Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Are voluntary standards efficient tools for changing the world?


When you buy a cup of coffee for €2 the farmer gets 3-4 cents for the coffee in that cup. If you buy a cup of organic and fair trade coffee you are likely to have to cough-up €2.50 - and the farmer will get 4-5 cents. This example shed some light on three circumstances.
1. How little share of the economic value in today’s food chains that is constituted of the raw materials.
2. How little share agriculture has in the GDP of the rich countries - often just a few percent
3. That the market mechanism may not be particularly efficient in transforming consumers willingness to pay for direct or indirect services or values in a product to an increase in income for producers.

Hear a presentation I made at the recent Biofach fair in Nürnberg.

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