ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1990s, ethical trading initiatives have promised to reduce some of the economic and social disparities produced through exploitative cross-continental food supply chains. In the context of a trading landscape underpinned by neo-liberal rationalities and agendas, systems of provision for food consumed in advanced capitalist economies have increasingly involved global supply chains and low-wage production in economically less developed countries (Watts 1996; Goodman and Watts 1997). Academic studies taking a commodity chain approach have highlighted the social and economic inequalities created by supply relationships between Northern buyers and Southern producers (Cook 1994, 1995; Hartwick 1998).1 Both the media and civil society organizations (CSOs) have also drawn public attention to the contrast between the consumption of branded goods sold at high prices in retail stores and the poor conditions of work at sites of export production. In the US, journalistic exposés and political campaigns have predominantly targeted brand manufacturers and retailers in the garment sector, for example the Stop Sweatshops Campaign ( Johns and Vural 2000; Adams 2002). Elsewhere, including the UK, food retailers have also come under the critical spotlight (Hughes 2001a, 2001b; Freidberg 2003). As a response to media-generated public concern about labour conditions at sites of production, a large number of high-profile retailers and brand manufacturers have embarked upon strategies of ethical trade (Hughes 2001b; Jenkins 2002; Roberts 2003). Ethical trading initiatives stand in marked contrast to projects of fair trade, the latter involving more developmental objectives of empowering producers through ‘alternative’ supply chains
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defence strategy against ‘negative publicity’ from pressure groups and the media (Blowfield 1999; Hughes 2001b; Adams 2002; Jenkins 2002; Roberts 2003). The starting point is almost always a code of conduct to ensure minimum standards for suppliers (Blowfield 1999).
