Recentring Fair Trade in the movement for a just, inclusive and regenerative economy

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jfairtrade.3.2.0028
• Pages: 28-33
• Published date: 30 March 2022
• Date: 30 March 2022
• Author: Amanda Kiessel
• Subject Matter: Fair Trade,diffusion of innovation,social movements,buy local,racial justice,social enterprise,B Corps,platform co-operatives,zero waste,climate action

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Recentring Fair Trade in the movement for a just, inclusive and

regenerative economy

Amanda Kiessel

Amanda Kiessel is co-founder of Good Market, a curated community platform and marketplace commons

for social enterprises, cooperatives, responsible businesses, civic organisations, and changemakers working

to create a twenty-first-century economy that’s ‘good for people and good for the planet’. Before Good

Market, she worked with local organisations in Asia on agroecology and sustainable food systems,

organisational development and social enterprise. She did undergraduate research on change in natural

ecosystems, masters research on change in social systems and a PhD that combined both. Amanda is an

Ashoka Fellow and serves on the board of the Social Enterprise World Forum and Buy Social USA.

Abstract

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Fair Trade was at the front edge of an emerging new paradigm

about the purpose of business and the meaning of economic success. The movement for a just,

inclusive, and regenerative economy has continued to expand, but today’s young entrepreneurs

and activists are more likely to enter through other communities like Buy Local campaigns,

racial justice, worker ownership, platform co-operatives, B Corps, social enterprise, regenerative

agriculture, zero waste or climate action. Social movements often happen in waves across

multiple generations. As Fair Trade commodity certification has become increasingly

mainstream, it can be seen as a first wave of the movement. It is a success that deserves to be

celebrated, but on its own, it is difficult to sustain. The Fair Trade enterprise community has the

potential to engage the next generation of mission-driven entrepreneurs and activists, speed up

the next wave of the movement and lock in the success of the first.

Keywords: Fair Trade, diffusion of innovation, social movements, buy local, racial justice,

social enterprise, B Corps, platform co-operatives, zero waste, climate action

Introduction

For decades, Fair Trade was at the front edge of an emerging new paradigm about the purpose of business and

the meaning of economic success. If you came of age during the 1980s and 1990s, Fair Trade was often your

entry point to a new way of understanding business and social change.

In school, I learned the old economic story that the purpose of business was to maximise profit and

continuously grow. Any negative social or environmental consequences were ‘externalities’ to be addressed

through regulation, taxation or philanthropy. If you cared about social or environmental issues, you joined the

government or a nonprofit organisation.

My first introduction to Fair Trade was Equal Exchange, a worker-owned co-operative in the United

States that connects smallholder farmers with consumers. It was also my first introduction to a new

economic story: businesses can choose to prioritise people and the planet over profit maximisation. By

the 1990s, they were demonstrating that it is possible to have a social and environmental mission and a

self-sustaining financial model. In the words of Kate Raworth (2017), they were being distributive and

regenerative by design.

DOI:10.13169/jfairtrade.3.2.0028