Why Fair Trade?

Fair trade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers who have been disadvantaged or marginalized by the traditional economic model. Standards ensure that every link in the fair trade chain meets rigorous criteria for social and environmental accountability. They cover everything from occupational health and safety guidelines for field workers, to community development projects and the provision of credit to cash-strapped farmers. At the consumer end of the supply chain, coffee devotees pay a premium for their favorite beverage to compensate growers for adopting sustainable farming practices. That premium presently stands at more than double the conventional market price.

Coffee is the world's second most valuable traded commodity, behind only petroleum. There are approximately 20 million farmers and coffee workers in over 50 countries involved in producing coffee around the world. Coffee was traditionally developed as a colonial cash crop, planted by serfs or wage labourers in tropical climates on large plantations of landowners for sale in colonial countries.

Coffee producers, like most agricultural workers around the world, are kept in a cycle of poverty and debt by the current global economy designed to exploit cheap labor and keep consumer prices low. Specialty coffee is often imported at a negotiated price over the C market, which is considered a 'quality premium'. Most of those premiums never reach the coffee farmer, but rather stay in the hands of the exporter. This creates a disincentive for farmers to increase their quality, as they do not receive the direct benefits of increased investment in producing better coffee. Most small farmers sell directly to middlemen exporters who are commonly referred to as coyotes. These coyotes are known to take advantage of small farmers, paying them below market price for their harvests and keeping a high percentage for themselves.

Coffee is produced both on large plantations and by small farmers. 

Typically, Fair Trade farmers cultivate less than 3 hectares of coffee and harvest 1,000-3,000 pounds of unroasted coffee a year. Small farmers are perhaps more aptly defined by those farmers who rely principally on their own families' labour. Many coffee farmers receive prices for their harvest that can be less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt. They are often forced to sell to middlemen who pay them half the market price.About 85% of Fair Trade Certified coffee is shade grown and either passive or certified organic. Over half of the certified organic coffee is produced by Fair Trade cooperatives, but unless the coffee is Fair Trade Certified, there is no guarantee that the farmer received the benefit.

Certified organic coffee in the Fair Trade market receives a $.15 premium per pound. Typically, small farmers have never had the money to finance cutting down of the trees or purchase large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Small farmers have traditionally passed on sustainable farming techniques to their children. We believe that small farmers are the best stewards of the land, with the highest interest in living in and passing on land with healthy soil free from harmful pesticides to their children. Paying farmers a fair wage with incentives for ecological practices is the best way to encourage sustainable farming. Fair Trade helps guarantee that the benefits of organic farming techniques reach the farmer as well as the consumer and the environment.

Why Organic?

Sun grown coffee is now the third most pesticide intensive crop per acre (after Tobacco and Cotton) and many pesticides that are banned from use in North America, such as DDT, are still commonly used. The damage to the farmers' health and the environment is unmeasured.