One of the terms we often hear associated with coffee is “Fair Trade.” What does it mean? In very basic terms, here’s what it’s all about:
- Paying farmers a living wage for their harvest.
- Creating direct trade links to farmers and their cooperatives.
- Providing access to affordable credit, helping farmers stay out of debt to local middlemen.
- Promoting sustainable practices, such as organic and shade-grown farming, that help protect the environment.
Fair Trade coffee comes from farmers who have been certified and receive a minimum price for their harvest. Currently this minimum price is approximately 3 times the average market price for green coffee. Certified farmers are usually part of a grower's cooperative and meet certain quality and socioeconomic standards set by Transfair USA, the leading nonprofit agency providing independent, third-party certification of Fair Trade products in the U.S. This Fair Trade price for green coffee supports a higher standard of living for the farmer's family as well as provides an incentive for maintaining processing operations that result in a higher quality coffee.
Dining Services is committed to offering a Fair Trade option. Beginning in spring 2008, you will find Peet's Fair Trade Coffee at all DS restaurant locations.
Peet's Fair Trade Blend has the distinctive tang and clean character of Central American coffees—smoothed by fuller-bodied coffees from chapters in Indonesia, then pointed up and finished with the Peet’s roast.
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For more information about Fair Trade, here is the website for One Earth One Justice at UCSD: http://www.oeojsd.org/
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