About Fair Trade Coffee

Do you enjoy coffee? If so, you may or may not have heard of fair trade coffee. This is not surprising, because most of the time the term never comes up. When we think of coffee, we think of going to Starbucks or the nearest coffee house and drinking a delicious mug of gourmet coffee with friends. Did you know, though, that there are real issues with how coffee is grown and produced over the world? This article will explain the big deal behind fair trade coffee and give you an insight into how coffee is produced worldwide.

The Coffee Bean Production Process

First, a little lesson about growing coffee. We see black streams of tasty beverage being poured magically from brewing machines, but the coffee process begins well before that final stage. Coffee is grown in tropical regions around the world by either independent, small-scale farmers (who either have small farms or collect berries from plants in the forest) or large corporations and companies. Coffee plants are harvested for their berries, which contain beans. The beans are cleaned, packaged, and sent by workers across the world to distribution companies, who sale them to retailers or sell them direct. Thus, in a few steps, the coffee beans picked from plants in Sumatra or Colombia find their way to the kitchen tables of people all over the globe.

All About Fair Trade Coffee

While we value convenience, we also value a hard day’s work and the fruits of one’s labor. Thus, fair trade coffee was born. This simply means that coffee with the fair trade label is sold at a fair market price that is acceptable to those who produce the coffee. Why is this an issue? Because thousands of coffee workers across the world live in poverty and depend on selling coffee to make a living. Unfortunately, many workers receive wages that are below what the market can bear – which means their coffee is being sold for less than what it costs to make it.

This is a problem because workers in the coffee industry cannot afford to live on wages that low. This results in a cycle of poverty that is hard to break. To help with this predicament, fair trade coffee was developed. The idea is that importers can be certified as fair trade distributors by meeting a few standards. They must pay a minimum price per pound of $1.26; provide credit to local farmers; and give technical help to farmers in the form of advanced agricultural concepts and assistance. This really helps coffee workers develop their businesses and improve their way of life.

The Benefits of Fair Trade Coffee

There are two great benefits for you with fair trade coffee as well. Fair trade coffee increases the quality of the coffee you get. Corporation plantations use large machines that harvest indiscriminately – which means they pick up every coffee berry regardless of if it is ready for picking. Therefore, the coffee beans that you get from these plantations may or may not be ripe, which affects how your coffee tastes. With fair trade coffee, individual workers who get a fair wage take more time and pay more attention to each berry that they pick, which means better-tasting coffee for you!

Also, fair trade coffee doesn’t pollute as much as regular coffee. Those harvesting machines cause pollution, as do the massive coffee plantations that are built, often with clear-cutting of forests and jungles. So, by buying fair trade coffee, you are actually encouraging protecting the environment.

Whether or not you buy fair trade coffee is up to you, but hopefully you will see how this can help those across the world who pick and produce your coffee. So, the next time you pick up a nice, steaming mug of coffee, just think of those who made it for you – and buy fair trade coffee!

 

 

 

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