America’s First Fair Trade Town
Photo by CreativePro.com
From the DelcoTimes: “For years, Media has called itself Everybody’s Hometown. But a nickname change is in order. Media can now call itself ‘America’s First Fair Trade Town.’”
What, you ask, is a Fair Trade Town? Why, it’s a town with a social conscience. It’s a town that is willing to pay a little bit more for a cup of coffee or a bar of chocolate in order to make sure the people who picked the beans were treated well and paid a “livable wage.”
It’s a town that cares that the farmers in Guatemala, Brazil and Mexico, who harvested the crops, did so in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable way.
It’s a town that makes sure that “Fair Trade” coffee and chocolate are available for purchase to residents and is the only type of coffee and chocolate served at municipal functions.
“It’s so exciting,” says Elizabeth Killough, who is a member of the borough’s new Fair Trade Committee.
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In order to qualify as a “Fair Trade Town” certain criteria must be met. A group called TransfairUSA certifies that the farms where the beans are grown are run in a humane way. No child workers. No slave labor.
In the case of coffee, according to Elizabeth, Fair Trade also guarantees that the farmer gets $1.26 a pound for product, instead of the lower market rate of 11 to 26 cents per pound. It does this by “cutting out the middleman.”
What people end up paying is about what they’d pay for high-end premium, boutique coffees, she says. Today Fair Trade coffees are available all over Media and elsewhere.
Of course, you could go to the Acme and spend a lot less on the lowest grade of Maxwell House. Millions of people do.
“Americans are noted for drinking the worst coffee in the world,” Elizabeth told me. But we are getting more refined in our tastes. And we’re plenty rich enough to pay more to help improve the lives of those who do the grunt work of picking the beans.
P.S. If you drink from coffee/tea pods, I have no respect for you and WILL TOTALLY JUDGE YOU.
Lake Atitlan said,
July 14, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I live around Lake Atitlan Guatemala. I’m glad to see someone looking out for the local Mayan coffee workers! Keep up the good work.