Fair trade and ethical 'social stock exchange' planned. What do you think?

[Jill]

When we had the theme on Fairtrade fortnight I got quite concerned with ethical and fairtrading issues and decided to put up some adverts on the site promoting companies with ethical policies.

But only £1 out of every £250 spent is on Fairtrade goods. Does this mean most trade is unfair? How much child labour is being used? What about sweatshop conditions involving long hours and wages lower than the cost of living? Do we expect business to maximise profits regardless of how they go about this or do we want to see more responsible and ethical organisations in business.

The article below got me thinking about these issues again. Plans to create a seperate social stock exchange for fairtrade and ethical businesses mean we accept the majority of businesses will not be fair trade or ethical. Can this be right?

Will be interested to hear your opinions in this area. Here is the article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3603039.ece

Plan for fair trade stock exchange
Marie Woolf

Fair trade brands and ethical enterprises – such as Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen – could be listed on a new “social stock exchange” under plans being drawn up by the government.

Ministers are working on proposals for an ethical investment bank, supported by hundreds of millions of pounds lying in dormant bank accounts, and a stock exchange where social enterprises and environmental ventures raise cash.

The blueprint, being drawn up by the Cabinet Office with help from the Rockefeller Foundation, would aim to make London the international centre for ethical investors and fair trade firms.

Phil Hope, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for the voluntary and social enterprise sectors, will this week announce proposals for the ethical stock exchange.

The ethical investment bank would be funded by an estimated £250m from money in dormant bank accounts which, under a law being pushed through parliament, can be claimed by the state and reinvested in social projects. The stock exchange would allow firms that plough cash into community ventures to raise cash.

Investors could pump cash into organisations such as fair trade coffee and chocolate firms, housing cooperatives and other enterprises that make profits yet also have a social or environmental objective.

Among firms that would be able to raise capital are Fifteen, which trains disadvantaged young people to be chefs, and Terra Plana, an eco-friendly shoe brand that uses recycled car tyres and rice husks in the manufacture of its Worn Again shoes.

There are more than 55,000 social enterprises in the UK generating about £27 billion a year. One such is the Big Issue magazine which enables homeless people to earn money by selling the publication on the streets.

[Jill]

Well this discussion started up about a planned social stock exchange in the Uk and if I get anymore Google alerts through about it or any related forums or groups on the subject I'll put them up. I think the one over here is still very much in planning stages at the moment whereas the one in Canada David is writing about is opening this year. As time goes on we should start to hear more.

Bye for Now
Jill

[Azzami Bell]

Currently, all worldwide trade is governed by a cascading series of cartels. Loosening their stranglehold is one way of getting fairer trade.

One of my sons, as manager of an off license with five staff, currently has the dubious role of convincing his staff to be "Pos Polar Bear" when doing their job, as oposed to being a "Neg Ferret". This typical blob of 'newspeak' is yet another in an endless stream of 'business initiatives' spewed out regularly by that company's management.
As a customer I'd rather have lower prices.

How long, I wonder, before I'm asked to invest in 'Green' 'fair 'sub-prime' trade' bonds?

[Mandy Lawrence]

You know Azzi, I think I agree withyou on the cascading series of cartels.

Certainly the USA is strongly influenced by the neo conservatives (business is God, God is business). From what I can gather Russia has a myriad of mafias either in cahoots with their government or being ignored by them. China, well the government (via the military) has a stranglehold there. But all these governments, some of whom say they are working together and some of whom don't are all in one way or another playing the same power games and using each other to suit their purposes. And the UK is so far up America's backside we haven't seen the light of day since Margaret Thatcher got voted in. Yep, we voted for that!!!!

My ideology is green. I would love to see much fairer trade and would do my bit if something gets setup in the UK but like you I am a customer that would rather have lower prices. What I pay out on bills and food eats up the bulk of my income. I think it is no different for those working and not earning £20K per year. I don't mind that but with my income not growing at the rate that prices are rising, I have no choice but to buy at lower prices. I am not going for the sympathy vote I am talking reality here.

