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FAIR TRADE |
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At Caffe Ladro we serve only 100% fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee. We are the largest user of exclusively fair trade coffee in the country. Our coffee is custom roasted by Tony’s Coffee in Bellingham, WA and certified by TransFair USA. Caffe Ladro is committed to the idea that the success of our industry should not be at the expense of coffee farmers or the environment and we encourage all businesses and consumers to learn more about fair trade coffee.
What is fair trade?
The coffee industry has seen dramatic drops in the market price for green coffee beans. This is due in part to large scale corporate sun-crop farming practices that have significantly increased the world supply of coffee. Prices have recently been at 100 year lows. Because small farmers must sell their harvest in the same international market place as the big producers, their earnings have plummeted. At 50 cents per pound on the international market, growers often net less than 25 cents per pound after brokers and middlemen take their share, well below subsistence levels for these farmers.
Furthermore, fair trade practices help
preserve the environment of coffee growing regions. Traditionally, coffee has
been grown under the forest canopy using organic methods. More and more, large
farms have been created by cutting down the forest and planting dense coffee
fields. Maintaining these fields requires herbicides and pesticides to keep the
natural forest at bay. Encouraging shade grown practices helps maintain
biodiversity, provides shelter for animals and migratory birds and helps reduce global
warming.
Who is TransFair USA?
TransFair USA is the only
independent, third party certifier of fair trade practices
in the United States. As one of
17 members of the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), they set criteria for fair trade
practices in the United States and other participating
For more information on fair trade and shade growing check out these sites:
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Fair trade is a
movement to guarantee that farmers are paid a fair price for their coffee
(currently $1.26 per pound or $1.41 per pound for certified organic coffee). By
empowering farmers to create their own exporting cooperatives, the brokers are
cut out of the process and all of the price paid goes directly to the farmers.
The result is communities where kids can go to school instead of working the
fields and farmers can afford to carry on their family's farming traditions.
countries. Working with
farmers and importers, FLO verifies that farmers selling Fair Trade Certified