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Hello #foodstudies20! I’m excited to present my paper “Curating Connection: Race and Representation in US Fair Trade Bananas” alongside @EricaJPeters. Key words: #fairtrade #race #representation #consumption https://twitter.com/EricaJPeters/status/1286341759887384580
I came to this topic while studying empire-era ads that used imagery of producers from British colonies to “connect commerce with care” (Wilson 2016). Many scholars have identified continuities between these images and contemporary fair trade (FT) ads. #foodstudies20 1/23
Kothari (2014) notes that “essentialized representations of formerly colonized peoples” foster a sense of paternalism in Northern consumers. Ramamurthy (2012) observes that images of smiling farmers “create an affective bond” between producers and consumers... #foodstudies20 2/23
(cont) and “affirm [producers’] contentment with their conditions.” Wright argues that these images partially reveal producers’ relations to consumers “in ways that render them commodities in their own right” through a process of re-fetishization. #foodstudies20 3/23
My initial question: why are such images so persistent and effective in selling commodity goods (in this case, bananas) to US consumers? To address this, I conducted a content analysis of images and texts from 7 FT businesses and organizations in the US. #foodstudies20 4/23
I quickly noticed that most materials worked to create an “affective bond,” a sense of connection. Indeed, Stephens (2013) found establishing an “emotional link” between consumer and producer to “be imperative to the early success of fair trade marketing.” #foodstudies20 5/23
Zelizer (2011) studies the role of social intimacy in economic exchange and argues that “intimate relations involving monetary transfers [are] each marked by a distinctive pattern of payment.” Thus, perceived intimacy affects willingness to pay for FT goods. #foodstudies20 6/23
This unidirectional “emotional link” is one common thread that ties fair trade advertising efforts back in time to ideologies of benevolent imperialist expansion, though the messaging in these images and the nature of the bond they seek to create have changed. #foodstudies20 7/23
In the materials I analyzed, two necessary components work together to forge a sense of connection with producers among consumers. First, FT imagery co-constructs producer and consumer identity around perceived racialized/cultural differences. #foodstudies20 8/23
Images heavily feature producers of color from the global South, often in “traditional” garb, next to white partners/consumers from the global North. Some of these images toe the line of racialized caricature. Others work to naturalize producers’ positions... #foodstudies20 9/23
(cont) as producers in the supply chain. Their smiles, as Ramamurthy points out, signal contentment (even joy!) in this positionality. Consumers are encouraged to interpret their relationship to the person in the picture as both natural and symbiotic. #foodstudies20 10/23
In this co-construction of producer and consumer, race is not coincidental but a central feature both of fair trade and the “commodified morality” (Moberg 2012) it offers consumers. Second, texts framing these images use colorblind language... #foodstudies20 11/23
(cont) in the form of “abstract liberalism” (Bonilla-Silva 2003), invoking a discourse of global poverty that erases its racist roots. FT practitioners appeal to consumers’ curiosity and paternalistic attitudes towards the “desperately poor” (DeCarlo 2010)… #foodstudies20 12/23
(cont) at once racializing poverty while de-politicizing and de-contextualizing it (Newhouse 2011). The bond, then, depends on imagery highlighting racially “other” producers embedded in colorblind language. These elements together allow consumers to ignore… #foodstudies20 13/23
(cont) uncomfortable power differentials and enter into the FT “relationship” with producers as “equals.” The following examples from FT banana ads in the US include both racially-charged imagery and race-neutral language that shifts focus to “the market.” #foodstudies20 14/23
Example 1: In this poster from FairTrade America, buying fair trade is equated to “friendship.” As a “true friend,” I can promote “trade justice” for “more farmers like Mary.” I don’t know anything about Mary other than that she is a farmer, which I know… #foodstudies20 15/23
(cont) not only from the text but also Mary’s verdant surroundings and the produce she’s carrying. Her posture suggests strength and fortitude that aligns with racist (and gendered) notions of black women as better suited for physical labor than white women. #foodstudies20 16/23
In this way, her role as laborer, a position that has historically been tied to race, is made to appear natural in this image. The ad is not in Mary’s voice, but while she does not speak for herself, I know from her smile that she approves this message. #foodstudies20 17/23
Example 2: Here we see a white Equal Exchange employee shaking hands with a banana farmer. Text emphasizes the “personal” nature of fair trade: the “smallholder’s position is romanticized as benign in comparison with industrial labour” (Ramamurthy). #foodstudies20 18/23
The image suggests agency and reciprocity, as the producer enters willingly into the deal with EE. However, given that farmers have been forcibly “emplaced” in their position as producers for Northern consumption (Wilson 2016), agency remains narrow in scope. #foodstudies20 19/23
The relationship between these two men is represented through a firm handshake, a mutual agreement that evokes masculine, capitalist rationality. In this case, “personal” relations and social intimacy exist purely, explicitly as a means to economic ends. #foodstudies20 20/23
This image relies on a racialized depiction of the producer to communicate its message. The handshake signals market solutions (ethical business/consumption) that bridge economic fissures between north and south on mutually accepted (and race-neutral) terms. #foodstudies20 21/23
By interrogating how these images forge a sense of connection between consumers in the global North and producers in the global South, I found that FT ads highlight racial difference to naturalize poverty and the respective roles of producer and consumer... #foodstudies20 22/23
(cont) while text and stories that frame these images articulate this relationship using the colorblind language of markets. This dissonance works to shield consumers from the unpleasant histories of racial capitalism that created this configuration of trade. #foodstudies20 23/23
Finally, I made this gif months ago and am THRILLED to have an excuse to share it. It is meant to represent the flow of $/products in fair trade networks, but I also think it represents how fair trade curates connection between consumers and producers. #foodstudies20 24/23 lol
