Cocoa, coffee and chocolate, rice and pasta are more wholesome when they come from producer cooperatives in the global south. Here's why.

Which products are considered fair trade

Take, for example, a fair trade chocolate bar: it costs a little more than the cheapest chocolate bars (and a little less than the most expensive one). On the packaging it says it comes from a producer cooperative in Ghana. Here is what that means.

1) Fair trade organisations pay farmers a genuinely higher price for their product than what they could obtain from local wholesalers.

2) The extra money is pooled into a fund: 75% is used for socially beneficial projects (such as wells and water pumps); the remaining 25% goes directly to the farmers.

3) The farmers' cooperatives that work within the fair trade market are democratically organised: farmers often meet in assemblies to make decisions about their own work.

4) Child labour is prohibited on the plantations: visiting the fields, you won't spot a single child.

5) Better economic conditions can trigger a virtuous cycle in small communities: children freed from work can go to school, villages with water wells are more liveable and even happier ("you have no idea how much joy water can bring," a young woman told the cameras of Report), wives can help their husbands at work… or, women produce soap from cocoa-processing by-products and sell it at the market.

On the side of workers and the environment

On the other side, we are aware of the humiliations inflicted on those same farmers when they have to negotiate with multinationals, whose premises even have rigged scales on which the farmers are forced to weigh their goods. We must be attentive to social and environmental concerns. We know that in other parts of the world there are aeroplanes spraying herbicides over plantations while workers toil in the fields below, and where any kind of union or health initiative is obstructed.

The benefits of fair trade

This does not happen, however, where farmers — whether working on Chilean highlands or Ghanaian cocoa plantations — deal with companies that practise fair trade. The prices paid are better, sometimes set in agreement with the workers themselves. A few more examples? In Ecuador, the Camarì marketing system, founded on the directives of the Fondo ecuadoriano populorum progressio, maintains direct contact with growers, coordinating the management of "tiendas" (shops) for local communities and the export of food products as well as handicrafts. In the Philippines, the harvesting and processing of bananas is carried out by women farmers from disadvantaged neighbourhoods of Lloilo (the capital of Panay island), organised into the two associations Amihan and Kabalaka, and marketing is guaranteed by a Fair Trade organisation (whose board includes representation from the women workers themselves).

Taking care of the land

The same can be said of the Conacadò project in the Dominican Republic, for cocoa, and Coopeagrì in Costa Rica, for sugar. In Bolivia, the farmers gave the name El ceibo (an ancient tropical plant) to their cooperative, founded in '77 in La Paz. Its 850 members handle sowing, seed harvesting, milling and marketing, directly importing not only cocoa but also cocoa butter, guaranteeing prices well above market rates, better planning and stability in group activities, and a higher quality product. In southern India, the workers of Maphimuttur participate directly in decisions about production activities, have access to medical assistance, nurseries where milk and food are distributed free of charge, and a healthier environment: production is organic. In this way, the land stays healthy.

What good food really means

These would seem to be good reasons to spend a few euros more on our chocolate bar. This is why we say that fair trade products are better. They are, in every sense of the word. Our message is: food must be good. Good, however, not only for the taste buds. It must be good for our stomachs and our bodies, free of harmful substances. It must be good and gentle towards the environment too — production processes must respect ecology. Good for the animals that give us their produce — so it must not involve mistreatment or suffering. And also good for farmers and workers. In this way, it will not only have its nutrients and vitamins fully intact. It will also have the vitamins of a clear conscience.