Fair Trade Coffee Offers a Solution to the Coffee Crisis

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Fair Trade Coffee Offers a Solution to the Coffee Crisis

When you buy a cup of coffee in Starbucks every morning to keep you awake through the day, do you ever think of the origins of these coffee beans? How much of those three dollars you pay in Starbucks goes to the Farmers? Personally, I’m not a coffee-drinker. But somehow I realize the big sign in front of Java City in the Reitz Union Food Court, which says “Certified Fair Trade Coffee.” I’m surprised how few students know what it means. Currently, farmers in Brazil and Vietnam grow the majority of coffee beans.

These farmers then sell their beans to the middlemen who pay them low prices-an average of $0.3-0.4 per pound. The farmers are earning less or even losing for growing coffee beans. Their lives are devastating with the dramatic increase of coffee supply worldwide which cut the price of coffee in half. While on the other hand, the big coffee companies are making ten times as much as their cost. Coffee companies' only concern is to maximize corporate profits, who cares about the farmers? However, companies have to take public image into consideration, especially for large corporations like Starbucks. Consumers look up to companies that appear to be socially responsible, not limiting themselves to concentrate on private profits, but also further social interest. Therefore Fair Trade coffee is the best choice for coffee companies as it increases farmers' wages, protects the environment, and improves company's public image.

Fair Trade Coffee ensures the farmers a minimum price for their coffee beans, which allows them to continue producing coffee in an environmentally friendly manner. Since the 1990s, global coffee production has been rising at an average annual rat...

... middle of paper ...

...who work the hardest behind providing us the fresh coffee every morning? Would you be willing to pay just a few dimes more for Fair Trade Coffee knowing that you’ve helped some coffee farmers out there who are struggling to live, and also knowing that you’ve had a cup of coffee free of pesticides and chemicals?

Works Cited

Batsell, Jake. “Fair Trade coffee demand sparks debate on workers' wages, lives.”

The Seattle Times. Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004.

Baue, William. “The Answer to the Coffee Crisis? Farmers Want Fair Price, Kraft Says

Increase Demand.” Social Funds. Posted on April 25, 2003.

< http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/1102.html>

Global Exchange. “Fair Trade.” Fair Trade Coffee. last updated September 24, 2004

Roach, John. “Coffee Glut Brews Crisis for Farmers, Wildlife.”

National Geographic News. Posted on April 24, 2003.

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