According to Lutheran World Relief (LWR), some 20 million coffee farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America struggle to make a decent living that allows them to provide adequate food, health care and education for their children.
In the free market, coffee farmers receive as little as 15 cents per pound for their product. (Hmm...seems to me I paid $12.95 for my last pound of beans.) This 15 cents is the profit that's left from a conventional coffee trade where coffee beans are passed from the farmer to processors, U.S. brokers, then coffee companies and food distributors and then finally to the store and consumers.
Fair Trade is a term used to describe groups working to eliminate the number of middlemen between the farmer and consumer, between the 15 cents and the $12.95. Through Fair Trade, coffee farmers are earning much more than 15 cents a pound. Fair Trade maintains the dignity of the farmer by giving them a way to earn a living from their product - coffee.
Many Americans are giving a heads up to their neighbors about Fair Trade Practices. As an example, Lutheran World Relief, Women of the ELCA and Equal Exchange are launching a new challenge for Lutherans in 2003-2004 called Pour Justice to the Brim: The 90-Ton Challenge. Last year, Lutherans were responsible for purchasing more than 45 tons of 100 percent fairly traded coffee. Now LWR is challenging Lutherans to double their consumption this year. They'll be tracking this challenge on their website, Lutheran World Relief Coffee Project and Equal Exchange.
LWR collaborates with Equal Exchange, a U.S. worker-owned Fair Trade organization. "Equal Exchange doesn't accept conventional thinking that coffee is simply a commodity to be purchased at the end of a long chain of intermediaries. Instead, we buy our coffee directly from the farmers. We trade with democratically organized small farmer cooperatives, paying a fair price with a guaranteed minimum - no matter what the commodity market may tell us. More and more consumers are now demanding to know where their groceries come from and the working conditions of the people responsible for producing those items. We are proud of our contribution to this shift in consumer perceptions and can say confidently that offering Equal Exchange coffee makes good business sense. Not only is it good business for Third World farmers, but it is good business for hundreds of cafes, co-ops and restaurants around the country."
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