Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles [Paperback]

It is fantastic that the campaigners are enjoying Harriet's book so much and like me just cannot put it down.

I know that many, if not all of them understand the power of stories and that is what makes this book so special to me.

It is the power of so many stories from so many different people (producers, licensees, NGOs, consumers etc) all coming together to show what can be achieved when we all start to care about the `problem' and take what action is required by each of us.

I consider it an enormous privilege to be one of those stories and many people that I know are also mentioned by name in the book, but of most importance is the wording in the final paragraph under the 'Acknowledgements' section:

"Above all else, I would like to acknowledge those many, many people across the world who have played their part in putting Fairtrade on the map but whose stories could not all be included in this book"

That of course means all of us who have done anything to support Fairtrade, even if it is just drinking a cup of Fairtrade coffee, so if you have not done so already go out and read YOUR story now!

As well as an excellent read this book is a must have campaigner tool. I just cannot stop reading out aloud from it at every opportunity as it provides the heart and soul that lies beneath all that I do.

Bruce Crowther
Oxfam Campaigner & Fairtrade Towns Coordinator

A friend loaned me this book as he is committed to FairTrade and, knowing I was sceptical, wanted me to learn more about it. I was disappointed. Harriet Lamb is obviously writing from a very partisan viewpoint, which is fair enough, but her total belief in what she is doing means that she never seems to feel it necessary to advance arguments for her approach but simply to assert that it is right. I was reading this in the week when it emerged that Tesco was taking on young people to work in their stores without payment, yet Ms Lamb takes it as a given that exploitation in the commercial food chain starts and ends in the Third World. Growers and pickers must (quite rightly) be properly paid but after that, FairTrade doesn't really seem to care. Supermarkets can display the symbol on their own-brand goods even if their shelf-stackers aren't paid at all. Ms Lamb points out that farmers in the UK may be squeezed but they aren't starving, which is literally true but then many of the charming Third World farmers who pop up throughout the book with convenient sound bites praising FairTrade aren't starving either. They have it hard - but so do many UK farmers. Almost one UK farmer commits suicide every week (Malmberg, A., Hawton, K., Simkin, S. (1997) A study of suicide in farmers in England and Wales. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 43, 107-111). Levels of infant mortality in some parts of the USA are greater than in India, but FairTrade buys products in India and, on principle, won't operate in the USA. I'm not saying that their decisions are unfair or unreasonable but they need explaining and defending with clear argument, not the mix of ex-colonial condescension and smug self-righteousness that quite often slips through here. Whether she is busily cycling from meeting to meeting or making passing reference to her Christian faith, Ms Lamb can come over as a bit of an insufferable goody two-shoes.

Harriet Lamb does rather have her organic cake and eat it. She cites her environmental credentials (and that bloody bike comes out again) but she is constantly jetting off around the world to meet a farmer here or attend a conference there. Her contribution to carbon levels must be quite significant - as is that of her products. Importing our vegetables from Nigeria might be good for Nigerian farmers, but it's hardly good for the planet. Ms Lamb assures us that most of the products are shipped by sea (though many - like fresh flowers - clearly aren't) quietly ignoring the fact that cargo vessels are themselves significant sources of carbon. Although ships generate less carbon per kilo of goods shipped, they currently account for around 4% of global carbon emissions - twice the total emissions of aircraft.

I'm being grossly unfair, of course. The idea that people in the Third World should be properly paid for their produce is absolutely right, and FairTrade has done a lot to help with this. But things are not as one-sided and straightforward as they might appear from reading this book. Much is made of FairTrade bananas. A FairTrade banana is a FairTrade banana - it's pretty straightforward. Much less is said about FairTrade chocolate. Global supply issues mean that the cocoa in your FairTrade chocolate bar might be fairly traded or it might not. International commodity markets aren't that simple and this book does not address their complexities. There are passing references to how the definition of FairTrade varies from product to product and is the result of negotiation with buyers, but no details are provided. And details matter.

In the same way, the book supports some of its more significant statements with footnotes. But if you check out these footnotes (and I'm an obsessive footnote checker) you'll see that they are often to secondary sources. Many of these secondary sources are Oxfam publications. Oxfam is committed to FairTrade. So arguments in a book which is essentially a bit of old-fashioned agitprop for FairTrade are being supported by reference to other books which are themselves propaganda for the system.

If you believe that FairTrade is great and want to pat yourself on the back, this is the book for you. If you know nothing about what is an important scheme to make international trade in agriculture fairer to poor producers, this might be a useful introduction. But if you want an informed and critical analysis of how FairTrade works, what the problems are with it and how it might be developed, this book is a complete waste of your time.

I loved this book!
Yes I am passionate about Fairtrade but I think anyone, even those who are completely new to Fairtrade will get a lot out of it. The book details the history of the Fairtrade movement here in the UK and the struggles they faced in the beginning all the way through to the huge successes they are seeing today. It also has a useful 'how to get involved' section at the back.
The book is written in an easy, interesting and personal way and can't fail to get everyone fired up to support Fairtrade.
Happy reading!