This ethnographic, multi-site research project concerns the production, consumption and cultural marketing of organic "fair-trade" coffee. Fair trade is a globally regulated system based on direct market links between socially conscious consumers and poor rural producers. Most studies of commodity chains concern the economic effects of producer/consumer relationships. In departure from these, this study will examine the social relationships established through the fair trade commodity chain, as well as the intentions, values, ideals, and politics that are traded along with the product. The research objectives are (1) to understand changes in the coffee cultivation system from the perspective of growers and marketers in Chiapas. Mexico; (2) to understand what the labels of organic and fair trade signify to producers and buyers/consumers; (3) to understand, from the perspective of each participating group, local hopes for political or economic change vis a vis the fair trade relationship; and (4) to understand to what extent and in what ways involvement in organic fair trade regimes are linked to ideas about self and identity.
The one-year research project is based on participant observation Mexico and the United States, and interviews with coffee producers, fair trade leaders, and consumers. American environmentalism is often glossed as consumer-driven, by desires to have pure food, green spaces, and wildlife. In contrast, Mexican social movements have been more often regarded as producer-driven, by desires for the equitable distribution of land, the need to preserve forest resources for subsistence use, and the desire to access niche organic food markets. The global fair-trade movement is significant because it combines elements of both newer environmental movements and older peasant movements based on subsistence demands. This research will provide new knowledge by outlining the strengths and weaknesses of a movement that links a luxury, coffee consumption, to concerns for basic social justice. It will contribute to social science theory of globalization by linking economic and cultural processes.
