Buy what tastes good. That way it will do all of us coffee drinkers a favor to ensure the better produced stuff makes it to market and gives new entrants to market a standard to look for. Also, buy stuff that you can afford or save money on. Buy for value. That way, as you save money, you can take the money you save and devote it the cause you want to support. I suggest lobbying your congressman to oppose farmer subsidies.
Hm. While I can see the argument for this free market plus lobbying approach, I had a counterexample rear its head. While waiting to pick up a pizza, I wandered into the local organic grocery store down the street to price the coffee and kill 15 minutes. Brand for brand it had the same prices as the regular grocery, but that there were more options, some of which were cheaper, and were free trade, etcetera.
I also saw a lot of organic food, which, while pricier than the non-organic stuff, was still not outrageous, and there was much much more of it available for cheaper than there had been years ago. As I recall, back in eastern Canada, there was a fair amount of organic food available in the normal grocery stores (Dominion). It strikes me that the organic food business is an example of consumers paying a premium for the items they wanted, and the market place responding by switching over to produce it. I don’t recall lobbying congressmen as being the primary action that spawned the rise of organic foods. (Although I think California passed some laws regulating what can call itself organic).
If it worked for organic foods, why wouldn’t it work for coffee?
I’m telling you man - Folgers. Possibly Dunkin Donuts if available. It’s a quick and easy decision thus minimizing your suffering (you’re a human, right?). It’s also dirt cheap.
Sure, you would be patronizing a large corporation whose interest is more concerned with the bottom line than the fate of some fellows in Chiapas, but now you are their customer, you are their consumer, they need customers and consumers so they need you. Use that power to express your ideals.
It’s easy to villify the corporate world. “The Man is just trying to keep us down. He don’t care about us, He’s only out to make a buck.” It’s easy to just patronize the grass roots companies, to shop organic and free trade and such. But someone is going to be Big Businesses customer. Wouldn’t it be more effecient (although more difficult) to find a way to challenge Big Business to operate in a more ethical manner? Is this not what has happened with the “Organic Produce”? Large markets are carrying more “Organic” products because that’s what their customers want. Make Big Coffee operate ethically and your choices at the supermarket shelves will be simpler.
It works for Organic foods because business can justify price discrimination between their products because there is a quantifiable value associated with the organic and shade grown label, investors can justify that the extra cost is because it tastes better. I’m not against buying those types of coffee. I won’t pay extra for it because I’m not a typical coffee drinker. I wouldn’t know bad coffee if I was sitting on the toilet. 
:eek: 
If the organic or shade grown or even sustainable is also FTC, then I have no issue with it either because, like I said, it has quantifiable value and will have its price determined by the open market. I suspect large companies like Proctor and Gamble point to it as organic/shade grown/sustainable/whathaveyou to justify the price discrimination to its investors and FTC is just a feel good, extra effort afterthought.
Fair Trade Coffee is one organization determining what is a fair wage (not even a minimum wage, which is way less complex) and not taking account other factors in what actually determines price. Without the quantifiable value-add, this amounts to price distortions and as I concluded, makes things worse in for everyone in the long run.
[QUOTE=nd_n8 Wouldn’t it be more effecient (although more difficult) to find a way to challenge Big Business to operate in a more ethical manner? Is this not what has happened with the “Organic Produce”? Large markets are carrying more “Organic” products because that’s what their customers want. Make Big Coffee operate ethically and your choices at the supermarket shelves will be simpler.[/QUOTE]
Large chains carry organic produce because their customers were scampering off to the coop, and the chains wanted them back. By buying not-Folgers, aren’t I sending a message to Folgers via the medium of declining sales that they need to alter their product to get me back?
That would work for smaller industries, larger industries need more direct incentive to even notice. By buying Not-Folgers the only entity getting the message is the store purchaser who is going to then stock up on FTC at a higher margin. They will still sell the swill to the brand faithful, only now they can move more if it at a lower margin thanks to the FTC sales. Sometimes you gotta get to the top of the mountain to take off the first piece; undercutting won’t work with commodities but taking a chunk off the top and letting it build momentum on the way down will get you noticed.