3 Things to Know about Fair Trade Coffee
Fair Trade coffee is one major way to produce coffee ethically and sustainably. The phrase gets thrown around as a blanket term for ethical consumption, but Fair Trade USA is actually a nonprofit organization dedicated to monitoring the production of certain crops and crafts to ensure fair treatment of workers, artisans and the environment.
1. Fair Trade Certification
Producers like coffee farms have to meet certain standards and regulations in order to receive Fair Trade certification. These include a commitment to sustainability, paying employees a fair wage and ethical business practices. The Fair Trade certification ensures that products are responsibly sourced and that companies are reliably committed to workers’ wellbeing.
2. Ethical Consumption and Sustainability
Fair Trade is all about educating consumers about producing goods sustainably and practicing ethical consumption. Fair Trade products always carry the Fair Trade seal to bring awareness to the effort. Finding fair trade products like coffee is pretty easy now. You can do things like purchase a Fair Trade coffee subscription so you can order online instead of going out to the store to find what you’re looking for.
Ethical consumption and sustainability incorporate a lot of different goals. Fair Trade products should be environmentally friendly and sourced from companies that actively work to improve the communities where production takes place.
3. Funding Community Needs
When a company seeks certification, Fair Trade USA sends in a team of auditors to assess the company and its factories. Once certification is granted, an audit is conducted annually to ensure continued compliance and Fair Trade USA grants something called a Premium Fund. The fund is meant to further improve the community where production takes place and includes managers and employees to figure out how best to utilize the money.
Ultimately, Fair Trade coffee allows for positive impacts on the environment, better benefits for workers and more transparent business practices.