Costa
Rican coffee farmer, Gerardo Ortez knows first-hand that coffee goes through a long process to reach the coffee mug. Coffee farmers intensive labor product the popular coffee bean that is actually retrieved from a seed. The
economic, social, and environmental benefits of fair trade improve the quality
of life for coffee farmers. The premiums
that are available through fair trade helped pay for schools, hospitals, a
warehouse, and even an agronomist to help members maintain coffee quality. Cooperatives developed through premiums offer
technical assistance programs,
revolving credit, housing improvements, risk management strategies, and a
marketing fund that enables small farmers to market to international buyers.
Gerardo believes that fair trade makes like so much
better for him. Gerardo shares, “Fair
trade protects my family from poverty. I
remember how tough life was before fair trade, and I know that my life is
better with it.”
In
an emotional interview, Gerardo shares that before fair trade, prices were so
low that he could not pay his debts.
Gerardo explains the premiums and higher pricing for coffee helped him
when he came dangerously close to bankruptcy.
The
Fair Trade Foundation reports that around 125 million people around the world
depend on coffee for their livelihoods. Gerardo
is part of the Associacao dos Costas, a cooperative of small-scale coffee farmers
in the central mountains of San Marcos de Tarrazú of Costa Rica.
The
economic, social, and environmental benefits of fair trade improve the quality
of life for coffee farmers. The premiums
that are available through fair trade helped pay for schools, hospitals, a
warehouse, and even an agronomist to help members maintain coffee quality. Cooperatives developed through premiums offer
technical assistance programs,
revolving credit, housing improvements, risk management strategies, and a
marketing fund that enables small farmers to market to international buyers.
Associations
like the Fair Trade
Foundation and the Fair
Trade Federation also help organize an incentive based Environmental
Impact Management project to help the ecosystem through agrochemical management
procedures designed to reduce the use of environmentally harmful glyphosate (Fair Trade
USA, 2012). Geraldo explains, “I not only feel good about
my and family’s economic future but I feel good about being more conscious as
to how to protect the land that now offers my family a great quality of life.”
No comments:
Post a Comment