Peter Jennings, on the occasion of President Bush’s recent trip to Columbia gave a brief report on the coffee business. Only one cent of the price of a cup of coffee, his report stated, goes to support the farmer. Faced with going broke at such a price, growers are very tempted to switch to cocaine.
His report was generally a view of the free trade (not fair trade) market place. Fair trade marketers are committed to paying the farmer a fair price for the coffee, even if that means that the coffee costs more here. Fair trade coffee cooperatives pay the grower $1.26 per pound of green coffee. I’m sure that you can pay less for your coffee. But the likelihood is that it was produced in situations where farmers were not adequately compensated for their product.
Look for fair trade coffee at coffee shops and earth friendly stores.
And smile while you drink your fair trade coffee, knowing that somewhere the person who grew it is smiling too, because he was adequately paid for his labor.
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