Fair trade coffee explained..

[Tero]

..by the not so fair trade example.
http://forcechange.com/13053/demand-fai ... rs-coffee/

The family owned farms are often on hillsides, so they do not get shade grown certification. But it is close to that as well.

Environmentally, shade grown is the least disturbance to the habitat for animals inhabiting the area.

[Jason]

Exploitation to the point of putting producers and suppliers into penury is simply good capitalism my friend. Be glad you aren't subject to it!

[Tero]

You can farm as family business or buy all the land when they go broke, run plantation as multinational corporation. The coffee will cost the same, as it is manual labor. Otherwise you harvest green with ripe coffee. And get bitter coffee.

Juan Valdez no longer makes corporate coffee ads, he has a brand now.

[mistermack]

Since coffee is sold on the open market, the only way to keep prices down is to engineer a constant over-supply of the market.
If the market is over-supplied, then the people who buy up the farms will themselves be getting less for their coffee. Unless they can corner the market and THEN push up prices.
You would think that governments would be looking out for monopolies and cartels.
They do in this country. Maybe the UN ought to have a monopolies and cartels department to monitor multi-nationals.

[pErvinalia]

ONE WORLD GUBMINT??!

:haifire:

[laklak]

"Fair Trade" is just another corporate sham designed to separate greenbacks from greenbrains. It works, just walk into any Whole Foods and check the prices.

[Tero]

"Fair Trade" is just another corporate sham designed to separate greenbacks from greenbrains.

Thanks for that. come by here more often. I'm bored with Seth.

[pErvinalia]

[Svartalf]

While the concept officially advocated by "fair trade" is laudable, I wonder if he's not right about the actual practices of self proclaimed "fair trade" organisations... some of which are extremely profitable ventures in and of themselves.

[pErvinalia]

Well the one officially known as "Fair Trade" wasn't all that fair, supposedly. But that's not an argument against actual fair trade.

[Svartalf]

Yeah FLO international has come under critic from its own founder... tells you how far they've sunk.
problem is that most "fair" labels are self proclaimed and not controlled by state or independent entities.

[laklak]

"Fair Trade" is just another corporate sham designed to separate greenbacks from greenbrains.

Thanks for that. come by here more often. I'm bored with Seth.

I'm here all week, folks! Be sure to tip your servers, and pick up my latest CD, "Git Offen Yer Sister, Bubba!" in the lobby.

[Tero]

It's a bit of a trickle down Reagan thing. The wealthy still get the money, but it now stays in the countries of origin instead of going to Folgers employees, CEO and stock holders in the US. The farms are smaller, so it is also more "green" and less destructive to the local environment.

[pErvinalia]

Yeah FLO international has come under critic from its own founder... tells you how far they've sunk.
problem is that most "fair" labels are self proclaimed and not controlled by state or independent entities.

yep.

[Tero]

Of course if climate change messed up growing Arabica coffee, we are stuck with these tricks they use to make Robusta coffee and rejected arabica taste OK
more propaganda
http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2008/09/folgers/