[Jill]

Hi

I don't think fairtrade and green goods have to cost more. The extra price on fairtrade is paid on the source product like the coffee or the cotton but it is said that the retailers add on extra to gain more profits for themselves because people expect to pay more for fairtrade so they can get away with it. If they were not so greedy then this wouldn't happen. Companies also pay a lot to their directors and shareholders rather than work to keep these costs and prices down. Fairtrade and social companies may reduce these costs. I know Ben and Jerrys for example have a rule that no directors are allowed to be paid more than so many times the lowest paid workers wages and other socially responsible companies do this as well. The co-op fairtrade coffees as I have said before are no more expensive than the other kind so it can be done. The fairtrade easter eggs I got were a bit more but not much more expensive that the other kind and on the packet of them they said the coop members getting the cocoa own 40% of the chocolate company. This is in contrast to workers in cocoa which is not fairtrade who they found out have never even tasted any chocolate in their lives. But people in this country who are not getting a living wage either cannot afford to pay more you are right.

Bye for Now
Jill

[Azzami Bell]

We play exactly the same game here now, my three grow'd up kids an' even middle class mates on £25k-ish are feeling t'pinch around here. And, Gordon's Ten-Pee tax tinkering has tightened the fiscal tourniquet with a jolt into reality for all with debts. (Who isn't in debt? -fekk it!)

Most major trading blocks, Europe, North America, Australasia and China have their 'influences', they also have 'big businesses'! The only ethical business I know of is the John Lewis Group! I don’t think there are any others of anything like comparable size.
Mark Thomas did a ‘Truth about Coca Cola’ proggy, he’s also covered Nestle who used to be plain ol’ Nestle’s before they became another corporate bully.

And what of Africa? Vast in every sense of the word! Our government and churches are campaigning and complaining against Chinese businessmen, who’re giving millions in return for exploiting Africa’s wealth of minerals. A Slightly ‘fairer’ trade than when we only gave them a ‘religion’, slavery & subjugation. (Whether this wealth will benefit the community as a whole is another ‘game’!)

Corporate bullying, it seems, knows no bounds…
When a bloke named Gorman complained to a B.A. stewardess of a chunk of glass in his whiskey, he got 6 years of extreme torment by britishairways & the west-central plod that cover Heathrow! This was far from an ‘isolated incident’.
“If You Fly, You MUST Comply”

Worldwide, we’ve all lost out to the supermarkets. Their stranglehold on trade is a very big cause of unfair trade. They’ve muscled in on ‘organics’, ‘local’, and ‘fair trade’!

I'd love to eat only fresh, only seasonal produce and only locally produced but it'd be a full time job just trying! Besides I can have everything I want with a few carefree clicks of this heap.
What price conscience?

[David Kam]

About higher pricing for organic foods, and fair trade goods...

Hello Jill,

Sometimes when you go to the supermarket organic food is higher because GMO ("genetically modified foods") in the USA is subsidized by the US government. The farmers and companies like Monsanto receive subsidies for growing their GMO crops like soy, corn, ....etc. which are used for food ingredients, such as high fructose corn syrup.

Organic foods grown by farmers are not subsidized by the US government; the farmers, and organic food processors have to pay a very higher price for organic certification, plus it is also more labor intensive to grow such food, with lower yeilds. This is a ridiculous scheme by big corporations, which causes organic food to be higher price.

Also, when you go to the supermarkets, large corporations control the shelf space by paying a slotting allowance ("like a bribe"); the slotting allowance formula is based on an inital fee + on volume to keep out smaller producers. Example if you sell:

500 cases of Coke = $20,000 ("one time") + 500 cases x % slotting allowance = paid to supermarket
vs.
20 cases organic drink = $50,000 ("one time") + 20 cases x % slotting allowance = paid to supermarket

The supermarket will ask for more slotting allowance from the small producer, if they are to yeild shelf space from the larger producer. That is why you pay more for organic also, except vegetables and fruits which has no slotting allowance since it is perishable. Did you know most supermarkets has higher mark-ups for organic vegetables and fruits?

