P2P Foundation

We are sometimes asked why we do not use fair trade certification. The answer is really simple: Certification takes the place of “consumers” having direct access to information themselves. These organizations vouch for the practices of companies enabling these companies to keep their larger business practices private and away from public scrutiny. We want to ask you to do more than simply trust a third party. Look at what we say we are doing and compare it with the information we have made readily available on our site.

Steve Herrick alerted us to this new approach to fair trade, that focuses on the transparency between peers, rather than third party certification, as practiced by the Just Coffee cooperative.

“One of the most commonly overlooked ethics of fair trade is transparency. We at JC are committed to it and in order to show this we have posted our Profit and Loss statements since 2002– our first year of business. To summarize the P&Ls, we have grown quickly and shown a slight loss or slight profit every year. Our accountant would call us a textbook “break even” company. We have shown small losses for the past two years, this year we are committed to turning that around. Thus far we are running at a slight profit for the year, so we’ll see. The important thing for us– as a worker cooperative– is to provide a decent income stream to all people who work at our co-op as well as to the growers that we work with. In this we have been fairly successful. The purpose of this exercise is to show you exactly what we are doing with our company. This is why we post our contracts with the growers we buy from as well as all of the transaction documentation for getting the coffee from the farmers to us. We will also soon have balance sheets on line as well as salary information for people working at JC.

We are sometimes asked why we do not use fair trade certification. The answer is really simple: Certification takes the place of “consumers” having direct access to information themselves. These organizations vouch for the practices of companies enabling these companies to keep their larger business practices private and away from public scrutiny. We want to ask you to do more than simply trust a third party. Look at what we say we are doing and compare it with the information we have made readily available on our site. Are we paying above FT minimum prices like we say? Are we really buying organic coffee? Are people at JC getting wealthy at the expense of farmers? It is all here for your perusal. In the end certifications can be helpful to separate out a company’s “fair” transactions from their other transactions. However, we do not do “other” types of transactions and we have nothing to hide. We want you to do your own homework. Not just with regard to your coffee, but in all of the things you buy. Look at what we do, think about it, and then judge for yourself whether it meets your standards. Don’t let other people tell you what is fair. In the end it puts another layer between you and the people that make and grow the things that you use in your daily life. And if you like what you see and the premise behind it, ask other companies to show you their books.”