Coffee with a conscience

When I use to live in Ottawa, there was a great coffeeshop in Westboro called Bridgehead. They sold fair trade coffee and the most wicked chicken morocco sandwiches.

They didn't have any chicken sandwiches when I got there but I was happy to see the place very busy.

And I was extremely happy to see that the Bridgehead has expanded with two more locations: one in the Glebe (108 Third Ave) and another on the corner of Bank Street/Gilmour Street (this location also busy when I went there).

Toronto people can check out Alternative Grounds for their fair trade coffee fix and other links.

Coffee Facts:

• it takes about 3,500 coffee beans to produce one pound (454g) of roasted coffee
• the world market price for coffee is around $0.65US for 1-lb. (Almost 50 percent lower than the farmer's cost of production.)
• it takes five years for coffee bushes to produce their fruit.

Interesting tidbit:

"With prices what they are, farmers can't cover costs; they don't take care of their crops, and that makes for bad coffee," said Juan Osco, president of the La Florida cooperative to which Alto Incariado's farmers belong. "That way, the only option we have is coca." Coca is the raw material for cocaine.

"The higher price they get tips the scales for farmers torn between trying their luck with traditional coffee, yucca or banana crops, and those joining the growing ranks of producers of illegal coca leaf."

- from article Peru jungle farmers raise cups to fair trade coffee by Missy Ryan, Reuters, September 25, 2002

another article: The Shadow of Globalization

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