As for fair trade food and products, of course it will be higher price, since the producers are not paying people peanuts and hiring child laborers. Also, the fair trade labelling certification is expensive.



David

[Mandy Lawrence]

The Fair Trade labelling certification is expensive eh? So another layer of bureaucracy so that government's get more money.

Will look out for a UK Fair Trade social stock exchange and when it happens see how it can help and how people can get involved.

Till then I will stick to my instincts and Question Everything...especially myself.

[Azzami Bell]

Mum ran a cafe for a while, often when she had trouble juggling the figures she'd quote an old rhymn...

Trade is...
Little fleas have bigger fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em
And, bigger fleas have bigger fleas
And so, Ad Infinitum.

[Jill]

Hi David

Yes the supermarkets have a stranglehold over here in the UK as well. They are said to drive down the prices they pay to farmers so much that a lot of them go out of business and only the huge farms survive or smal organic farms which find other ways of selling outside the supermarkets. Farmers markets have been a popular way of getting organic food direct from farms to the public. The latest trend seems to be to get food as local as possible as that cuts out food miles and means it is fresher.
The formula you say the supermarkets are using above is extremely unfair to smaller producers. At the same time they try to improve their image by saying they supply organic and fairtrade but at what cost to the smaller businesses.
People do want to buy the right things but like Mandy many are restricted from buying fairtrade and organic because of being on low incomes and not being able to afford the extra costs. Even so I do think the whole green social fairtrade movement in business is moving things generally in the right direction where the businesses we support reflect the kind of world we want to live in.

Bye for Now
Jill

[David Kam]

Hi Jill,

Do you also have the same problem in the UK for schools/stadiums getting a monopoly for beverage and food corporate contracts?

That means large companies pay schools and stadiums to keep our small businesses?

I think the farmer's market is a great idea! In Canada, we have farmers putting together food baskets for poorer families for sale, which means poor families are getting organic goods at a lower price than pesticide ridden and GMO foods at supermarkets. Isn't hat a great idea!

David
for the Green Stock Exchange
http://greensx.com

[Jill]

Hi David

There has been a big fuss recently about drinks in schools and school meals. A popular TV chef called Jamie Oliver ran a campaign to get healthy fresh food cooked for school lunches instead of the frozen gunge that was being served. He was quite sucessful and the government promised to pay more per school meal in subsidies as a result. I think this also led to calls to stop unhealthy drinks being sold in schools so whatever stranglehold the large corporates had may have been broken at least in schools. In stadiums and even hospitals it is a different story and the usual coke and pepsi machines will be found everywhere. I think at one point there were calls to at least put in water dispensers in hospitals.
The food baskets for poorer families sounds a great idea. In the school meals campaign they saw quite quick reductions in the amount of times pupils needed their inhalers and other medications after eating the fresh cooked meals compared to the additive ridden frozen processed stuff they had been served up before.
Perhaps we also need a discussion which lists unfair trade practises like the ones you have been mentioning.
Bye for Now
Jill

[Azzami Bell]

Also it was easily noticeable that educational standards also rose, including attentiveness, responsiveness and participatory activities. I’ve no doubt the kids actually ‘learned’ something as well!

Solving the bigger issue of how such a situation was allowed to develop throughout the UK's schooling system has embarrassed all concerned.

Central government couldn’t explain quite how they expected schools to supply anything like good food on 34pence per head budgets. (16-20cents$)

Local government couldn’t explain their role as administrators of such a farce.

And, at the heart of it, ignorantly pursuing their goals, the parents. In England, state school parents are mostly an ordurous, scruffy bunch of ‘wannabes’. Family budgeting ensures funding for the ubiquitous 4x4 and the parent’s daily agenda. Kids get tasteless frozen muck or ‘grot-in-a-box’ ready meals. Tin-opening is the height of culinary skills.

And we wonder why we’ve got a thriving gang culture, lawless streets at night and another lost generation of children.