In article >,
Smithfarms Pure Kona > wrote:

> On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 21:52:22 +1300, Miche >
> wrote:

> >And that's good enough for me. It's more important to me that the
> >growers are paid a fair price for their produce than I have "picked
> >today, roasted ten minutes ago, hand ground" wanky coffee.
>
> The Fair Trade demarcation is not available for farmers in the US,
> such as we Kona farmers.
> When you live in the US as we do in Hawaii,
> it is assumed correctly that we pay taxes, pay our laborers a fair and
> equitable wage, we also follow all US Department of Agriculture rules-
> which means that Kona Coffee has never been touched by pesticides
> which is not necessarily true of other coffees etc. We also want
> Health insurance and the regular middle class America stuff.

Good. I'm glad to hear it.

> I agree with EskWIRED. Fair Trade is not the be-all or end-all
> although it is a beginning.

I never said it was the be-all and end-all. It's just the way I choose
to buy coffee most of the time.

Miche

--
If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud.
-- Arlo Guthrie, "Alice's Restaurant"