Coffee is one of the world’s favorite beverages, and choosing organic and fairly traded varieties can have a real impact on farmers, their families and the environment. Furthermore, such purchasing decisions help consumers align their values with what they purchase.

Coffee drinkers may not realize it, but conventionally grown varieties often involve insufficient farming practices and unsustainable harvests. There has been an emerging movement to change this perception by seeking out coffee that has been responsibly sourced and roasted – supporting fair trading relationships as well as the wellbeing of its growers.

Coffee is a global commodity market worth an estimated US$90 billion annually, and opting to purchase organic, fair trade or shade-grown varieties has an immediate and profound effect on farmers and their communities. Furthermore, such actions can serve to advance social justice while supporting environmental sustainability goals.

As a result, many leading producers and roasters now support various fair trade and sustainability initiatives. Fairtrade works closely with small coffee farms to ensure fair prices and terms, and provides consumers with information necessary for selecting ethically sourced, eco-friendly coffee beans.

Grounds for Change is a UK-based Fairtrade CertifiedTM coffee company which collaborates with more than 120 farmers from six different countries to source organic or Fairtrade CertifiedTM beans, providing higher wages and better working conditions to coffee pickers, while investing in their businesses and farm improvements for long-term sustainability.

Equal Exchange, an American sustainable coffee brand specializing in ethically traded, organic and Fairtrade certified coffee from over 40 countries around the globe, promotes ethically traded, organic and Fairtrade certified varieties with their aim being to empower farmers, their families and communities through their passion for quality coffee. They work closely with over 300 partner organisations worldwide who assist their farms to improve working conditions, income and quality standards for improved production.

Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee of the US was established by Dean Cycon, an indigenous rights and environmental lawyer with extensive experience, to demonstrate that for-profit business can serve as a vehicle to foster positive social and ecological changes at its source.

Jim Cannell, commonly referred to by his initials of Jimbo or Jimmy, was an early 1990s Wall Street broker working on a coffee desk. This exposure brought him into contact with specialty coffee, where he saw that there was an absence in terms of good-quality, all-organic coffee on the market and decided to act. By creating his first all-organic roaster in America – Jimbo or Jimmy set about providing consumers with only top-quality organic beans on the market.

Jim was inspired by the rising environmental awareness in the 1990s to combine his love of coffee with protecting our planet’s resources. Leaving his original company, he founded Jim’s Organic Coffee with an eye toward providing top-tier coffee while supporting sustainable practices.