Fair trade centers on the concept that farmers and workers get living wage compensation for their labor and goods, while working under safe conditions. Fair trade advocates often cite coffee as the consumable that kicked off mainstream awareness of the fair trade movement, which has since moved to clothing, household goods, chocolate, sugar and other items.
Since coffee has become a such a coveted commodity, coffee farmers, many of whom are in impoverished nations, have gotten the shaft by middlemen purchasing the beans at unreasonable prices to sell cheap on the commodities market. Growing and harvesting coffee beans is labor intensive, so when you see a 30-ounce can of coffee on a grocery store shelf for only $8, it makes you wonder who is getting ripped off in the deal. So organizations like Fairtrade International, which includes Fairtrade America, an independent certifying organization that works directly with companies and consumers to get a better deal for farmers, stepped up to help create a supply network that sources coffee from farmers at fair prices.
The nonprofit strives for transparency and traceability, and they abide by the Fairtrade Minimum Price, which serves as a safety net ensuring that even when prices drop, farmers in the Fairtrade network will still have the security of receiving a price that covers their average costs of sustainable production. There are also co-ops like Equal Exchange; worker owned groups with a supply chain of fairly traded goods, including coffee.
Fairtrade American is just one of a few independent fair trade certifying organizations (Fair Trade USA and Fair for Life are a couple others, each with their own ethical missions and certification processes). While a fair trade seal helps consumers identify ethically sourced coffee on store shelves, many smaller, local roasters and coffee shops obtain their coffee directly from farmers or from trusted brokers that ensure farmers are paid living wages for their precious commodity. This helps farmers support their families and gain access to health care and education.
Steve Goretzko, owner of Sven’s Café in the Bay View neighborhood, has been roasting coffee since 1989, and he’s one of the first coffee roasters in Wisconsin to specialize in fair trade and organic coffee. He and his former business partner had worked with Roundy’s Pick n Save to set up organic coffee sections in their stores.
Goretzko said his concerns over human rights led to his interest in sourcing organic and fairly traded coffee. “We buy from a broker who buys fair trade coffee,” he said. He has also met people from those coffee farms at trade shows.
Fair trade coffee standards are strict, Goretzko said, to ensure coffee companies that claim “fair trade” on their bags can actually prove it. “Every coffee company is required to keep the paperwork to show it’s certified fair trade,” Goretzko said. “If you put ‘fair trade’ on your bag, you have to have the paperwork to back it up.”
In addition to looking for certification on the bag and talking to your local roasters about from where they source coffee, Goretzko advises to look for organic coffee as well, because organic farmers also get paid more. Organic coffee is also grown in an environmentally friendly manner; trees are left intact and not cut down to flatten out the land. “Organically grown coffee doesn’t yield as much, but it’s better quality coffee, and better for the environment,” he said.
