Fairtrade, Fairfriends

Fairtrade certification is a product certification system that allows consumers to “identify products that meet agreed environmental, labour and development standards”. The first Fairtrade labelling initiative was the Max Havelaar labelling on Mexican coffee, which started in 1988. The initiative has grown quickly over the past 20 years, and Fairtrade certified sales now amount to approximately €2.3 billion wordlwide (as of 2007). The organization carries out independant auditing of producers to evaluate their compliance with a range of criteria. 

With the growing interest for Fairtrade, several independant studies  have tried to measure the impact of Fairtrade on farmers and workers. Most of these studies showed that the use of this type of labelling allowed participating farmers to increase their gross household income (through higher prices) , although this also comes with an increase on cost (because labelled products are certified “organic”). To some extent, Fairtrade also protects farmers from commodity crises by encouraging a constant demand at a fixed price. Furthermore, the extra capital can generate positive ripple effects that can even reach families and farmers not partcipating in the Fairtrade network.

The question for us, is how online mapping could help Fairtrade initiatives. Given that this system aims at helping specific third world countries, we think it makes sens to try to map these certified farmers and learn more about them. In addition to this, online mapping could strengthen the community and networking around these initiatives. A website called Fairfriends already tries to do this online.