is it working? This vivid study of coffee farmers in Mexico offers the first thorough investigation of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of fair trade. Based on extensive research in Zapotec indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca, Brewing Justice follows the members of the cooperative Michiza, whose organic coffee is sold on the international fair trade market. It compares these families to conventional farming families in the same region, who depend on local middlemen and are vulnerable to the fluctuations of the world coffee market. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book carries readers into the lives of these coffee producer households and their communities, offering a nuanced analysis of both the effects of fair trade on everyday life and the limits of its impact. Brewing Justice paints a clear picture of the complex dynamics of the fair trade market and its relationship to the global economy. Drawing on interviews with dozens of fair trade leaders, the book also explores the changing politics of this international movement, including the challenges posed by the entry of transnational corporations into the fair trade system. It concludes by offering recommendations for strengthening and protecting the integrity of fair trade.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"The idea of fair trade in a global economy is central to contemporary debates over neoliberalism, globalization and the rule of the free market. But what are the coordinates of the fair trade moment; what sort of alternative does it offer for producers and consumers? Daniel Jaffee is at once a fierce proponent of fair trade but also a critical voice. How, he asks, can fair trade coffee be in and against the market? With one foot in the Central American coffee fincas and the other in the intellectual world of Karl Polanyi and his disciples, Daniel Jaffee has on offer a very heady brew. Brewing Justice is a pioneering study of the variety of fair trade movements; a prospectus for a more radical vision of fair trade--an alternative sort of market; and a vital contribution to contemporary debates over free trade, the global agro-food system and the so-called 'movement of movements'. A tour de force."--Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley

"Daniel Jaffee has done the Fair Trade movement a real service in his meticulous research into the actual effect of Fair Trade on coffee farmers in a group of villages in Oaxaca, Mexico. Up till now the claims of Fair Trade benefits for the producers have been largely based on brief visits and anecdotes, but now there is hard evidence. In analysing the market for Fair Trade he distinguishes clearly between those who wish to break the market, those who would reform the market and those who simply want access to a growing market. But his book will be of great value not only in his conclusions about how Fair Trade can be made fairer, but in extending our understanding of the overwhelming power of the giant corporations in international trade, even seeking to improve their image by cooptation and dilution of the standards when faced by the challenge of Fair Trade." --Michael Barratt Brown, author of Fair Trade: Reform and Realities in the International Trading System

"It is possible to establish a global economy that is just, humane, and sustainable. But it will not be easy. The forces favoring injustice, inhumanity, and exploitation are powerful and entrenched. And, for too long, they have been supported by academics and researchers who have not bothered to examine the real costs of globalization on a standard free-trade model, let alone the real opportunities of globalization on an enlightened fair-trade model. Daniel Jaffee breaks new ground with Brewing Justice. His scholarship is stellar. His conclusions are at once realistic and inspiring. In these pages, it is possible to find the roadmap to a new and better global economy. Read them closely, embrace them, and then get to work on building a fair-trade future."--John Nichols, The Nation

"Brewing Justice is an impressive account of the relationships and ethics embedded in fair trade coffee. Engaging the reader in a comparative global ethnography of fair and free trade coffee production, the author evaluates the gains and losses of fair trade for Mexican peasants. Jaffee's unique accomplishment is to show the consuming public how fair trade can be realized through improving the tenuous existence of producers."--Philip McMichael, author of Development and Social Change

"Brewing Justice is at once a sobering account of what the fair trade movement has achieved, and an optimistic statement that only by deepening movements like this one, will society advance in the direction of economic democracy and justice."--Gerardo Otero, professor of sociology and Latin American Studies, Simon Fraser University

"Brewing Justice is not just a study of fair trade coffee. It also provides alternatives to the unfair rules of trade imposed by the WTO. And it shows that we can all play a role in shaping the economy. Drinking coffee is a political act."--Vandana Shiva, author of Earth Democracy

About the Author

Daniel Jaffee is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 331 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520249593
• ISBN-13: 978-0520249592
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coffee for Justice, December 11, 2007

