Food Supply

What is Fair Trade Coffee?

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“The chief concern of the Fair Trade movement has been to ensure that the vast majority of the world’s coffee farmers (who are small holders) get a fair price for their harvests in order to achieve a decent living wage. Fair Trade guarantees to poor farmers organized in cooperatives around the world: a living wage; much needed credit at fair prices; and long term relationships.” What is Fair Trade Coffee? Globalexchange.org

Author: James Grierson

Speciality coffee by its nature is fairly traded. Rather than being treated as a commodity on the futures market, it is traded on its quality, which in turn demands a premium price for the
farmer. For example, in May 2006 ‘Hacienda la Esmeralda Geisha’ coffee, from Panama, set a record of USD50.25 per pound at online auction (This award winning coffee retails for over
USD100 a pound). More over, it is not only third world countries which grow coffee, developed nations such as Australia and United States (Hawaii) also have established industries.

Many people imagine coffee to be grown in large plantations akin to vineyards, with row after row of coffee bushes. This may be the case for the beans that are sold to make your jar of instant coffee, but speciality coffee tends to be grown in smallholdings by the indigenous people of the land. In contrast to the mono-culture of plantations, these smallholdings are bio-diverse. The farmers cultivate the land with self-sufficiency in mind. They have to feed their family and
their livestock as well as growing coffee and other produce they can sell.

“Fair trade’s strategic intent is to deliberately work with marginalised producers and workers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency. It also aims at empowering them to become stakeholders in their own organizations and actively play a wider role in the global arena to achieve greater equity in international trade.” Wikipedia.com

This approach has great benefit for both the quality of the coffee and the sustainability of the land. The bio-diversity of the smallholding attracts natural predators to eat the pests, so
chemicals are not needed. The nutrients of the soil are not drained as the different species of plants require and produce different nutrients. And so, although most farmers choose not to
pay to be certified, their produce is organic and therefore better for us.

So you should feel good when you buy speciality coffee. Not only is it fairly traded, but it is grown in a sustainable and organic manner. You get great tasting coffee which is ethically
sound.

“Few Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as “sweatshops in the fields.” Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt.
Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis, assuring consumers that the coffee we drink was purchased under fair conditions.” Globalexchange.org

Shop for fair trade coffee

About the author:
James Grierson is the owner of Galla Coffee: http://www.gallacoffee.co.uk - UK online retailer of designer coffee accessories. Through the Coffee Knowledge section of his website he aims to help people understand more about coffee and give them tips on how to make great tasting coffee in their home.

Check out
http://www.gallacoffee.co.uk/acatalog/Coffee_Knowledge.html for more articles.

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