Fair Trade Coffee
would you pay more for fair-trade coffee?
Are you asking if I am willing to pay more to get a fair traded coffee, or If fair traded coffee is more expensive?
I will answer the question with some data. Last year three custom roasters from the west coast went together to bid on a coffee from a single farmer in Central America. The coffee went for over $80.00 a pound if memory serve me. The farmer only produced a few hundred pounds but was able to invest back into his farm AND support his family. Had this coffee gone to the megaroasters it would have brought the farmer $0.25 to $0.50 a pound, just barely enough to pay off some of his debt for the year.
Could I afford to buy any of that coffee? No, but it sold out within months of the auction. Most of the beans were sold green to home roasters and a small amout was sold as roasted coffee.
In third world countries where the megaroasters have a lock on the crops (some are bought before they are even on the trees) the farmers are just getting by, year to year. And some have given up on coffee production altogether, cut down their trees and planted other crops, including some drug crops because they can get a few more cents.
If the megaroasters continue with the cheap prices, YOU WILL pay more for your coffee, even that canned crap that the big Conglomerates sell, because everyone will be paying more for coffee due to the shrinking coffee crops.
The US fought a war that a lot of folks claimed was over slavery. But remember this, If you are buying coffee that came from the BIG coffee companies, the megaroasters like Folgers, Maxwellhouse and the like, you are supporting cheap labor. Cheap? More like slave labor at the prices they pay.
Buy the red can and watch the growers struggle. Why does Juan have a donkey? Because he can't afford to buy a truck.
Buy the Blue can and watch the farmers give up. They will chop down their trees, which will be good to the last drop.
Yeah, I'll pay a little more if I know it is coming from a fair trade farmer.
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 Holy Grounds Coffee certified fair trade organic  US $9.50
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Holy Grounds Coffee certified fair trade organic US $9.50
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Holy Grounds Coffee certified fair trade organic US $9.50
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