free trade

summary of this fascinating nytimes article:

So, have you guys heard of the labels "organic" or "cruelty free" or "sustainable"? Well guess what, there's a new touchy-feely label in town! These days, all the hip coffee shops in Brooklyn are selling this cool new* product called "fair trade" coffee. Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and McDonalds have recently** picked up on this trend! It's not mainstream yet--after all, Maxwell House doesn't sell it, and there are like 30 people in Middle America who still drink Maxwell House. Besides, it's vaguely European.

So here's how fair trade works: coffee distributors buy coffee beans from farmers at fair prices. Get it? fair trade = fair prices? Clever, right? You might be wondering, who decides what a "fair" price is? Well, we wondered the same thing. Unfortunately, it turns out, no one really knows or cares. We asked a couple people, and they just looked at us funny, so we stopped digging, because, well, it's not like we're hard-hitting news reporters. We work for the style section for crying out loud! Besides, it's not like distributors would lie to you and claim to be more ethical than they are just to jack up prices. So just trust us. After all, we are totally hip, with a finger on the pulse of the "green revolution!" (P.S. We totally stole that phrase from Tom Friedman. He's a middle aged father living in suburban Maryland, but sometimes he shares a page with Maureen Dowd, so you know, he has street cred.)


*in 1998
**in 1999