by Heather Putnam, USFT Coordinating Committee Member at the University of Kansas

It is not often that a researcher presents a study so complete as to reveal the complexities and possibilities of a social movement without obscuring its problems, as Dan Jaffee has done for Fair Trade in Brewing justice: fair trade coffee, sustainability, and survival. This book is a valuable contribution to a body of literature that tends to deal with its subject in a diffuse manner. Jaffee engages with Fair Trade holistically as both a market and a movement, with all of the inherent contradictions that go with that combination. In the background of Jaffee's narrative is Karl Polanyi's assertion that "the very idea of the self-regulating market is a fiction," a framework that provides a refreshingly straightforward starting point for evaluating what Fair Trade really achieves and what it does not. I recommend this book as a valuable tool to both Fair Trade experts and newcomers to the movement. Experts will know many of the discussions presented all too well, but will benefit from Jaffee's bird's-eye view analysis. Newcomers will gain an understanding that will hopefully permit them from falling into the trap of oversimplifying the issue.

From Jaffee's privileged position of intimate access to key players in the Fair Trade movement as well as grassroots coffee farmers in Oaxaca, he is able to see that Fair Trade is anything but a homogenous model. The result is an analysis that rejects the worn-out dichotomy of Fair Trade versus free trade, used by both scholars and movement activists alike. Instead it explores the capitalistic roots of Fair Trade, honestly and openly engages in the debate of what constitutes progress in the Fair Trade model, explores internal movement politics, and provides a view of what is necessary to improve Fair Trade. Fair Trade is placed squarely in the middle of other social movements fighting for economic justice and empowerment, and it is clear throughout the book that Jaffee believes that Fair Trade is only part of the answer.

One limitation of Jaffee's analysis is his lack of attention to consumer attitudes. This might only be the result of the limited scope of the book, but the analysis could have benefited from exploring the relationship between the movement and consumers; leaving them out lends them an anonymity that Polanyi would have rejected and that does not permit the reader to engage in how consumers will handle the complex (and often confusing) dynamics of Fair Trade. This is not necessarily a shortcoming, but a taking off point. Jaffee has given us a view of a movement that serves as a mirror to both scholars and activists of Fair Trade. Our challenge is to use it to continue to reflect and to forward an ongoing hopeful critique of Fair Trade.

You can purchase Brewing Justice here. Jaffee, Daniel. 2007. Brewing justice: fair trade coffee, sustainability, and survival. Los Angeles: University of California Press. 346 pp. $21.95 pbk. ISBN 978-0-520-24958-5 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-520-24959-2.

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