Fair Trade

California is known for many things, including its rich farmlands. If you go down into the Central Valley, you will find farms and plantations growing everything from avocados to peanuts: this is some of the richest farmland in the country. No wonder Sacramento residents are so often found shopping for their family’s groceries are farmer’s markets that feature a wide variety of fresh, locally produced foods! It is much easier to be a so-called “locavore” in sunny California than it is in some of the colder, less bountiful states across the country.

Unfortunately, however, there are certain products that are not so easy to find in California. For all the talk of eating locally produced foods that you can find in Co-Op meetings and foodie blogs all across wireless Internet, there are certain menu items that have come to be considered “essentials” in the American diet that just cannot be found in neighborhood markets. One of these staples is coffee. For the average Californian, coffee is something to be enjoyed every single day of the year: a cup with breakfast, a coffee break at 10:30 a.m., or maybe a single espresso shot after dinner to help with digestion. Coffee can be a good excuse for a first date or a networking meeting; a coffee break during work can be a great way to get to know your coworkers, or to boost your energy you’re your concentration for the long slog of the afternoon ahead. But whatever you use coffee for – pleasure or necessity – it is certainly not something that you can find growing locally, even in beautiful, fertile California.

So what is a Californian to do? If you go to the supermarket, a lot of the coffee brands that you will find are imported from other countries, but without any kind of consciousness as to how the workers or the land were treated. Typical name brands often only give the growers a miniscule fraction of the profits that they receive from the sale, and this is something that is hard to justify in the mind of a eco-conscious and humanitarian consumer. But you still want your coffee in the end, so what should you do? Read the rest of this entry »

The title of this article is disturbing. The concepts of Organic and Fair Trade are very important to building (rebuilding) a sustainable society. The good news is that the certifications are not mutually exclusive and actually complement each other nicely.

First, a word about certification. In our current market, third party certification is essential to both organic and fair trade. As the market for both fair trade and organic grows many businesses would rather change the definition than to change their practices. We are seeing this now in the fair trade coffee market place. As time goes on a search for fair trade coffee is more and more likely to turn up non-certified “fair trade” coffee, which is most likely just a marketing rouse to attract ethical customers. In a recent search of ebay for fair trade coffee 90% of the results were not third party certified, and upon further examination most looked very suspect. We have seen this already in the organic market. How many products marketed to organic consumers are actually certified? Companies have greened their names but not their practices. Without non-biased third party certification of organic or fair trade we are left to trust self interested parties who will only profit from that trust. So look at the labels a product caries, look into the requirements of that certification and make an informed decision. Know what labels you trust and know the ones that you feel are deceptions. With fair trade Transfair is currently the only certification agency, so look for the fair trade label.

The concept of growing organic is essential to the preservation of our environment. Herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers seep into the ground polluting our groundwater and it also runs off the fields and into local water resources. When forest are cleared for the planting of fields much of the topsoil is eroded and transported in nearby streams to the nearest lake where it deposits the sediment, filling up the lake. Working with the environment to prevent this erosion, organic coffee farmers preserve the fertility of the land by growing coffee in the shade, where coffee was meant to grow. This shade grown coffee provides the migratory birds with habitat and is thus called bird friendly. The concept of organic goes beyond protecting the environment and extends to protecting the the people who work in the fields. Many of the chemicals used in farming have been shown to cause cancer as well as many other health concerns. These concerns are multiplied when a person is repeatedly exposed to the sprays, like the farmers. Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know that in every day tasks you can make a difference to change the world? For example: buying coffee, I love to buy great tasting gourmet coffee and it’s something that I buy recurrently (you can always find coffee in my pantry), so the question is: how can I make a change in the world by buying coffee? By studying a little, I discovered the answer; it is very simple and clear, buy Fair Trade and Organic Coffee. And there is another issue, is that change going to compromise the quality that I love in coffee? The answer is NO, Fair Trade and Organic coffee is high quality and indulgently delicious.

So… what is fair trade coffee?

Many small coffee farmers in developing countries receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into debt and poverty.

Fair Trade Coffee is exported from marginalized farmers in developing countries around the world; it promotes sustainability because it guarantees that the farmers will receive fair prices per pound of coffee, which allows them to compete with the global market, giving them and their family security, economic self sufficiency, marketing and environmental knowledge, allowing social development and conservation of the environment, all the required tools to harvest great quality products.

A Certified Fair Trade Label Coffee guarantees:

o Fair Prices: Assures us that the coffee we drink was purchased under fair conditions. Farmers receive a fair price for their product, allowing prosperity, wealth and education to their family and children.

o Quality Products: by receiving a fair price for their production farmers avoid sacrificing quality, allowing excellent traditional farming methods that result in great quality coffee.

o Care for the Environment: most of the Fair Trade Coffee is certified organic and shade grown (help maintain biodiversity and reduce global warming). Read the rest of this entry »