Fair Feels Good

Make a cup of coffee and relax to read this blog.

Now, lets think about your coffee for a moment. Where did it come from? No, I don’t mean which supermarket, but where did it originate?

Imagine the coffee plants growing on a hillside in Amazingland (a fictional country of beautiful mountains and gentle people). As the dew drops melt with the early sun, young women and men, dressed brightly in traditional colors, strap their babies to their backs and walk miles into the hills to for their days work in the “sweatshop of the fields”. For hours into the day their hands move rhythmically, collecting the ripening beans. Small snags in the skin do not deter them. For hours under the hot sun the villages toil. Weighty baskets are heaved and carried back to the shed where beans are sorted and counted. Villagers are paid a mere 45 cents for each pound of beans collected. Hard work and a poverty cycle that cannot be broken.

Are you still enjoying your coffee, or is it slightly more bitter?

Would it taste better if you knew villagers in Amazingland were paid fairly for their beans? It does not mean rising prices for you. All it means is that a fair price is guaranteed for the villagers of Amazingland, so they can meeting their living needs and improve their communities, so they can receive health care, so their children can go to school.

Whats important is that the villagers of Amazingland participate in determining their price. A fair trade price for the coffee industry is usually about $1.30 per pound (it varies from country to country). Compare this to the 45c being paid in the sweatshop example.

But fair traded is more than just money. It leverages the power of people together throughout the world. It respects the individual, the community and the environment. By subscribing to principles of justice, dignity, empowerment, transparent and respect for both people and the planet, the fair trade movement works with producers and consumers to make the world a better place - and to remove the bitterness from your cup of coffee!

Fair Trade Coffee Grower
Photo by Simon Rawles, The Fair Trade Foundation, UK

Tags: coffee, Fair Trade, sweatshop

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Fair Trade. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.