The campaign will begin with a national day of action on Thursday, April 13. Global Exchange is encouraging local activists to organize leafleting at Starbucks outlets in their communities. Starbucks is the market leader in the gourmet coffee industry. About half of all coffee worldwide is produced by small farmers who own and farm their own small plots of land, but have little to no control over the export system for their coffee. Small farmers working without the benefit of an organized export cooperative are forced to sell to exploitative middlemen, a system perpetuating a cycle of poverty and debt.
Fair trade includes fair wages for workers as an integral part of the business arrangement.
Fair trade systems provide technical assistance, such as transitioning to organic farming. Fair trade prices support health care, education, environmental stewardship and economic independence. It is the U.S. branch of the FLO, which includes monitors from 17 different countries. The International Fair Trade Registry certifies over 300 cooperatives in 20 different producer countries, representing over 550,000 farmers worldwide. The Audubon Society has identified industrial coffee production as one of the major threats to songbirds and trees in the hemisphere.