Your Fair Trade & Organic Coffee Fix

Why Buy Fair Trade Coffee

If organic products are the next big thing, Fair Trade is the next/next thing.  And that is a good thing.  Fair Trade really means fair.  And right.  Fair Trade is a partnership based on mutual respect between producers and buyers.  It provides fair wages and humane working conditions for coffee farmers.  It polices child labor and also supports transparency in business and accounting practices. 

• Fair Trade = environmental protections.  Most Fair Trade coffee is also organic, grown using sustainable farming practices.  Fair Trade actively promotes methods that improve soil fertility while protecting the ecosystem.  Harmful agrochemicals are limited, resulting in coffee that is safer for the farmers to grow … and safer for you to drink.

 

• Fair Trade provides gender equality in the workplace.  Despite the gender equality strides that have taken place in America and many other countries, gender equality and fairness is sadly not the standard in many developing nations.  Fair Trade supports equal pay for equal work by coffee-producing men and women.

 

• FairTrade protects against unfair child labor practices.  Children who participate in coffee production are assured security, well being, and educational and recreational requirements in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Protecting children is a crucial piece of the Fair Trade puzzle, and one worth remembering.

 

• Fair Trade supports communities.  Working through cooperative organizations, Fair Trade coffee farmers are able to invest their earnings in improving housing, health care, and schools.

 

• Fair Trade helps sustain local economies.  Fair Trade coffee farmers can build their own businesses, rather than work for commercial go-betweens – where they earn significantly less money.  What is more, Fair Trade profits stay in the farmers’ own community.

So: ready to buy Fair Trade?  Look for the logo, and remember that you have a choice.  For about what you are paying now, choosing Fair Trade Certified coffee supports sustainable development for small farmers in developing nations. 

Cheers!

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