Leader: Jim Badger
Using Fair-trade Coffee Helps Small Farmers
May 1, 2003
The Men’s group at Colington sells fair-trade coffee purchased through the Coffee Project of the United Methodist on Relief (UMCOR). The project links congregations with small farmers and their families in Latin America, Africa and Asia through fair trade.
Coffee is the world's most heavily traded commodity, after oil. Yet most coffee-growers receive little financial benefit. "The chain of events that leads from the coffee farm to your cup is long and expensive, often leaving the farmer with very little to live on," according to UMCOR's Coffee Project web page. People in the United States consume one-fifth of all the world's coffee, making it the largest consumer in the world, "but few Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as "sweatshops in the fields," according to campaign literature.
Most of the world's small coffee farmers reside in isolated villages in the world's poorest countries and sell their coffee through middlemen, who offer the lowest price. At least at least 20 million people live near the equator, eking out a living on coffee. Because of fluctuating prices, the farmers never know what they are actually getting for their crops. "In their struggle just to make a simple living, the producers of a rich crop are often trapped in poverty," according to the project's web site.
Churches and individuals that participate in the coffee project help small farmers earn a fairer share of income, obtain access to credit and technical support, and gain a trading partner they can trust, a fair-trade organization called Equal Exchange.
Through the project, congregations and individuals connect with people in other countries because for each case of coffee, tea or cocoa purchased, Equal Exchange contributes a small portion of sales to UMCOR's the Small Farmer Fund which supports UMCOR's Sustainable Agriculture & Development program. These contributions will help UMCOR to carry out its sustainable agriculture and development work such as training of farmers and farmer to farmer exchange programs in appropriate technologies and improved methods of farming as well as nutrition enhancement, capacity building, economic empowerment and income generation.
United Methodist congregations and other participants enable investment in farm improvements, debt reduction, nutrition enhancement and training small farmers to plan for the future.
Fair trade coffee:
- Gives growers fair price and access to microcredit and technical support, which ensures farmers a fair return for their work;
- Allows growers who are usually in a local cooperative to sell to the United States without the going though a middleman;
- Promotes and encourages sustainable farming practices such as organic and shade-grown agriculture which build a long-term economic base for farmers while protecting community health and the environment.
