Introduction to my thesis

Things have been pretty culinary for me lately, since I make my own schedule and can spend decidedly more time in the kitchen since I don't have as many strict deadlines or class times to abide by. Still, I don't want everyone to think that I spend all of my time in the kitchen. (Although I'll be discussing a life changing broccoli basil mac and cheese recipe at the end of this post.) What I actually spend most of my time thinking about and working on is my thesis, which I haven't really talked about much.

(I just finished writing this post and realized that it's really long, so for now it's just an introduction to my two main themes- cocoa and fair trade. Most of you probably know a lot about both of these, especially about fair trade. But in case you're not totally sure, hopefully these insanely long and not at all brief explanations should help.)

My thesis deals at a much more "local" level than my class studies- I'm investigating whether or not it's worth it for small cocoa farmers to be certified fair trade, on an economic and social level. Just to be clear, cocoa is a what you use to make chocolate- not to be confused with coca which is what is used to make cocaine. Cocoa, often referred to as cacao (I interchange the words), is totally legal in all of its states; coca is legal in an unprocessed state and illegal when it's processed into cocaine. 

"Fair trade" is usually contrasted with "free trade". Free trade is trade as it's conventionally done- the price of a product is regulated by supply and demand. In the case of fair trade products, a minimum price is guaranteed and a premium is paid to producers associations that is used for communal benefit- usually to support development projects, like the construction of new schools or roads, or to help pay for tools that will help the entire association. When world prices go above the fair trade price, producers receive the world price plus the premium, and when world prices go below the fair trade price, farmers really see the benefits- rather than receiving the low world prices, they're guaranteed the minimum fair trade price and the premium. 

For example, the current fair trade price for cocoa is $2000 per metric ton (as of January 2011- previously, as shown in the chart, it was $1600 with a $150 premium), and there's a $200 community premium per metric ton on top of that. The current price today for a metric ton of cocoa is $2427, so the fair trade markets and the free trade/conventional markets pay the same price because it's above $2000/MT, although fair trade certified co-ops receive the $200 premium with every metric ton that they sell. The graphic above should hopefully help to visually show a) how commodity prices fluctuate and b) how the fair trade price helps support farmers, especially during times of price crisis.

That's the producer side. On the other side, consumers pay more for fair trade certified products because the farmers are paid more money than they would be if the product was traded conventionally. Products are certified, usually by the Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO), an umbrella agency that sets fair trade standards and includes a separate organization (FLO-Cert) that certifies farmers organizations. In Europe (where the fair trade market for almost all certified products is the biggest), they use one fair trade label on certified products to show consumers that the products were produced under fair conditions and that farmers were paid a fair price. With cacao the fair conditions usually usually specifically refers to no child labor- not a big issue in Ecuador, but a big one in West Africa where the majority of the cacao comes from. Democratically elected co-ops or producers associations are also important.

 The center image is the European label. In the US, the two biggest labels are Fair Trade USA /TransFair and Exqual Exchange.

Provinces of Ecuador

Almost all of Ecuador's cocoa is produced by small farmers on plots of 10 hectares or less (10 hectares is about equal to 25 acres). Cocoa is mostly produced along the coast- specifically in Los Ríos, Guayas, Manabí, Esmeraldas, and El Oro. (You should be able to find these provinces labelled on the map above. Where as Ecuador's other major agricultural exports are traditionally produced on large plots of land- haciendas-, cacao (and to some extent, coffee) is mostly the domain of small farmers, making it particularly useful as a poverty alleviation tool. Cacao is also the tropical commodity that has the smallest ecological footprint in its production, specifically because cocoa trees grow best under shade. This means that cacao is not as frequently planted as a monoculture, but rather is planted along side other plants- often banana trees, coffee trees, citrus trees, and hard wood trees. This variety increases biodiversity, and the fallen leaves make for good natural compost. These factors combine to make cocoa well suited to be certified because of its fairly ecological cultivation and because chocolate is considered a "luxury item" in the developed world, much like coffee and wine. Consumers are often willing to pay more for fair trade chocolate, partially because it's considered a luxury item and consumers are willing to pay more in general for it, and partially because many consumers equate fair trade with higher quality, a connection that isn't necessarily always the case (but often is because of the small scale, artisan nature of lots of the chocolate bar production).

I hope that helps as an introduction to these topics. My main goal is to analyze further the fair trade system as it pertains to cacao in Ecuador. Is fair trade a viable option for small, marginalized farmers, or is the cost of certification so high that the system excludes those that it purports to support most? Does the fair trade price for cacao cover the cost of production and the cost of living? If a community is benefitting from fair trade, are the benefits economic, social, or both? Are there alternatives to the fair trade system that also promise a fair price for farmers? Hopefully I'll have time to write up my non-expert opinions about these soon.



I know I promised a life changing recipe, so I'll link to it here. It's a broccoli basil macaroni and cheese recipe- let me just tell you that there's a squash puree involved that thickens and creams up the sauce nicely, and that the breadcrumbs are mostly finely chopped broccoli with basil! Oh, and the tomato in the sauce is genius- I was skeptical at first, but it added a nice, sweet contrast to the cheese. Also, I didn't have any creme fraiche on hand (who does?) so I just substituted normal plain yogurt- not even strained yogurt (more like Greek) because I didn't have time. And it worked out just fine. Another reason why I'm now on the side of Camp Cooking instead of Camp Baking.