News Highlights
Author:
Dana Halawi,
Office of Communications,
media@aub.edu.lb
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Promoting Fair Trade in Lebanon
 | Zurayk criticized the absence of farmers' unions in Lebanon.
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Trade is unfair in Lebanon because of the agricultural subsidies that are offered to farmers in Western countries, said an AUB professor at a recent conference on campus.
Rami Zurayk, an associate professor of soil science and ecosystem management, told an AUB audience: "That explains why most of the food we eat in this country and in the world today comes from the US and Europe, while the standard of living in those areas and the real cost of production are much higher than in Lebanon." |
Zurayk's remarks came during a conference hosted by the human rights and peace club at AUB in collaboration with Fair Trade Lebanon (FTL). Dubbed "Fair Trade: Opportunities and Challenges," the conference was held on March 10, 2010, at AUB. It aimed at discussing the challenges faced by Lebanese farmers and the role played by FTL in improving the livelihoods of the most disadvantaged people living in rural areas.
FTL is a non-profit NGO founded in 2006 whose mission is to choose fair trade as a means of creating export opportunities for small producers and food-processing cooperatives, while helping them to develop and strengthen their own businesses. |
Zurayk said that if the economically powerful nations were ready to drop their subsidies then the farming systems of the poorer countries will evolve.
Experts consider that European subsidies for agriculture are contributing to rapidly rising food prices and the destruction of small-scale farming. These massive subsidies artificially cheapen EU products, thus making it impossible for small-scale farmers in poorer countries to compete. Critics have long protested the way in which these subsidies distort global agriculture and trade. |
Zurayk criticized the absence of farmers' unions in Lebanon. "Fair trade has very strict requirements for laborers. Under fair trade, farm labor has to be unionized and should present demands as a union to gain strength by unity. However... labor unions [in Lebanon] have been unfortunately dismantled by generations of sectarian politics," he said.
Zurayk praised the role of FTL but said that fair trade in itself cannot remain in the realm of NGO's. "We strive to make changes toward global justice, and this cannot come from only 50 farmers out of 200, 000," he said. Instead, he argued, fair trade can only become powerful when it becomes the dominant form of trade, and everyone should work to achieve that. |
Zurayk also exposed the problems facing farmers around the world with respect to commodities such as coffee, rice, and tea. He argued that the stock exchange market, and not the farmers, is setting prices--which often prove to be unfair to farmers.
Meanwhile, Randa El Chemali, who is a marketing assistant at FTL, said that fair trade activists commit to securing the rights and working conditions of marginalized producers and workers by supplying them with financial and technical support to build their capacities. "Respecting cultural identity, offering public accountability and transparency, educating consumers and supporting safe, healthy and participatory workplaces are also important," she said. |
Chemali provided the audience with some statistics about fair trade and said that it represents only 0.01 percent of world trade. "About 7.5 million individuals in 2008 directly benefitted from Fair Trade Certified production while the amount of total fair trade sales in 2008 reached $4.12 billion according to the UK's fair trade foundation," she said.
Some of the challenges facing the agricultural sector in Lebanon include the absence of business opportunities and the exodus of youth from rural areas; land abandonment and generational problems; lack of unions and cooperatives among producers; and the lack of a national strategy to improve the sector. "Inability to meet export standards is also a major problem," she said. |
Chemali also noted that only two percent of farmers are under 25 years old, in contrast with 23 percent who are aged over 65 years. "Two thirds of the agricultural workforce is forced to have parallel activities, and employment opportunities for women in rural areas are relatively weak," she added.
Mohamad Safieddine, who is the treasurer of Green Line, an environmental NGO, gave a small speech as well and said that a committee belonging to Green Line along with multiple partners have developed several awareness materials on the threats of free trade and accession to the World Trade Organization. |
"These materials assert the right of food sovereignty for all nations and the right to protect their national agriculture in addition to the need for stopping deindustrialization in Lebanon," he said. Safieddine also underlined the importance of improving and encouraging the new emerging industries in Lebanon.
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