But few Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as "sweatshops in the fields. Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis, assuring consumers that the coffee we drink was purchased under fair conditions. Fair Trade for coffee farmers means community development, health, education, and environmental stewardship. Coffee prices have plummeted and are currently around $.

We need Fair Trade now more than ever," says Jerónimo Bollen, Director of Manos Campesinas, a Fair Trade coffee cooperative in Guatemala. "The drastic fall in coffee prices means, in two words, poverty and hunger for thousands of small producers in Latin America," says Merling Preza Ramos, Director of PRODECOOP Fair Trade cooperative in Nicaragua. We believe in a total transformation of the coffee industry, so that all coffee sold in this country should be Fair Trade Certified, or if produced on a plantation, that workers' rights should be guaranteed and independently monitored. Fair Trade means an equitable and fair partnership between consumers in North America and producers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Fair Trade guarantees to poor farmers organized in cooperatives around the world: a living wage (minimum price of $1. These fair payments are invested in health care, education, environmental stewardship, and economic independence. Coffee is the first commodity in the United States for which there is an independent monitor that guarantees that producers were paid a fair wage for their product and work in decent conditions -- a real alternative to sweatshops. that have licensing agreements with TransFair to offer Fair Trade Certified coffee.

When you support Fair Trade, you support the environment. They generally grow small plots of mixed-crop, shade grown coffee organically. The untold story of the gourmet coffee boom: it's leaving small farmers behind. Fair Trade brings small farmers into the boom.