Fair Trade coffee

Absolution in Your Cup: The real meaning of Fair Trade coffee
by Kerry Howley
Reason Online

"The phrase “Fair Trade coffee” has percolated into the vernacular, and the label it represents pervades the business at every level."

"Katzeff—compassionate, articulate, and only slightly megalomaniacal—may have been most effective as a salesman pitching righteousness rather than a crusader fighting Central American poverty. The hippie spilling buckets of fake blood may never break bread (or sip coffee) with straight-laced businessmen talking quality, but the consumer has little to lose from a synthesis of strong words and strong lattes. Another Starbucks, a better coffee, a calmer conscience: What caffeine fiend can argue?

“I was a sparkplug,” says Katzeff. “I changed an entire industry.” He’s talking about a revolution in coffee farming, but the transformation he inspired may be more lasting in the minds of coffee consumers in the First World than in the lives of producers in the Third."

Interesting info. on the whole Fair Trade coffee brouhaha (or should I say "brew" haha?) Probably only interesting to those of us who take our coffee way (way, way) too seriously, but there you have it!