colonialism, question
I have seen this phenomenon a few times now, where an American or European brand, in the context of UTZ/Fairtrade/etc. certification, talks about sustainability and how they've established 'coffee schools' or something similar for the farmers, to "teach them how to grow sustainably" and the like.
Am I missing something or is this some colonialist "we know better than you" bullshit?
re: colonialism, question
@joepie91 i mean in most places coffee isn't a traditional crop, but a cash crop grown for capitalism reasons. especially for small farmers often in addition to subsistence crops. I don't think it's safe to assume that everyone who takes up coffee farming automatically knows best practices, especially when there's a whole usually that spent decades and lots of marketing budget to get farmers to use as many pesticides etc. as possible. the schools might well be run by other local farmers. I know there's cooperatives that do education to teach new members how to run things.
colonialism, question
@joepie91
I also feel like this is usually something neocolonial or at least white saviourism to justify not actually paying a fair price
@joepie91 it absolutely is, unless it's acknowledging and talking specifically about undoing the damage of past and current colonialism, returning land, and not run by a corp. So yes, it absolutely is neocolonialist bullshit every time. Indigenous people did sustainability before, and it's none of our damn business now to claim they didn't