@Ape
I will bow down to the superior wisdom of Wikipedia on this one, I was basing my rant on the comments of a friend of mine who works for Oxfam. She was working in South America a few years ago with people that were negatively affected by "fair trade" stuff, like being ripped off by Co-op for coffee beans and smaller single family producers who were being ignored by buyers because they coudln't produce enough to warrant the paperwork. But if things have improved since then, that's great.
*inhales aroma of baby murdering nescafe*
( BlueHaze Chutney. All good., Fri 2 May 2008, 11:27, Reply)