SEC-C Coffee
-- Small farmers included in the International Fair Trade Coffee Register are guaranteed a minimum "fair trade price" and credit against future sales. Importers and roasters agree to develop long-term trade relationships with producer groups.
-- Organic coffee is grown without using any pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, many of which are banned in the United States.
-- Shade-grown or bird-friendly coffee is grown on traditional coffee plantations under the canopy of forest trees, where more than 150 species of migratory birds live.
Sources: TransFair USA, Organic Coffee Association, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.
Here is Rick Young's
essay on "Green Coffee", published in Faultline News.
The Certifying Organizations
For more info on FairTrade:
http://www.transfairusa.org/
For more info on Organic Coffee, see
http://www.orcacoffee.org/
For more info on the Rainforest Alliance's ECO-OK label, see
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/program-description3.html
For more info on the Smithsonian Migratory Bird
Center's Bird-Friendly label, see
http://natzoo.si.edu/smbc/Research/Coffee/coffee.htm
Other Links
The World Bank says "The drop of international coffee prices to their lowest level in a hundred years, in real terms, is an economic and social disaster."
The World Banks's Coffee Sector in Central America web page, Press Release, and Report
To read about the House of Representatives' Fair Trade Coffee proposal, see
http://just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=50635&dm=yes&c=1
For "What is Nature Worth?" by E.O. Wilson, see
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/05/05/IN59446.DTL&type=printable
"Out-Of-Work Nicaraguan Coffee Workers Beg for Help,"
The Washington Post, June 12, 2002,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37266-2002Jun12.html
"Coca invades Colombia's coffee fields: Falling prices push farmers to
plant illegal crops,
threatening U.S. drug war," The Washington Post, October 30, 2001,
http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/coffee/news2001/washpost103001.html
For more info on Global Exchange, an advocate for Fair Trade
coffee, see
http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/coffee/