As World Environment Day nears, the food and beverage sector will once again showcase a variety of sustainability catchphrases. They describe their coffee as regenerative, their cocoa as responsibly sourced, and their packaging as circular and recyclable. Their supply chain claims to be carbon neutral, environmentally protective, and employing nature-based solutions. Words like green, eco-friendly, and resilient dominate the narrative.
Buzzwords attract attention but mask a critical truth: our climate is in crisis, and the global food system faces unpredictability. The focus should shift to the reality that those who cultivate our food struggle to adapt to a crisis they didn’t cause. The global agriculture sector, beset by sustainability trends and jargon, remains precarious.
For example, coffee-growing regions face losing up to half of their suitable land by 2050. Cocoa farmers, many living below the poverty line, endure rising temperatures and erratic rainfall threatening their livelihoods. The industry is aware of these issues but rarely adopts the solution proposed by smallholder farmers: fair pricing.
Financial stability is vital for environmental protection. Farmers focusing on survival make quick, cost-effective decisions that might harm soil and ecosystems rather than sustaining their land’s long-term health. A 2020 study in Nature Sustainability reviewed around 18,000 papers on sustainable agriculture. It found financial incentives among the strongest drivers for adopting sustainable practices globally.
To achieve healthy soil requires healthy farms, which in turn need investment in their operators. Merely demanding farmers embrace trendy methods does not fix the system. Addressing core issues like power and pricing can reduce farmers’ risk aversion. This allows them to invest in practices requiring upfront costs or delayed returns, increasing access to capital, equipment, training, and other farming essentials. Once established, sustainable practices enhance long-term profitability and environmental resilience.
Fairtrade’s model mandates companies to pay at least the Fairtrade Minimum Price, offering a buffer during low market prices. It includes mandatory premiums, extra payments farmer cooperatives decide how to use. These premiums have funded plant distribution after diseases, built boreholes and irrigation systems, and aided intercropping and shade tree planting. Farmers identified these initiatives as vital for resilience. These are not imposed mandates but collaborative efforts to bolster ecosystems and income.
To support shifts to improved practices, local staff in regions like Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America provide technical training and program facilitation. For example, the Ghana Agroforestry for Impact partnership with the French Development Agency educates cocoa farmers on environmentally friendly land improvement. In Indonesia, a program aids 100,000 cocoa, spice, coconut, and coffee farmers in adopting sustainable practices, competing for community sustainability grants, and accessing markets through networks.
In Fiji, collaboration with the Sugar Research Institute and the Fiji Sugar Corporation piloted applying agricultural lime instead of fertilizer. Lime application on 20 plots resulted in higher germination rates, easier field preparation, healthier crops, and increased yields. These opportunities stem from farmers voicing their needs and collaborating with national governments and partners who value their expertise.
It’s time the food and beverage sector turns buzzwords into action that supports farmers and their land. Practically, it involves paying farmers enough to cover basic needs, enabling investment in farms, adoption of new practices, and crop diversification.
When farmers can withstand market volatility and climate challenges, supply chains face less risk. Fairtrade is not an all-encompassing solution, but for over three decades, farmers have emphasized their need for stable prices and stronger bargaining power. They seek fairness, not charity. With these fundamentals established, farmers adapt with dignity, not desperation.
Changing this requires a multi-sector effort: governments enacting strong protections, companies committing to fair pricing and long-term contracts, consumers opting for products that support dignity, and organizations holding parties accountable.
This World Environment Day, the industry must choose to either continue focusing on fleeting trends or to empower farmers, shifting resources and authority to them. True environmental resilience begins with financially supporting those who protect our planet.
Amanda Archila is the Executive Director of Fairtrade America. She leads efforts to increase market access for Fairtrade farmers and workers by fostering impactful business relationships and expanding consumer demand for Fairtrade goods. Her involvement in the fair trade movement began as a young activist and through launching a fair trade certification in India with cotton farmers. She brings over 15 years of experience across various industries, from natural foods to e-commerce and consumer electronics.
The views expressed are the writer’s own.