It’s Monday afternoon, do you know where your coffee has been? In an admirable effort to help improve environmental and working conditions for coffee production, Starbucks plans to double their purchase of fair trade certified coffee to 40 million pounds in 2009. As the name suggests, fair trade products are certified to ensure that workers recieve adequate compensation for their product, and that they are produced in an environmental sensitive manner. While I’m a big fan of Gorilla Coffee (NY) and Groundwork (LA), I’m glad to see that the big ol’ Seattle giant is throwing his hat into the ring, as their size can greatly influence the industry.
takepart by making your next pot o’ joe from Fair Trade beans.
And check out Alton Brown’s handy lesson on brewing up a delicious cup:
CATEGORIES: Environment, Ethics, Global Health, Human Rights
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type your comment here”Fair Trade is good. It seems relevant to support Fair Trade where you are certain of the social, economic, and environmental practices; however I think it goes without saying that we the consumer can rarely rest assure that these practices are top notch.
This is why I try to support Direct Trade coffee vendors, who themselves check out the practices and do not simply rely on the Fair Trade seal of approval.
I personally live in Scranton, PA, and here in Scranton we have a coffee importer/roaster by the name of Electric City Roasting. This company also has to local cafes which sells this coffee. Anyways, the owner of this company goes directly to coffee farms and checks out their practices herself. If she deems them to be above the Fair Trade standard she then decides to purchase from the farm. And it is this, that is known as Direct Trade.
From the consumer perspective, I there again can not ensure that the practices are perfect, but I can at least see the farm and staff via the pictures that adorn the cafes, and it seems to be a bit more traceable than even Fair Trade can purport.
So check out Direct Trade vendors, and look into http://www.electriccityroasting.com …. There great!”
Thanks for your comment! Yes, Direct Trade is a great way to ensure responsible practices.