What is the difference between fairtrade and rainforest alliance

Coffee farmers have helped cut down tropical forests, and most of them use an abundance of pesticides. Not to mention, child labour is used far more frequently than you can imagine. Finding coffee beans with labels promising social and environmental improvements is not difficult, especially in a city like ours where niche cafes are as common as a girls in bikinis.

Fairtrade pushes for better wages, working conditions, local sustainability and FAIR terms of trade for farmers and workers in developing nations. Rainforest Alliance works towards conserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices, and consumer behaviour.

Fairtrade is a worldwide organisation that aims to ensure that those who are creating the product are paid a fair wage for the work that they accomplish. Around 6 million people in developing countries benefit from the Fairtrade system. It provides them with a fair practice for the product that they sell and also provides for investment in their local community. One more thing: Fairtrade prohibits child labour — yay!

When the product reaches the consumer — or in our case, when we buy our green beans — it is understood that there is a minimum price for each item. Goods can be sold for more depending on quality and demand, but never, ever for less. However, there is some criticism. When it comes to food and farming including coffee production , the Alliance is taking on a massive challenge.

They work on the frontline of farming and coffee production to put sustainable practices in place. You can also find them protecting streams and rivers, nurturing soil health, and boosting crop yields.

If your coffee features the Rainforest Alliance mark, you can be confident that the farmer behind the packaging is working hard to take care of the planet, whilst serving up steaming cup after cup. Most of our coffee beans and ground coffees are either Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance certified. To discuss which are which or talk about solutions that suit your office, get in touch with the team. Topics: Coffee beans , fairtrade , rainforest alliance.

By improving trading conditions and securing social rights for disadvantaged producers and workers — especially in the countries of the South — Fair Trade makes its contribution to sustainable development. Fair Trade organizations are committed along with consumers to supporting producers, raising awareness, and campaigning to change the rules and practices of conventional world trade.

There are no legal standards. Each organization describes and defines its standards itself. If one is a member, these guidelines can be implemented differently. The differences are in the details and are sometimes serious. In a small overview table, we have compiled some criteria and compared the various seals. In addition, we have also included our direct trade approach in the comparison.

If you would like to learn more about the seals, we recommend our seal profiles. Is any fair trade seal better than none at all? In its own presentation, every seal is particularly effective. Almost everyone involved benefits — farmers get more money, consumers can shop with a clear conscience.

We have compared! Fairtrade is good, Rainforest Alliance is not as green as it seems, and UTZ is an industry-related greenwashing seal. The assessment changes depending on the perspective. While all seals pursue a common goal, they do so with individual emphases.

The three criteria examined were the level of requirements, implementation in practice and management of the organization. This is our conversation from February 12, , edited for clarity:.

Katherine Martinko: Can you explain your role? Anna Canning: I am a campaign manager at Fair World Project, involved in education and advocacy around fair trade. Fair World Project acts as a watchdog to labeling claims both within the United States and globally.

Part of my job is to get people to ask why a product like a banana, that comes from thousands of miles away, is expected to be cheaper than a [locally-grown] apple. There's a big framework there and a history that plays into why that banana is so cheap, and that's something we all need to be exploring. KM: Are we talking about fair trade or Fairtrade? AC: Fair trade is an all-encompassing thing that includes a series of labels.

Fairtrade, all one word, is one specific certification with a blue-green person on the logo. In what ways are they different or similar?

AC: There's a big difference — mainly, who's actually at the table setting the standard, and what is the goal of that standard. Rainforest Alliance standards are geared toward larger plantations and writing base-level compliance with local law into a voluntary standard base. So, one of the differences that you'll see is that Fairtrade standards will require and emphasize the ability of workers to organize and negotiate wages.

Rainforest Alliance tends to be more like, "Don't break the law. A standard on its own doesn't have the strength to know all the issues that could come up in our workers' workday. One annual inspection isn't going to be able to deal with all the things. Having strong worker organization to really figure out what the needs are — those are the things that improve people's lives.

The standard can either support those or not. A big difference is that Fairtrade has a guaranteed minimum price for products. Rainforest Alliance does not. Fairtrade has a fixed premium for community products — an extra amount of money per pound or per box of bananas. Fairtrade says if a product is organic-certified, there needs to be an additional amount of money paid to recognize the additional work and stewardship that goes into it. These are really fundamental pieces.