Gourmet Coffee

Charity Start At Home - In Your Coffee Maker
By George Moore

Its nice to know you can now use your everyday consumer spend to help a good cause. Choose the right - help a farmer and even a child.

Let's start with Fair Trade. Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis, assuring consumers that the we drink was purchased under fair conditions. To become Fair Trade certified, an importer must meet stringent international criteria and pay an American company an astronimical fee to use the label; paying a minimum price per pound of a dollar.26, providing much needed dollars and consumer credit to farmers, and providing scientific research and technical assistance such as help transitioning to organic farming. Fair Trade for farmers means community development, health, education, and environmental stewardship. The beauty of Fair Trade is it helps farmers in third world countries - so instead of getting $.50 per pound they get $1.50 per pound. A noble concept and should be at the basic of every purchase as a minimum. If given the choice choose Fair Trade over non Fair Trade.

But this is settling -when you can do so much more. There are now companies that use their profits to help so many worthy causes.

There are a few great gourmet companies that give all their profits to help so many worthy causes. For example two companies come to mind:Mission Grounds Gourmet and for Children give all their profits to helping children. And best of all they are Fair Trade so they are helping support the small farmers on the back end. But more importantly instead of helping a Starbucks


fill their coffers with more profits you are helping impoverished children with the retail profits.

We believe in a total transformation of the industry, so that all sold in this country should be as a minimum a Fair Trade Certified, or if produced on a plantation, that workers' rights should be guaranteed and independently monitored. Our view includes social justice and environmental sustainability: all gourmet should be certified organic and shade grown where applicable and bird supportive. And all these coffees should also be Shade Grown and Bird certified coffee.

But more importantly the should be used to help children or the elderly. Can you imagine the help that would come from the $5 billion industry helping homeless children? So next time you are Sipping on that $6 cup of and on that next time you sit inside your Starbucks and try to figure out how you can make the world a better place.