Each morning in Madison, the dawn breaks on a line of red-eyed consumers waiting to fill up on the precious fluid that empties wallets, relies on foreign production and provides energy for forward motion. At over two dollars a unit, coffee provides the fuel for life. But before caffeine addicts imbibe just any java, they should support the livelihood of those who produce their coffee by purchasing fair trade brew.
The chiming cash registers of coffee houses worldwide sing a song of extraordinary corporate profit, but conceal the voices of impoverished coffee farmers. The depreciated coffee market currently yields farmers 60 to 70 cents per pound produced. At this level, many farmers face the obligation to either switch to coca (cocaine) farming or withdraw to a life of poverty and starvation. Fair trade brews and beans available in coffee houses represent a solution to this cycle and allow consumers to play a role in granting impoverished farmers an alternate, better life.
Fair trade requires importers to meet strict international criteria, pay farmers a minimum of $1.26 per pound ($1.41 for organic) and provide credit and technical training to farmers. Advocates of free trade decry this practice, claiming that it encourages rampant coffee growth and contributes to market glut and depreciated prices. However, fair trade encourages small farmers-approximately 500,000 of them in developing nations??-to invest in quality or product diversity and not to increase acreage.
Because choosing fair trade over free trade defies conventional market wisdom, many coffee tycoons initially hesitated to invest in Fair Trade coffee. For some corporations, including Starbucks, coffee importation relies on ethical trading that ensures coffee workers receive basic labor rights and an above-average price. Still, middlemen claim the majority of this money. In response to a public relations disaster over \sweatshop coffee"" and a perceived marketing edge, Starbucks decided to purchase a meager 1 percent of its total coffee by fair trade in 2000 and continues to do so today.
But the precocious company's hesitation to purchase fair trade proves warranted, since becoming a fair trade importer requires investing more money and asking consumers to do the same. The success of fair trade lies in consumers' wallets. By acting unselfishly and paying a slightly higher price for a good available at a lower price, coffee drinkers can produce the demand that will incite greater investment. For consumers who can afford to pay over two dollars a cup (or more), this hardly seems like much to ask-the economic strain of paying decimals more remains far less than the social benefit reaped from promoting fair trade.
As the world's second most valuable trade commodity after crude oil, coffee fuels more than just caffeine addicts. Millions of farmers in 50 countries depend on coffee production to escape poverty and earn a livable wage. The virtue of fair trade in ensuring satisfaction of both farmers and consumers rings clearly. If consumers demand fair trade-on State Street, in University Housing, at the Union and campus-wide??-producers will supply it, and this balance will reconcile the paradox between fair trade and free trade.
