Luetchford, Peter (2008) The hands that pick fair trade coffee: beyond the charms of the family farm. In: De Neve, Geert, Luetchford, Peter, Pratt, Jeffrey and Wood, Donald C (eds.) Hidden Hands in the Market: Ethnographies of Fair Trade, Ethical Consumption, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Research in Economic Anthropology (28). JAI Press, Bingley, pp. 143-169. ISBN 978-1-84855-058-2

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Abstract

Fair trade commonly focuses on the figure of the smallholding peasant producer. The effectiveness of this as a strategy lies in the widespread appeal of an economy based upon independent family producers trying to secure livelihoods in impersonal and exploitative global commodity markets. But the attempt by fair trade to personalise economic relationships between coffee producers and consumers diverts attention away from aspects of the political economy of production for the market. This chapter examines a rural Costa Rican coffee economy that has supplied fair trade markets since the 1980s. Documenting differences in landholdings, the range of activities farmers engage in, and the relationship between landowners and landless labourers, women, and migrant harvesters from Nicaragua reveals differentiation and tensions that are obscured in the smallholder model invoked by fair trade.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	In Research in Economic Anthropology Series
Schools and Departments:	School of Global Studies > Anthropology
Depositing User:	Peter Luetchford
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 15:04
Last Modified:	14 Mar 2016 12:56
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/10025

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