So I’m a big coffee drinker. I literally can’t function without my morning cup. In fact, many times, during my early drive to Peet’s, I’ve come pretty close the crashing my car. I am that ADDICTED to coffee. Given this relationship, I’ve taken a real interest in my favorite bean, including what’s known as Fair Trade Coffee.
What is Fair Trade Coffee?
Fair Trade, in its purest form, is coffee that’s purchased directly from a coop of growers at a “fair” price. I found through my research, for example, that the price of a pound of raw coffee is about 60 cents. Fair Trade growers, on the other hand, receive about $1.26 per pound. This price allows coffee growers to not only provide a better standard of living for their families, but also produce coffee under safer and more sanitary conditions.
How Can I Find Fair Trade Coffee?
You can purchase Fair Trade Coffee at many supermarkets and coffee shops, including Starbucks. In fact, I read that Starbucks purchases around 40 million pounds of Fair Trade Coffee each year (yeah…that’s a lot of caffeine!) and, through its actions, is one of the largest proponents of Fair Trade Coffee in the world. I know…corporate leviathan Starbucks…go figure.
If want to buy Fair Trade Coffee and help support farmers in the developing world, look for this logo on the packaging, which is issued by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization:
How Prevalent is Fair Trade Coffee?
Despite the Starbucks statistic, Fair Trade Coffee represents only about a ½ of one percent of all coffee produced throughout the world each year. This equates to about 33,000 metric tons or so. In other words, more people need to learn about Fair Trade Coffee to help promote its adoption. So spread the word 
.
Learn More
If you’d like to learn more about Fair Trade Coffee, watch this short video:
(Interesting Closing Fact: The precursor to the Fair Trade Labeling Organization was called “Max Havelaar”. Max Havelaar is a fictional Dutch character who advocated the fair treatment of coffee producers in the East Indies)
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