'Fair trade' food booming in Britain

'Ethical eating,' a practice once restricted to the rich, is going mainstream.

from the March 13, 2007 edition

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Or, as Smith puts it: "People feel it's a small thing they can do to make a difference. You can't change the world, but you can do a little bit that helps."

Of course, Britain is not alone. Organic food is popular in other European countries such as Germany, where sales outstrip those in Britain. Organic retail sales in the US have grown more than 20 percent each year since 1990.

In Britain, organic farmers now find it much easier to make a living than non-organic farmers, says Ms. Browning.

"The tipping point came when we started getting retailers doing 100-percent [fair trade] for certain products," says Barbara Crowther of the Fairtrade Foundation, the British member of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). "In terms of volume and range of product available to the consumer, the UK is the world's leader," she says. "Fair trade can help farmers who can see they can get even more value from their crop. It can give them a stability of income."

Some have argued that ethical food is a new type of status symbol, a hallmark of the affluent society with time on its hands.

But academics say the evidence shows that ethical food is not limited to a class or sector of society.

"There is strong evidence that [fair trade] has a cross-class appeal," says Mr. Lang.

Elizabeth Dowler, a food expert at Warwick University, agrees that it is not merely a manifestation of the modern affluent society. "The 'counterculture' movement has a long history, as does a concern for the social and economic local well-being," she says. "The food-retailing sector argues that affluence plays a part – people have the leisure and capacity to indulge in that which is not 'essential.' I think this is too limited a view."

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