Coffee and chocolate are two things many people say they can’t live without. In recent years, you’ve probably run across the term “Fair Trade” when picking a new bag of coffee or chocolate bar off the store shelves. “Fair Trade” sounds great, but what exactly does it mean for your coffee and chocolate and for the farmers who have produced them?
Buying Fair Trade certified products is more than just paying fair prices in exchange for the labor and resources that went into making your products. In addition to supporting fair prices, you also support other Fair Trade principles such as fair labor conditions, direct trade, community development, and environmental sustainability. Many Fair Trade certified products are also certified organic, as Fair Trade standards require sustainable, eco-friendly farming practices, but it’s important to note that the two types of certification aren’t interchangeable.
A cup of coffee may seem perfectly harmless, Fair Trade or not. You probably know a lot of coffee drinkers, so coffee must be a high in demand product and that’s to the farmers’ advantage, right? But coffee is produced in many parts of the world, from Vietnam to Uganda, and the market is flooded with coffee. Coffee farmers have to sell their coffee at low prices, prices that might be too low to adequately support themselves. Many coffee farmers earn around 30 cents a pound, while consumers pay big coffee retailers $10 for the pound of coffee. Fair trade coffee farmers, on the other hand, are paid more equitable wages and are assisted in implementing sustainable growing practices.
Conventional chocolate production practices aren’t sweet and innocent, either. 43 percent of the world’s chocolate comes from the Ivory Coast in Africa, where, in 2003, the U.S. State Department found approximately 109,000 child laborers working in dangerous conditions on cocoa farms. In addition to child labor issues, the average cocoa farmer often sells to exploitative middlemen and earns only $30 to $100 a year, not enough to support the farming family. Cocoa farms in the fair trade system do not use child slave labor. Like Fair Trade coffee farmers, Fair Trade cocoa farmers are paid higher and fairer prices for their crops, and use sustainable growing practices.
Next time you’re shopping for coffee or chocolate, buy Fair Trade certified. Your purchase helps the environment, and helps farmers support themselves, their families and their communities. TransFair USA, one Fair Trade organization, has a handy guide on where you can find Fair Trade certified products in your neighborhood. Talk to your area businesses and ask them to stock Fair Trade products. Share your delicious chocolate and coffee with family, friends and colleagues to encourage them to buy Fair Trade. By doing this, you can take the guilt out of “guilty pleasure”!
Source: BecauseAction.com
