Fair Trade Coffee is a Fair Trade

Did you know simply purchasing coffee can greatly enhance efforts to fight poverty and reduce global degradation?

Ok, some may be shaking their head at this notion. It just seems like too simplified of a solution. Well, it is simple and it is a solution. If you don’t believe it, it is because you are not familiar with the efforts of Fair Trade Coffee.

Unfortunately, many of the conditions under which coffee is grown in the world are not exactly designed to promote the betterment of humanity. Sadly, segments of the world’s agricultural industry rely on very unsafe sweatshop style labor. Worst of all, the payments to the coffee growers are so pitiful that even those who toil for hours and hours a day earn very little money. Fair Trade Coffee, however, has provided an alternate route to this situation.

If you purchase Fair Trade Coffee, then you are supporting a better way. Fair Trade Coffee (promoted by Global Exchange) requires that those from whom they purchase coffee follow several stringent criteria. This includes paying a minimum price per pound (essentially, guaranteeing a minimum wage for farmers); promoting organic growing which promotes improvement of health; and insisting on certain international standards designed to protect the earth when farming.

Isn’t it amazing what can be achieved from something as simple as your choice of coffee? No, purchasing coffee will not change the world but it can create a ripple effect to make improvements where it can. This is one low impact way to have a high impact effect.

The following companies carry Fair Trade coffee:

Starbucks
Peet’s Coffee & Tea
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Seattle’s Best Coffee
Dean’s Beans

There are over 20,000 retail outlets across the country which carry Fair Trade products, including Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Wild Oats, Whole Foods, Albertson’s, Publix, and Harris Teeter.