In rec.food.cooking, A.T. Hagan > wrote:

> That statement could be made about most farming the world over. Buy
> pastured poultry (grass raised) and the farmer gets a bigger cut of
> the profits. Buy most anything that eliminates more of the middle men
> and the farmer gets more of the profits.

Lately, I've been buyig directly from the farmers whenever possible. Then
they get 100%.


> For the folks who can afford luxury items like specialty coffees this
> is all well and good. For the folks who can't or don't want to spend
> their discretionary income on such things they'll stick with the
> usual.

The comparison is not between specialty coffee and commodity coffe, but
rather, between Fairtrade specialty coffee, which yields the farmer (IIRC)
$1.16/lb. and other specialty coffee, which yields the farmer, in some
cases, much more.

> But it's a fairly small market relative to the mass produced stuff and
> probably always will be. As much as I like Kona coffee (and I do) I'm
> not going to pay $13.00-$16.00 a pound for it - which is what Sweet
> Marias wants for their green Kona beans. The $4.00-$5.00 a pound
> stuff has some possibilities since we don't drink more than about four
> cups of coffee in a day.

I rarely spend more than 4 or 5 per pound. Fairtrade usually costs more,
but gives less to the farmers.

--
....I'm an air-conditioned gypsy...

- The Who