BROWNWASHING

Steven Taylor links to a story about the meaning of “fair trade” coffee getting defined downward for the benefit of corporate PR:

Fair-trade coffee - beans purchased from small farmers outside the US at well above the slumping market price - is hot in the java world: The amount of fair-trade coffee sold in the US nearly doubled last year.

But as the movement has expanded in recent years to include such brands as Starbucks, Green Mountain, Procter & Gamble, and Dunkin’ Donuts, dissension is percolating among some smaller roasters. They claim that the large firms, which buy only a small percentage of fair-trade beans, are turning it into a marketing ploy rather than an effort to help farmers.

Naturally, the corporate overlords are unconcerned about such pesky little things as the truth:

“If a corporate giant roasts a million pounds of fair-trade coffee in one year, they are still doing far more than some of the smaller 100-percent roasters will in their entire history,” stresses Paul Rice, CEO of TransFair USA, the group that audits the US fair-trade industry.

All that is well and good, but here is what chaps me:

The fair-trade model seeks to ensure livable wages as well as environmental and cultural sustainability for small farmers in Latin America, Africa, and Asia by establishing a base purchase price of $1.26 per pound - about $.75 more than the current market price.

ARE YOU FLIPPIN’ KIDDING ME? I’m paying $6.99 a pound for something that’s only 51 cents wholesale??? I have got to get into this business.

(By the way, of course TBP has its own official coffee supplier. We are especially fond of the Norske Blend.)