Food shopping has never been more political than it is now. Beyond the clutter of brands vying for consumers’ attention in any grocery store aisle, deep social movements are at play, and marketers are keen to exploit their ideas to slap an additional 30 cents on a price tag. Eat organic. Buy local. Help children in Africa get access to clean drinking water. Support Lowcountry shrimp. The consumer is more powerful than ever, and at times, also more confused. (more…)

The burgeoning fair trade movement which allows consumers to buy ethically sourced products such as tea, coffee and bananas is little more than “marketing hype” which benefits a minority of farmers in developing countries at the expense of all the others, a leading thinktank claims today.

At the start of the annual Fairtrade Fortnight, a highly critical report by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) warns that it is little more than a marketing exercise intended to maintain fair trade’s predominance in an increasingly competitive marketplace. It says fair trade is “unfair” because if offers only a very small number of farmers a higher, fixed priced for their goods. These higher prices come at the expense of the great majority of farmers, it says, who - unable to qualify for Fairtrade certification - are left even worse off.
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