Miche wrote:
>
> In article >,
> wrote:
>
> > In rec.food.cooking, Miche > wrote:
> > > In article >,
> > > wrote:
> >
> > > > In rec.food.cooking, Miche > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > > What is your favorite brand of coffee and why do you like it?
> > > >
> > > > > Fairtrade. It tastes good and the growers are paid fair prices for
> > > > > their produce.
> > > >
> > > > Fairtrade is not a brand, but a program.
> >
> > > Same diff, it says "Fairtrade" on the bag.
> >
> > Yep. But it comes from a bunch of different sources. It is a
> > certification, like "Organic".
>
> Ours says where it came from, generally.
>
> > Just as a point of interest, Fairtrade guarantees the farmers a minimum
> > price per pound, but farmers get greatly in excess of the Fairtrade price
> > for truly superior coffee at auction. So while Fairtrade offers a very
> > good program for farmers, they can do even better by improving their
> > quality to the point where they produce truly superior coffee.
>
> And some may do that. I don't know.
>
> > > > Everything else you said is
> > > > correct. In general, fairtrade coffee is fairly good. Not the finest,
> > > > but fairly good.
> >
> > > 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.
> >
> > But the wanky coffee yields a better price to the farmer than Fairtrade.
>
> But it's priced so that I can't afford to buy it.
>
> Miche
>
And the last statement about standard coffee yielding a better price to
the farmer is generally not true. The brokers and people in the middle
take the largest cut; the farmers are often in debt year after year.
That is the basis for Fairtrade coffee: the people growing the coffee
get *more* money than they would through the usual channels. The coops
formed eliminate most of those brokers who would otherwise take most of
the profit.
Fairtrade coffee is never too expensive. I cut down my coffee
consumption in order to buy Fairtrade. In the UK it wasn't more
expensive than any other decent coffee and most of the supermarkets
feature it anyway.
While it is still considered a little 'exotic' here locally (In NM) it's
still worth it to me.
Coffee in the US is extremely cheap. Yet the brokers and the roaster and
the retailer make money off of that. The grower gets the smallest cut of
all, as with much agricultural produce.