My goal: find a Fair Trade [0] Certified vendor of coffee (and tea for Hans [0] ) to supply the morning fix for our office in New York.

Fair Trade sounds like a good idea, but in order to properly answer why, I need to figure out exactly what it means. I am introducing some Big Organizations, but don’t worry, this post is not about the inner workings of NGO’s, it is about how you and I can make the world a better place. And who would not want that?

First, who gets to says its "fair?" The FLO [1] (Fairtrade Labeling Organizations) - an international NGO headquartered in Bonn, Germany, and TransFair USA [2] - the only independent, third-party certifier of Fair Trade products for the American market.

According to TransFair USA , "Fair Trade is an innovative, market-based approach to sustainable development [3]." Which is a lovely sounding sentiment, and this is what it really means:

Fair Trade represents a restructuring of conventional purchasing routs in the global market. Traditionally, small coffee growers in Africa, Asia and Latin America sell their coffee beans to local distributors at 0.30 to 0.50 cents per pound, effectively rendering coffee growing a waste of time. In the process, eco-friendly farming practices are lost and a switch to illegal drug crops is often the only way out for the farmer. The coffee beans will ultimately be sold to European and American buyers at an average of 0.60 cents to $1.00 per pound. Want to watch a brilliant video on the topic? Check this [4] out.

Fair Trade [5] works by organizing farmers in local coops, where small scale production is combined with an ability to conduct large quantity sales. The local distributor is bypassed and those actually providing the goods are paid. FLO determine a price per pound that makes growing coffee sustainable (sustainable being defined as: the ability to purchase new crop, put dinner on the table, send your kids to school and leave the land healthy for generations to come).

According to TransFair USA, Fair Trade Certification [6] is an “independent, third-party consumer guarantee that strict economic, social and environmental criteria [6]” are upheld in every link of the production chain, creating a more equitable and sustainable trade system for a global economy. And I believe them.

Today the price of Fair Trade Certified coffee is $1.26 per pound, of which 0.05 cents per pound of coffee sold is reserved for community development within the coops, such as the building of schools and development of healthcare facilities. Add 0.15 cents to that if the coffee is certified organic [6], though interestingly enough, about 85% of Fair Trade Certified coffee is shade grown and either passive or certified organic [7].

The average coffee farm will produce between 1000 to 3000 pounds of coffee beans per year, it stands to reason that wealth is not the intention of Fair Trade, empowerment is. Through the coops, farmers are trained in business management, local environments are emphasized and protected and children go to school. The long term implications of Fair Trade are sustainable agricultural and farm management practices, economic stability and a hope for a better future.

Now, that is the cup of coffee I want.