so how can Wal-Mart/Sam's Club, be simultaneously an advocate for fair trade, with backing and accolades from Transfair, while also supporting a 39 cent / lb. banana?

39 cents?! This is NOT a fair trade in anyone's definition of the word, as farmers and farm workers have been forced to the bottom of the banana chain from the beginning by big banana companies and supermarkets.....and a push down on the price from the top means the farmers are the ones that get the squeeze.

but, perhaps Wal-Mart sees their Transfair badge as a corporate social responsibility project,no way to really run your whole business - you know, it's just something to add into their footnotes and some fancy press releases...doesn't really mean they have to change their business model, right?.

Even worse, perhaps Paul Rice sees the Transfair logo as only standing for some baseline poverty alleviation...thus, no change in the economic system that creates poverty is required, just a few more logos out in the market is good enough.

.....either way, the fact remains, that Wal-Mart can simultaneously shovel some more pennies down their "fair trade" supply chain - getting in return lots of feel-good press and cushier margins, all for the added purpose of subsidizing their main business model of multi-national, to-down power dynamics and free-trade poverty creation.

so what to do? I suppose it's not too dissimilar from where organics has ended up. Ask questions, and keep on top of things and know more about not only what you buy but who you buy it from.

There are standards in place...unfortunatly the way the game has been set up, is to keep pushing for a lower bar - not to challenge ourselves to go higher. In the end, also like organics, the magnifying glass and pressure is unfairly put on the farmers....it'd be nice if we pointed it back up the food chain a bit more.

OK, I get it.

My question was originally aimed at teasing out a difference between Fair Trade bananas and conventional ones. The $.39/# price you quote is for conventional, not for Fair Trade bananas, after all. It's not like Wal-mart is using FT nanners as a loss leader.

But I think you have a macro, galactic vantage on this that I don't have, Ojo, and I appreciate you walking me through this. You're looking at this from the point of view that the whole freaking banana market is fixed and that Fair Trade is virtually doomed, if not irrelevent already. Yes?

"Fair Trade is virtually doomed, if not irrelevent already."

My initial reason for the post was in reference to the problematic allowance of companies to offer fair trade, but even for a nominal amount of their product offerings - it's just a niche product to fill some minimal sales growth that was on some chart and graph somewhere - then in the other store they can offer a 39 cent banana as well. No comitment or structural change.

Instead of irrelevance, I'm actually saying that fair trade, that is, the 100% kind  - the kind with trade relationships that empower small farmers, grow the cooperative movement, and dismantle archaic notions of bootstraps being pulled up by a protestant's invisable hand...is thee answer - and is much more relevant now than ever before...the fair trade garden may need some weeding, but it is still fruitful.

there are no other products available with the kind of realistic price tag, as that of fairly traded products. So, not irrelevant....but necessary, and only as strong as those who support it, and demand real change from it.

Conventional coffee, chocolate, sugar....it's not as though the same dots can't be connected back up the food chain to big monolith corporations and fat cats for all of these commodities. But fair trade has been the difference that has created a change in the dialogue for these products, and it stands to reason that the only thing that could possibly withstand the chaos created by a Wal-Mart price drop on bananas - is consumer demand for a fair trade economy, for a different system, for the real costs of their food system.

In fact, because Wal-Mart calls a lot of the shots and people are already getting hit with price increases, they really could have gone the other way - from 59 cents to 79 cents, and I can only assume that for the most part, the banana companies, wholesalers, competing retailers and most of all producers and farm workers, would have been happy to hear it. And consumers would've flipped the bill by paying about 5 cents more for each banana (what, at most a quarter a week?).

Instead of retailers slashing prices, for our benefit, why aren't we as consumers asking: "How much am I willing to pay for America's favorite fruit?" and "What hidden costs (social, economic, environmental ramifications) am I willing to accept for a lower price?"

But how would we know that that price increase we're willing to pay isn't just lining the pockets of the typical top 1%, how do we get it back and evenly distributed throughout the chain and perhaps even benefit the communities where the products originate???

hmmm......how in deed!

I guess until we figure that out, you can by and large get a little more than 2 1/2 fairly-traded, organic bananas for a dollar ($1 - not even most of the crap at dollar stores are just a dollar anymore). Best part is, when done correctly, everybody benefits - from consumers, straight through to the farmers and workers on the other end of the horizontal fair trade playing field.

but if all bananas were fair trade, I couldn't float this picture or this picture around anymore and throw out cliche's about fat cat capitalist pigs.....and I enjoy that almost as much as a good banana.

family photo is another favorite to sling around on blogs.

Thanks for bringing this to light, Ojo. The situation as it stands is clearly unacceptable. So, I propose we do something about it. An online petition demanding Wal-Mart et al pay farmers a fair price for their crop is an excellent place to start. I'd challenge you to throw up a draft of one as a post, let some folks comment, edit and then publish it. Then the rest of us can circulate the link to our friends and associates. I'll even volunteer to write a press release for circulation if you or someone else pens the petition. I guarantee you we can get the attention of at least some big name lefty independent outlets-- like AlterNet-- and maybe if they pay it enough attention the big guys will want to carry the story as well.