[Sca-cooks] Fair Trade Coffee

[Christine Seelye-King]

 > No doubt you're right... and you make great points. That said... Don't
you think maybe the consumers could be educated? Don't you think the
individual consumers should decide these things for themselves? If nobody
buys anything but fair trade coffee, then that's what will be sold.
> Call me silly, but the notion of throwing people in jail for
> buying perfectly legal substances seems a bit Draconian to me.
> Corwyn

	Well, yes, I do agree that making things like that jailable offences is
stupid, who wants more government interference, especially taking up court
time for civil matters?  However, without knowing why they've taken this
stance, I can say that the farmers who are now producing Fair Trade coffees
have been dealing with a really criminal system.  They are just now starting
to see what working for yourself can be like.  Starbucks finally (after lots
of protests) started carrying Fair Trade coffees, but refused to make any of
their drinks with them, and marked up the prices on the F.T. stuff (which
doesn't make any sense, the whole idea behind F.T. is that it is fairly
traded at market prices.)  They seem to be softening their stance now,
however, a friend of mine who works there said they just had a Fair Trade
Day at Starbucks, giving out samples and literature and such.  	So, perhaps
the folks in Berkely are tired of dealing with the system (so what else is
new?), or maybe they are trying for lots of media attention by going so far
to the other extreme.  I doubt they'll get a measure with such stiff fines
passed, but it does bring it up for more attention than a petition to local
coffee houses to 'please carry this coffee' might.
	Christianna