Exploring linkages between Consumer Food Co-operatives and Domestic Fair Trade in the United States

Consumer Food Co-operatives (co-ops) have provided consumers an alternative to corporate supermarkets and big-box stores since the 1960s. Producers seeking broader marketing opportunities often turn to co-ops. This study examines how, within alternative food networks (AFNs), co-ops play a role in the emergence of the Domestic Fair Trade (DFT) movement in the USA. The DFT movement is based on the idea that family farms and small- to mid-sized farms in the global north are facing many of the same pressures as producers in the global south. The Domestic Fair Trade Association (DFTA) in the USA is the umbrella organization for a variety of stakeholders. The DFTA seeks to ‘support family-scale farming, to reinforce farmer-led initiatives such as farmer co-operatives, and to bring these groups together with mission-based traders, retailers and concerned consumers to contribute to the movement for sustainable agriculture in North America’1. This study assessed five co-ops (through interviews and document analysis) to determine their experiences with integrating DFT into their business practices. The research reveals that DFT concepts are important to co-operative decision-makers, but they are faced with challenges when it comes to actually integrating DFT into their business model. Insight into stakeholder perceptions and professional-level DFT activities, indicates that co-ops will be a key factor in determining whether the DFT movement will succeed in the USA.

Consumer willingness to pay for domestic ‘fair trade’: Evidence from the United States

The success of fair trade labels for food products imported from the Global South has attracted interest from producers and activists in the Global North. Efforts are under way to develop domestic versions of fair trade in regions that include the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Fair trade, which is based on price premiums to support agricultural producers and workers in the Global South, has enjoyed tremendous sales growth in the past decade. Will consumers also pay a price premium to improve the conditions of those engaged in agriculture closer to home? To address this question, consumer willingness to pay for food embodying a living wage and safe working conditions for farmworkers was assessed with a national survey in the United States. The question format was a discrete choice (yes/no) response to one of four randomly selected price premiums, as applied to a hypothetical example of a pint of strawberries. Multilevel regression models indicated that respondents were willing to pay a median of 68% more for these criteria, with frequent organic consumers and those who consider the environment when making purchases most willing to pay higher amounts. Although the results should be interpreted with caution, given the well-known gap between expressed attitudes and actual behaviors, we conclude that there is a strong potential market opportunity for domestic fair trade.