By 

E. N. Anderson (Riverside, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival (Paperback)

This is a stunning book. Written by a sociologist, it combines the best of anthropology, sociology, and economics to produce a work that transcends all of them and makes major contributions to the literature on social justice and on development.
The core of it is a detailed study of the fall of coffee prices and the consequent rise of fair trade coffee-buying in Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca was an ideal choice because it is an impoverished area that produces very good coffee, and because Mexico was particularly hard hit by the world meltdown in coffee prices in the 1990s. Oaxaca can now claim that much of its coffee is fair trade, organic, and shade grown, to say nothing of being a fine drink. Thus it can command a relatively good price that keeps the small producers there alive--barely. Jaffee not only describes the coffee economy; he shows, from a wonderful village study, how it relates to maize agriculture, labor out-migration, forest conservation, and other important aspects of life. The shade-grown coffee plantations of south Mexico are incredible wildlife paradises--a birdwatcher's mad dream of heaven--and are absolutely critical not only for the survival of Mexican birds but of migrants from the rest of North America as well.
Jaffee seems not to know just how bad Mexican coffee was in the old days of state control of the coffee economy. The state saw fit, in many cases, to push mass production of low-grade coffee, trying to compete with Brazil. This failed. The free market came and wrecked the economy, but it did what competition is supposed to do: it improved the coffee, and provided better markets for what was already good. It also had the sad effect of driving many producers of low-grade coffee out of the field and into dire poverty. This problem remains with us.
Somewhat more important is Jaffee's stress on the more general problems of the "free market" economy and "neoliberalism." He blames this for the worldwide woes of commodity production. I do not read the evidence quite the same way. As he points out, the world coffee trade is really dominated by five huge multinational firms (like Nestle) and a few more smallish ones (like Starbucks). These firms are supported by various direct and indirect subsidies, and get various other special favors. An oligopoly, especially when maintained by government action to some extent, is not a free market! He also shows that the dominance of First World buyers over Third World producers of coffee and other commodities has been maintained by war, subversion, and other ugly procedures that are the absolute antithesis of the free market. The fact is--as most Third World countries and a few First World scholars (like Aihwa Ong) now realize--that the world under "neoliberalism" has, if anything, even more neocolonial governmental control and manipulation than before. First World interests have forced their idea of "free markets" on the poor nations, but have kept the subsidies for their home folks, to say nothing of such exercises in "free marketing" as the US invasion of Iraq, forthrightly called by Alan Greenspan a "war for oil." I have no vested interest in free markets per se, but I don't think they are the whole problem here.
That said, Jaffee is certainly correct in saying that we need much more fair trade in coffee, and that it will take work--neither First World strongarming nor free marketing, but actual reform of trade. He gives a number of very valuable and practical recommendations, including protection of the term "fair trade" from misuse and cooptation.
Readers, this is one place you can REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I have seen Mexico's small-scale coffee production and studied it, and I think the situation is really night and day. INSIST on shade-grown, organic, fair trade coffee! Seek it out! Even if the label is somewhat weaseled, as Jaffee correctly shows it often is, your insistence sends a clear message. Recently there has been a major decline in "ordinary" coffee consumption but a spectacular rise in demand for fair trade and organic coffee. The firms cannot ignore that.
More generally: Anyone interested in current problems of small-scale agriculture--whether coffee, potatoes, or cattle--should read this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of fair trade coffee, July 20, 2007

By 

A. Ofstehage (Brookings, SD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival (Paperback)

Jaffee did a great job covering the important aspects of fair trade coffee. He thoroughly explained the history of the market and explained the coffee market during the ICA years as well. He also covers the drawbacks of fair trade. I would recomend this book to anyone interested in coffee as well as anyone interested in social justice.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coffee and Trade, October 27, 2007

By 

Erin Smith (Santa Barbara, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival (Paperback)

This book is a fine-tuned look at Fair Trade in the coffee industry and very important for understanding the complex nature of growing coffee. The book is great.