We know the benefits of organic and fair trade well. What additional guarantees can we have if we choose products that embody the values of both? We discuss it with Alce Nero and Fairtrade Italia.
An approach to farming that protects the land and a form of trade that gives value to labour are joining forces through the collaboration between Alce Nero and Fairtrade Italia. These two organisations — the first an organic company with forty years of experience, the second a certification for products in the fair trade supply chain — came together, alongside two food and travel bloggers and with LifeGate moderating, to better understand how to work together towards building a healthier and fairer agricultural and economic system capable of offering us quality food every day. The round table Una colazione giusta was held on 14 December in Milan, at Fusillo lab.
Together with Benedetta Frare, communications manager at Fairtrade Italia, and Chiara Marzaduri, communications manager at Alce Nero, we explored the benefits of fair trade for all actors in the supply chain, starting with growers in developing countries. "By joining the Fairtrade certification system, producers first and foremost become protagonists of fair trade — that is, they take part in all decisions that concern them," Frare explained.
"Furthermore, they can benefit from a minimum price that does not depend on market fluctuations but instead helps them cover the costs of sustainable production. In addition to the minimum price, they receive a premium price — the Fairtrade premium — which is an additional sum of money that producer organisations collectively decide how to spend for the benefit of their community. They can choose to invest in social, health or educational services, or to put the premium towards improving product quality."
Paying growers a minimum price for the fruits of their labour and encouraging a process of sustainable development means establishing an economic relationship based on a concept of fairness that could not exist without the support of consumers. "By purchasing a Fairtrade-certified product, people can truly connect with our producers and buy a transparent product that has not caused the exploitation of labour," Frare explains. "And so contribute, together with us, to a fairer world."
We spoke with Marzaduri about the benefits for consumers of choosing food that is not only Fairtrade certified but also grown in accordance with the principles of organic farming. "The Fairtrade certification in the Alce Nero range adds an extra layer of assurance. Assurance for the buyer that the product has not only respected the Earth and the health of those who grow it — and of those who then eat it — but also addressed a fundamental issue: fair remuneration of the raw material for the farmer. We tend to associate this — sometimes mistakenly — only with production taking place on the other side of the world, but unfortunately it is also a reality in fields close to home: all too often farmers do not receive fair pay and remuneration, and therefore fair value for their work."
"The farmer's work also means safeguarding the beauty of the landscape, the biodiversity on which we all depend, and nutritional quality — and it determines whether food is good or not," Marzaduri added. "This heritage is guaranteed when organic certification and Fairtrade certification coexist, and this has nothing to do with subsistence or solidarity. The Italian translation of the concept of Fairtrade (commercio equo e solidale, ed.) is reductive, because what we are really talking about is fair trade — quality production that is properly remunerated, nothing more. Within this value chain there is fair remuneration for all actors in the supply chain." A more balanced economic model for everyone, founded on farming that protects nature and labour, is not only beneficial for us as consumers, but also as people who depend on a land capable of nourishing us healthily and giving us wellbeing.
