FAIR TRADE FRIDAY! Highlight: Equal Exchange Coffee

There's nothing better on a Fall afternoon than grabbing a latte and sitting on the Common with a great book, and right up the road from Boston Common at 226 Causeway Street is the perfect place: Equal Exchange Cafe!  Not only do they have the best mochas and blueberry muffins downtown, but all of their coffee is fair trade!  The coffee industry is one of the most popular slave industries as coffee is often imported from equatorial nations where poverty and government corruption are common themes.  Fair trade coffee is a big deal!  I can almost promise you that you have drank more cups of coffee made by slaves than you have made by fairly compensated workers because that's just the tragic nature of the business.  Here's what equal exchange had to say about their nature of business:

Fair Trade is a voluntary program utilized by coffee importers and food companies to create an alternative market for traditionally disadvantaged producers in developing countries, usually small scale farmers. The components include:

• Targeted purchasing of coffee through democratically organized farmer
  co-operatives;
• Agreed upon commodity floor prices that provide for a dignified
  livelihood;
• Direct exports by producers;
• A promise by importers to make affordable credit available to the farmer
  cooperatives;
• A world-wide network of non-profit certifying organizations;
• A fee paid by importers and wholesalers to cover the cost of
  certification;
• A seal that assures consumers that the product was fairly traded.

Your purchase of fairly traded coffee helps build pride, independence and community empowerment for small farmers and their families. A coffee processing plant in El Salvador, community stores in Colombia, the training of doctors in Mexico, new schools in Peru - these are examples of initiatives co-ops have taken in their own communities with the income from Fair Trade.
Click here for source.
Don't live in Boston?  Enjoy their coffee and other products shipped right to your front door!  Click here to shop Equal Exchange online.

Thank you for your efforts, Equal Exchange!
Happy shopping everyone!

Ruby
Sandra
Berchewkan
Mani
Sophea
Janna
Syowai
Ka
Stephanie
Alex
Mai
Khamta
Adaze
Jayati
Boloztuya
Prettygirl
Theresa
Esperanza
Xuan
Geeta
Debbie
G.Q., N.H., and S.O.
Anuradha
Veronica
Martina
Shauna
Rosa
Jaycee
Charlotte Awino
Kikka Cerpa
Jana
Lannie
Samira
Maria Suarez

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO WORLD VISION'S FUND TO AID SEX TRAFFICKED GIRLS.

Because I am not my own but was bought with a price,
Stephanie