Sustainable Farming And Certified Organic Fair Trade Coffee

While many people believe the fair trade movement began with coffee, it has actually simmered behind the scenes since the 1950s, with church organizations like Ten Thousand Villages promoting the handmade crafts of poor third world artisans.

It eventually resulted in the certified organic fair trade coffee that people know today. The beginning of fair trade came in answer to the plight of coffee growers being squeezed almost literally to death by many a large profit-guzzling coffee company. For the sake of those farmers, the fair trade movement really took off.

Once fair trade took off with coffee, it wasn't long before the same concept was applied to other products. Fair trade tea followed soon afterward, and the movement spread to other foods like sugar, fruit, juice, rice, spices and so on.

But as the fair trade idea spread around the world, the environmental movement began exerting an influence as well, as the concept of environmentally friendly and sustainable farming methods began taking hold.

That was when the movement involving coffee began to help farmers learn sustainable farming as well, and organic fair trade coffee finally came into its own.

Now there are fair trade retailers carrying full lines of products from all over the world, including organic fair trade coffee. The movement has been so influential that even some corporations are recognizing that this could be the wave of the future, and are trying to get involved in buying and promoting fair trade products.

Whether this will help or ultimately hinder the progress of fair trade remains to be seen. But treating smaller producers of goods fairly is becoming a mainstream idea, and while it started with coffee growers, it clearly applies to everyone, whatever they grow or create.

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