Global Exchange began spearheading a campaign to promote Fair Trade coffee in the summer of 1999. During the summer we focused our campaign on our local Bay Area. We organized a coalition of interested human rights, environmental, church, social justice, and student organizations that believed in the model of Fair Trade and wanted to help promote living wages for farmers.

Our coffee suppliers meet or exceed the established "Fair Trade Minimum" price for coffee used in our program. Our coffee is Fair Trade Certified. The Foundation and its suppliers are committed to paying a fair price and to putting control in the hands of coffee growers. To order our Arbor Day Gourmet Coffee and help support the Rainforests, please visit our coffee program at arborday.org.

Peerless is pleased to offer fully certified Fair Trade Coffees. Fair Trade occurs when the grower receives a fair price for his/her coffee. Peerless has been a passionate supporter of fair trade for many years and through our strong friendships with the farmers we buy from, we've put our money where our mouth is.

Peet's Fair Trade Blend is a certified fair trade coffee. Not all of our growers are eligible for Fair Trade certification; in all cases, Peet's strives to maintain long-term, sustainable partnerships with our growers. Premium coffees such as the ones we use command prices well above the Fair Trade minimums, and we actively work with partners such as Coffee Kids and Global Education Partnership to improve the quality of life in coffee-growing communities.

Fair Trade started with individual companies called ATOs (Alternative Trade Organizations) who made a commitment to work directly with indigenous peoples and to market their products directly to end consumers. By cutting out middlemen, ATOs have been able to pay producers substantially more while offering a competitive product. Later, organizations like IFAT (International Federation of Alternative Trade) were formed to communicate ideas about Fair Trade.

In 1986, Equal Exchange was established to import Nicaraguan coffee as an expression of solidarity with the people and revolution of Nicaragua, after the Reagan administration imposed an unfair trade embargo. Equal Exchange became the only ATO in the US to focus exclusively on Fair Trade coffee, trading according to the international standards before there was a monitoring agency in the US.

According to the 1998 Cone/Roper benchmark study, 78% percent of consumers would rather purchase a product associated with a cause about which they believe. 54% say that they would pay more for a product that supports their cause. TransFair's 1997 consumer study revealed that 49% of specialty coffee drinkers surveyed said they would buy Fair Trade coffee. In the post-WTO climate, more and more people are demanding Fair Trade products.

For most products, including coffee, FLO calculates a minimum Fair Trade price that is intended to cover the cost of sustainable production. For washed Arabica, the highest quality coffee, the Fair Trade minimum price is set at $1.21 per pound in Africa, Asia, Mexico, and Central America, and at $1.19 in South America, plus an organic differential of $.20 if the coffee is certified organic.

NME and Sounds reputedly took the term Gothic from Siouxsie Sioux (of the Banshees) who used it to describe the new direction for her band. However the earliest significant usage of the term (as applied to music) was by Anthony H. Wilson who was overcome by a rare moment of lucidity on a 1978 BBC TV program when he described Joy Division as Gothic compared with the pop mainstream.

Clearly, the active participation of a range of stakeholder groups is vital for the successful growth of the Fair Trade market and movement. Since its founding as the certification agency in the U.S., TransFair has worked closely with a number of partners, including NGOs, advocacy groups, producers, and consumers, on different campaigns and projects.

Fair Trade is an alternative approach to conventional international trade. It guarantees that worker cooperatives / producers will receive fair and just prices for their products and in addition a Fair Trade Premium which directly benefits the workers who produced the products. Fair Trade certification is awarded by The Fair Trade Labelling Organization (FLO), based in Bonn, Germany. Anyone awarded Fair Trade certification can use the independent Fair Trade Mark on their goods.

Because coffee is so widely traded and consumed, it has an immense impact on the economic well-being of people in poor countries. For the same reason, it also offers one of the most promising avenues for bringing about positive change. Global Exchange believes that as we criticize free trade and corporate globalization for its lack of democracy and exploitation of poor people around the world, we need to promote our own vision of a just global trade system based on economic justice.

We are committed to fair trade principles and have been working on tracking down certified fair trade sources for our ingredients. We have been using certified fair trade vanilla, and we are excited to have just secured a supply of certified fair trade cocoa, dark chocolate, and coffee, which we will begin using early next year. Many ingredients are not yet available with fair trade certification, including coconut milk and agave syrup.

The Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998 (FAIR Act) requires that all Federal agencies prepare and submit an inventory of non-inherently governmental activities (also referred to as "commercial activities") to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

When you see our Fair Trade Logo on a product page, you know that the featured product is fairly traded. We support Fair Trade by making a concerted effort to purchase folkart, home decor, gift items... from fair trade importers. Fair Trade Importers pay the artisans a living wage and they ensure that the artisans are working under humane conditions.