Reason magazine published a great article, titled Absolution in Your Cup, on the truths and fallacies of the Fair Trade Certified designation.
If you, like us, are concerned about sustainable farming and providing growers a liveable income, it's an article well worth reading. It dispels the notion that Fair Trade Certified coffee is the only way to help farmers.
We'll note that our French Roast and several of the varietals we offer here are Fair Trade Certified, most of our coffees are not - but may have cost our roaster as much or more to procure, thus compensating the grower at least as well as if it were Fair Trade.
Our roaster, Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters, deals directly with growers worldwide and has a strong reputation for partnering with growers and paying extremely fairly for quality beans. Even though many of the small independently-owned plantations from whom Intelligentsia buys beans do not qualify for Fair Trade Certified labeling under TransFair USA's somewhat draconian and inflexible rules, the growers who supply Intelligentsia are among the best compensated worldwide.
A couple of excerpts from the article:
Martinez owns a small family farm and produces a high-quality coffee, but none of his beans carry the Fair Trade label. His farm isn’t part of a cooperative, a Fair Trade non-negotiable that disqualifies small, independent farmers, larger family farms, and for that matter any multinational that treats its workers well. “It’s like outlawing private enterprise,” says former SCAA chair Cox, who now serves as president of a coffee consulting company. “What about a medium-sized family-owned farm that’s doing great, treats their employees great? Sorry, they don’t qualify.” In Africa, many coffee farms are organized along tribal, not democratic lines. They’re not eligible either, a problem that has prompted some roasters to charge cultural imperialism.
and...
That assumption, absorbed by at least some of the coffee-drinking public, drives roasters and retailers nuts. They say the idea that coffee without the Fair Trade label is based on coercion penalizes independent farmers who don’t conform to the Fair Trade vision. (They also say consumers who drink only Fair Trade coffee are missing out on some of the best roasts available.) Nick Cho, owner of Murky Coffee in Arlington, Virginia, says customers often ask whether his coffee is Fair Trade, but quality-conscious coffee shops like his would never deal in coffee bought for less than $1.26 a pound. He finds the very suggestion that he’s dealing in cheap beans grating. “You don’t walk into a four-star restaurant and demand to know whether they pay their chefs minimum wage,” says Cho.
Couldn't have said it better ourselves. Thanks also to Nick for the pointing the article out to us.
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