I read it as saying, "Tesco is screwing the pineapple farmers who aren't protected by Fairtrade". But it could also be read as, "Tesco is screwing people who are stupid enough to buy Fairtrade". Personally, I believe that 44p is a fraudulently low price.
It may be relevant that the 44-pence pineapples are universally from Ivory Coast, a country currently in the grips of fairly severe turmoil, and whose travel advice from the FCO is 'under no circumstances go there'.
The 174-pence pineapples are from either Costa Rica or Ghana, both of which are basically safe.
I bought the more expensive pineapple - you know well that I'm a soft touch. And it's so much more convenient to do the one-stop process at Tesco than to buy the cheap pineapple and then figure out how to donate £1.30 to the pineapple producers of Cote d'Ivoire.
Of course, I suspect that the split grower:middlemen:tesco is 10/80/10 for the cheap pineapples and 20/60/20 for the expensive ones, so Tesco's profits are much improved by my buying the costly pineapple.
The pineapple pits at the Lost Gardens of Heligan are an impressive feat of Victorian horticultural technology, managing to provide enough heat and humidity from the decomposition of bark and horse manure and sunlight to grow pineapples in England.
But don't forget that the growers in Ivory Coast, if it's in as bad shape as the news seems to suggest, have very little slack to tide them through a boycott of their produce, either. Yes, the price probably does result from some people early in the distribution chain behaving improperly (perhaps exercising monopoly power); but still, one of the people who gets hurt in such a boycott is the original producer and all his employees, who is the one that the boycott is supposed to help (at least in the long run).
I'm not arguing here against buying the Fairtrade pineapples, at that price difference or any other. I might do so myself. I just feel it's important to remember *all* the people in the distribution chain you're boycotting, and make the decision taking into account (as best you can) the effects everywhere along that chain.
This could be an argument for buying the cheap pineapples and taking the effort to make a donation that gets back to the worst-exploited people in that chain, for example.
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I read it as saying, "Tesco is screwing the pineapple farmers who aren't protected by Fairtrade". But it could also be read as, "Tesco is screwing people who are stupid enough to buy Fairtrade". Personally, I believe that 44p is a fraudulently low price.
no subject
The 174-pence pineapples are from either Costa Rica or Ghana, both of which are basically safe.
I bought the more expensive pineapple - you know well that I'm a soft touch. And it's so much more convenient to do the one-stop process at Tesco than to buy the cheap pineapple and then figure out how to donate £1.30 to the pineapple producers of Cote d'Ivoire.
Of course, I suspect that the split grower:middlemen:tesco is 10/80/10 for the cheap pineapples and 20/60/20 for the expensive ones, so Tesco's profits are much improved by my buying the costly pineapple.
no subject
no subject
I'm not arguing here against buying the Fairtrade pineapples, at that price difference or any other. I might do so myself. I just feel it's important to remember *all* the people in the distribution chain you're boycotting, and make the decision taking into account (as best you can) the effects everywhere along that chain.
This could be an argument for buying the cheap pineapples and taking the effort to make a donation that gets back to the worst-exploited people in that chain, for example.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2005-08-03 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)