What is the difference between shade-grown, organic, and fair trade?
Certification of products guarantees us, the buyer, that a product has been produced or marketed in a certain way. It is done using a 'third party certifier' - someone unrelated to the farmer or the roaster - who guarantees that certain practices are followed.

Fair Trade is a certification of the way in which the coffee is traded. By bypassing profiteering intermediaries, many farmers have become involved in the Fair Trade movement that guarantees farmers a set floor price below which the amount they receive cannot fall.  For certification that allows farmers to use the Fair Trade logo on their beans, co-op must run democratically and invest the return into improvements in production and quality and into local development projects such as schools and health clinics. For importers to be certified, they had to pay this price and provide the co-ops with credit and long-term contracts. In the United States, products that have been Fair Trade certified bear the black and white logo seen to the right.

Organic certification guarantees that the farmer is using certain environmentally-sound farming practices, giving the farmer a price premium for their crop. Organic coffee production is increasing throughout the world. In 1998, Mexico had some 111,000 acres under certified organic coffee cultivation, rivaling Peru, the hemisphere’s other leading organic producer.

Shade Grown coffee has been shown to support a great diversity of migratory birds and is thought to be a reservoir of great biodiversity. However, the term 'shade grown' is often used on labels without official third party certification. Most commonly, no one has actually visited the farm of the coffee you buy which says 'shade grown' on the label to make sure it is grown with a dense layer of trees overhead. If you want to support shade grown coffee farming, be careful to only buy coffee that is certified organic (all of which is shade grown), or from a shade grown label that you know and trust.

How do certifications help the farmer?
Certifications such as organic and Fair Trade help the farmer by providing price premiums to reward them for participation in certain markets and for using certain farming practices. When farmers are involved in a co-op that is Fair Trade certified, the lowest price that they will receive for their coffee is $1.26 per pound. This price kept farmers above water as market prices have dropped as low as $$.48 per pound in 2002 for coffee that we as consumers easily pay $10 per pound. When farms are organically certified, farmers usually receive an extra $.15 per pound. Adding this to the fair-trade premium, co-ops can earn $1.41 per pound. In an average-size Chiapas co-op (often totaling 1000 acres), fair-trade organic coffee often generates $300 more per farmer per year than would a conventional crop. This extra cash has allowed co-ops to build schools, health care facilities, and processing infrastructure to support their farmers.

How do certifications help the environment?  
Farmers who are certified organic use farming methods that have been proven to be ecological friendly. These methods include composting instead of using potentially harmful synthetic fertilizers,  hand-weeding instead of chemical herbicides, and soil conservation methods to keep soil in place instead of eroding away, among others. Such methods have been shown to promote biodiversity, encourage natural ecosystem function of the farm, and protect the health of the farmers.

If they are so good, then why aren't all farmers switching to organic and fair-trade production?
One hurdle to going organic in particular has been the cost of certification. Including transportation, food and lodging for inspectors, the bill for a co-op of about 1,000 members can run more than $1,800. A second hurdle is the masses of paperwork that are required for both Fair Trade and organic certification - poor farmers are much less likely to have access to telephones, computers, vehicles, roads and multilingual staff members that make the certification process run more smoothly. Yet another obstacle for farmers seeking organic certification is a three-year wait that certifying organizations require to ensure that chemical residues in soils have broken down and deactivated. The requirement is pointless on farms that have never been able to afford chemicals.

How do I know if my coffee is fair trade or organic?
Look for the seals!  In the U.S. all organically certified products are now required to have the USDA organic seal, while Fair Trade products will have the black and white Trans Fair seal..

Where can I get it? There are numerous brands of organic coffee found around the world, most of which are also Fair Trade certified. To find the roaster brand name near you, visit your local natural foods supermarket or co-op, or search on the Internet. Many companies now sell and ship their coffee via the Internet. Two of these companies logos are pictured to the right, Peace Coffee and Cafe Campesino.

Ripe coffee berries are
red, unripe are green

This seal verifies that
the coffee you purchase in
Fair Trade certified

A young coffee farmer
and his hoe

Peace coffee and Cafe Campesino are two of many small roasters of Fair Trade and Organic coffee sold in the U.S. For informatin about small roasters in your area contact Cooperative Coffees