A Beginner's Guide to Fair Trade

I've recently been looking into Fair Trade as a follow up to some of the work I was doing in Mexico. Since I was putting was notes together for my own reference, I thought I'd tidy them up and share them. Hopefully it will save others from going through the whole effort themselves. Note however that most of what I've outlined is based on second hand research, i.e. reading up and interviews. Since I haven't been deeply involved in the fair trade system I cannot say that I've personally verified all of it. I'd suggest using the outline as a fair introduction to the complexity of fair trade, but then recommend you do your own research into the facts before taking it for granted.

Beginner's Guide to Fai... by Rizwan Tayabali on Scribd

For reference here's some of the links I used to build my own picture of fair trade

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade_debate
• http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/fairtrade_is_unique.aspx
• http://www.fairtrade.net/what_is_fairtrade.html
• http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_problem_with_fair_trade_coffee
• http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=858
• http://www.adamsmith.org/sites/default/files/images/pdf/unfair_trade.pdf
• http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexsingleton/4019311/The_poverty_of_Fairtrade_coffee/
• http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/resources/natural_resources_institute.aspx
• http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/more-than-money/cafe-la-selva-on-the-road-of-life
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_coffee_cooperatives