Organic Fair Trade:

What does it mean?

coffee "cherries"

Understanding what makes Organic Fair Trade coffee different can change people's lives.

Find out why its important to make the ethical choice by buying organic and fair trade products.

It benefits not only the farmers and the environment but YOU!

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Fair Trade

Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability.

The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards.

It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate and flowers.

Fair Trade principles include:

Fair prices: Democratically organized farmer groups receive a guaranteed minimum floor price and an additional premium for certified organic products. Farmer organizations are also eligible for pre-harvest credit.
Fair labor conditions: Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions, and living wages. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited
Direct trade: Importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to strengthen their organizations and become competitive players in the global economy.
Community development: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like health care, new schools, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.
Environmental sustainability: The Fair Trade certification system strictly prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), promotes integrated farm management systems that improve soil fertility, and limits the use of harmful agrochemicals in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers' health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations.
Democratic and transparent organizations: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to use their Fair Trade premiums.
Fair Trade

Organic

Organic coffee does not use pesticides or other chemical solutions to solve natural problems of bugs, pests and fungus. Organic methods include building healthy soil through composting, terracing, and inter-cropping. Organic farmers utilize biological pest control. They incorporate shaded trees and various other sustainable agricultural tools for the health of their coffee trees. They are moving towards the sustainability of the soil, water and ecosystem they use.

IFOAM Organic Principles:

To produce food of high nutritional quality in sufficient quantity
To interact in a constructive and life-enhancing way with natural systems and cycles
To maintain and increase long-term fertility of soils and promote the healthy use and proper care of water.
To use , as far as possible, renewable resources in locally organized agricultural systems.
To work , as far as possible, within a closed system with regard to organic matter and nutrient elements.
To minimize all forms of pollution that may result from agricultural practice

To give all livestock conditions of life which allow them to perform basic aspects of their innate behavior.
To maintain the genetic diversity of the agricultural system and its surroundings, including the protection of plant and wildlife habitats.
To provide a safe working environment
To encourage organic farming associations to function along democratic lines.
To progress towards an entire organic production chain, which is both socially just and ecologically responsible.
Organic

Cooperatives

Cooperatives are associations of varying numbers of small farmers that act as a large business entity in the market striving to maximize the benefits they generate for their members.

The seven cooperative principles.

1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training and Information
6. Cooperation among Cooperatives
7. Concern for Community
Cooperatives Producers

About Us

We're a small group of professionals working together to formulate ways to empower consumers to make different more socially conscious choices.

In a world over run by propaganda posing as information our goal is to provide simplicity and clarity to products.

We hope to help answer the ever present questions:

"Why should I care?"
"What does it mean to me?"

About

Art Without A License

Owner: Claudia Chang
Location: Boulder, CO.
Email: Claudia@artwithoutalicense.com
Phone: 720.620.4040
claudia chang, designer

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Home: Environment

Positive Environmental Impacts There is evidence that farmers using fair trade practices are often likely to support organic argicultural practices as well because of the economic stability created by stable market prices and partly because the costs of organic farming is shared across mutually benefiting organizations like village cooperatives and local exporters.

Examples of change

Mexico: Fairtrade coffee production is now almost synonymous with organic production, leading to clear environmental benefits including reduced chemical usage, increased biodiversity and soil fertility.
Guatemala: Non fairtrade farmers are twice as likely to use pesticides and chemical fertilizers than fairtrade farmers.
Environment

Home: Economics

Market Price of Coffee

2010 market price for Arabica coffee: 75 cents per pound

2001 market price for Arabica coffee: 45 cents per pound

Fair Trade market price for Arabica coffee: $1.26 per pound

Fair Trade association has set $1.21 as the sustainable production
price for coffee

In order for a farmer to produce a pound of coffee in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, and still have enough left over to live a tolerable life, he will need $1.21 per pound.
5 cents is then added to this price to represent a premium, that will go into a special fund to pay for development projects and other needs of the community as a whole.
If the price of coffee goes up on the global market as it sometimes does, then the fair trade price will match it, plus pay the 5 cents premium.
Economics

Home: Facts

Coffee is an 80 billion dollar industry

Worldwide people drink a total of 7.4 billion cups of coffee every year.

20 million cups are consumed daily with an average of 120 cups annually.

$80 billion US dollars retail value of coffee beans are sold each year, which puts coffee second only to petroleum on a list of the top-selling commodities.

Finland leads the world in coffee consumption with an average of 1459 cups of coffee consumed annually. China consumes the least amount of coffee annually, less than one cup per person per year.

Facts

Home: Gallery

APKO Cooperative

Aceh, Indonesia 2009

Arinagata Cooperative

Aceh, Indonesia 2009

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