Fair Trade or No Trade?

If there is one thing that is imperative in the operation of this country it is coffee. Many Americans drink the stuff like water, and there are over 500 billion cups of coffee served worldwide. In addition to the "going green" craze that has hit this country in the form of alternative energy, the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle), and many others, there has also been a huge boom of fair trade coffee. Wikipedia defines fair trade as "coffee that is produced by small coffee producers who belong to cooperatives; that guarantees these cooperatives a minimum price." In a nutshell, it means that the coffee growers in coffee exporting countries are beginning to get more bang for their buck.

In his book Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel discusses coffee growers in Uganda. Coffee growers in Uganda, at the time the book was written (2007) were able to sell at 14 cents per kilo. The price needed to live a comfortable life is at least 34 cents/kilo, and it used to sell at 69 cents/kilo. At the other end in the US, the price of coffee is $26.40 per kilo. How is it possible that these coffee growers are selling their coffee for almost 200 times less than it is purchased for in the United States? There is definitely a middle man profit in play here. This, of course is where fair trade comes in. Many coffee houses across the country are promoting fair trade including Starbucks, although according to an article I read, only 6% of their coffee to date is certified Fair Trade.

So purchasing fair trade coffee, that's all well and good. Go America, we rock, and all that. But here's my question. What happens to those coffee growers that for some reason are unable to play into the fair trade market? As Patel points out in his book, there is little else they can do to make a living (or somewhat of a living). When we buy fair trade coffee, are we putting these less fortunate coffee growers out of business completely? I understand that they are getting the short end of the stick in the first place, but not enough income is always better than none at all. So keep going to Peet's, keep purchasing your fair trade coffee, but remember that there might be more problems that the fair trade solution doesn't cover.