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Make Sure Your Coffee Does More This International Coffee Day Clara Alberca, 69, a coffee producer from Jilili, Peru, checks on her coffee plants. She has been a member of CEPICAFE, a fair trade cooperative, since 2001 and is the main caretaker of her home as her husband has a serious liver disease that keeps him from working. Clara states “My husband cannot work anymore, but I try to do my best. At least we have stable prices and credit benefits from the organization that allows us to be more at peace.” In honor of International Coffee Day on October 1st, we’re challenging everyone to consider the impact their coffee has on farmers around the globe. So, does your coffee do more? In the coming weeks, we’ll share important opportunities to make sure your answer is yes – from inviting you to participate in a giveaway to help highlight fair trade coffee (you can win a six month supply!) to letting you know where to find Fair Trade Certified™ coffee in your community. Stay tuned and follow us on Instagram for campaign updates! Make your coffee count this International Coffee Day. By choosing fair trade, you can help support the livelihoods of coffee farmers. Does Your Coffee Do More? Coffee Farmers Across the Globe Are Facing Increasing Challenges The recent surge in the global pandemic is making a bad situation worse for many coffee farmers. Here are just a few of the challenges: Extreme poverty and food insecurity .Lack of access to clean water. Vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather. Volatile market prices. Generations leaving farming for other, more financially viable, but often dangerous and exploitative, work. Learn more…  Natalia Garcia works on a coffee farm in Honduras. Her farm was struck by a climate change-related coffee leaf rust disease and lost ~30% of its harvest.  Workineh Shume (front), has worked at the Homa coffee cooperative in Oromiya, Ehthiopia for 20 years. A farmer and father of six, he says ‘I’m most happy when I work and earn a good income to send my children to school.’ Our Fair Trade Impact Fair Trade empowers coffee farmers to address those challenges by: Setting a minimum price to protect farmers when the market price dips too low. Ensuring health and safety of farmers and their families, more important now than ever. If the 400 million cups of coffee Americans drink per day were Fair Trade Certified™, it would generate ~$2.5 million in Community Development Funds. We can now find Fair Trade Certified™ coffee at every major grocery store in America and, with the growth of private label/store brand coffee, is more affordable than ever! Learn more… |