Buy fair trade, organic, shade-grown coffee now
Eye-opening facts
Learn more about the coffee industry
When possible, look for coffee that is triple certified as fair trade, organic, and shade grown at your local coffee shop. If you can’t find it locally, there are a growing number of online retailers.
The following companies sell fair trade, organic, shade grown coffees online:
* - also sells fair trade, organic teas and cocoa
Why it’s important
Shade-grown coffee is better for the soil, and produces better tasting beans. Organic coffee frees workers from the dangers of chemicals. Fair-trade guarantees stable, fair prices, so that farmers avoid the fluctuating world-market prices.
Coffee and the environment
Until the 1970s, farmers mostly used sustainable agricultural techniques to grow coffee in the shade of native forests and other cash crops, without extensive use of chemicals and fertilizers. In recent decades, however, a desire to boost production caused many producers to abandon traditional shade growing techniques in favor of coffee grown in the sun under aggressive application of fertilizers and pesticides. In the process, vast stretches of native forests were cleared. Forty percent of coffee fields in Mexico, Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean have been converted from shade-grown to sun coffee plantations. Latin America currently has the world's highest deforestation rate, in part due to this conversion to sun-grown coffee.
Coffee and people
In many parts of the world, coffee production is a vital income source. An estimated 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of the world's farmland are dedicated to coffee cultivation. Unfortunately, many of these workers are struggling to survive. Recently, a glut of coffee on the market has sent prices plummeting, leaving millions of families dependant on coffee production facing poverty and even starvation. While American consumers pay $3 and more for a cup of coffee, the profits have not been trickling down. The price paid to farmers has fallen by more than 70% over the past five years. A decade ago, coffee-producing countries got about a third of every dollar spent on coffee. Now, they see less than a dime. Farmers and their families are going hungry, children are leaving school, and many farmers have lost their land.
Learn more
About fair trade coffee and why it’s important
- Oxfam America
- Organic Consumers Association
- Global Exchange
- Transfair
- Coffee may save El Salvador wildlife
- Buyer Be Fair - film on the importance of fair trade
Downloadable brochure on the benefits of fair trade:
About shade grown and organic coffee
- Peace Coffee (vendor site)
Learn more about the Conscious Consumer Marketplace.
If you would like for your company to be listed in the Conscious Consumer Marketplace, please email Mary Jo Snavely or call 301.891.3683 ext. 110.