On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 21:52:22 +1300, Miche >
wrote:

>In article >,
> wrote:
>
>> In rec.food.cooking, Miche > wrote:
>>
>> > > What is your favorite brand of coffee and why do you like it?
>>
>> > Fairtrade. It tastes good and the growers are paid fair prices
for
>> > their produce.
>>
>> Fairtrade is not a brand, but a program.
>
>Same diff, it says "Fairtrade" on the bag.
>
>> Everything else you said is
>> correct. In general, fairtrade coffee is fairly good. Not the
finest,
>> but fairly good.
>
>And that's good enough for me. It's more important to me that the
>growers are paid a fair price for their produce than I have "picked
>today, roasted ten minutes ago, hand ground" wanky coffee.
>
>Miche

The Fair Trade demarcation is not available for farmers in the US,
such as we Kona farmers. When you live in the US as we do in Hawaii,
it is assumed correctly that we pay taxes, pay our laborers a fair and
equitable wage, we also follow all US Department of Agriculture rules-
which means that Kona Coffee has never been touched by pesticides
which is not necessarily true of other coffees etc. We also want
Health insurance and the regular middle class America stuff.

I agree with EskWIRED. Fair Trade is not the be-all or end-all
although it is a beginning.

Out to pick coffee all day again.
Aloha,
Thunder
http://www.smithfarms.com
Farmers & Sellers of 100%
Kona Coffee & other Great Stuff