Coffee drinkers should buy Fair Trade coffee

because: buying Fair Trade coffee will improve the livelihood of small coffee growers (Bacon (2005) )
- because: under the certification of the Fair Trade, a much more reasonable income of small coffee growers can then be secured
  - because: the minimum price is a guaranteed price which at least covers the sustainable production cost of the coffee growers (www.fairtrade.org.uk)
  - because: the fixed price floor for coffee beans suggested by Fair Trade is US$1.26/lbs , which is much higher than the current market price ($0.6-0.7/lbs) (www.transfairusa.org)
- because: the system helps the certified growers organize cooperatives or establish direct linkages with importers and roasters (www.fairtrade.org.uk)
  - because: setting up direct linkage releases the certified small coffee growers from exploitation by ‘coyotes’ and other intermediaries (www.tradeaid.org.nz)
- but: the monetary benefits derived from selling Fair Trade coffee often goes to the retailers instead of the coffee growers (Rice (2001) )
  - because: retailers charge huge markups on Fair Trade coffee (www.greenoptions.com)
- because: only by buying Fairtrade bananas can you be sure that price cuts in the shops do not translate into wage cuts for banana workers (www.fairtrade.org.uk)
- but: the amount of help offered is very limited (www.globalexchange.org)
  - but: as the system spreads worldwide, help will be spread to a larger portion of coffee growers (www.globalexchange.org)
  - because: the portion of certified small coffee growers worldwide is small
    - because: most fair trade coffee are grown by coffee growers in Central and South America with only some grown in East Africa and the Pacific (www.worldpeaceemerging.com)
because: Fair Trade coffee is environmentally-friendly (www.greenoptions.com)
- because: without the price floor secured by Fair Trade, it's common for coffee growers to use even poisonous chemicals in order to increase the harvest
- because: around 85% of Fair Trade coffee is certified organic or shade-grown under a canopy of existing forest, instead of higher-yield methods on cleared land (www.smh.com.au)
  - because: most Fair Trade coffee is grown by small growers who use traditional farming techniques, instead of modern practices like pesticides or cutting down forest (www.fairtrade.org.uk)
  - but: employing organic farming techniques does not mean that the coffee can grow sustainably
    - because: the soil can be easily over-fertilized with organic composts
      - because: it is always difficult to know exactly how much nutrient is in the organic composts
but: the actual Fair Trade coffee movement is not ideal as itself suggests (Wikipedia (2019))
- because: buying the Fair Trade coffee indeed supports the unfair market
  - because: Fair Trade will inevitably favor large companies over small ones
    - because: large companies pay more licensing fees, which in turn allows for a wider marketing campaign
  - because: many large companies who claim to be selling Fair Trade coffee are indeed not supporting the movement, but merely a strategic propaganda for business (Bovard (1991) )
    - but: large companies are still the main buyers of the Fair Trade coffee (Ramirez-Vallejo (2002) )
    - because: e.g. Starbucks, who claims itself to be a supporter of Fair Trade, sells only a very small proportion of Fair Trade coffee (brew on customer's request only) (www.organicconsumers.org)
      - but: Starbucks states they bought 4.5 million kilograms of Fair Trade coffee in 2005 (approximately 10% of global Fair Trade Certified™ coffee imports) (www.starbucks.com)
but: coffee drinkers may suffer from an increase in coffee price
- because: given the price floor set by Fair Trade, the cost of a coffee becomes more expensive, while coffee companies always want to retain their profits
but: Fair Trade coffee offers only a limited selection of coffee, unlike regular coffee which has a large selection from all over the world
- but: the selection will increase if more people choose to purchase only Fair Trade coffee which would help expand the market for it (www.fairtrade.org.uk)
- because: not many coffee farmers are committed to the Fair Trade system, and the certified are concentrated in Central and South America (www.fairtrade.org.uk)
but: Fair Trade coffee has a lower quality
- but: the greater access of growers to training and enhanced ability under Fair Trade helps improve the farming technology of coffee growers, so enhancing the quality (www.fairtrade.org.uk)
- because: there is no incentive for the growers to improve the quality of the beans since the price is guaranteed by the system
but: the production of Fair Trade coffee is economically inefficient
- but: fair trade is a market-responsive model of trade: the farmers receive the Fairtrade minimum prices and premiums only if they have a buyer willing to pay (Wikipedia (2019))
- because: the setting of price floor suggested by Fair Trade would worsen the root causes of poverty among coffee growers instead of helping them out (Wikipedia (2019))
  - because: setting a price floor will lead to overproduction (Wikipedia (2019))
    - because: theoretically, a price floor would keep the price above the optimum level, where quantity supplied exceeds quantity demanded, excess supply will prolong (Wikipedia (2019))
  - because: the guaranteed floor price fails to move coffee growers to alternatives e.g. diversification or a change to growing another crop; as a way to alleviate poverty
    - because: the price floor artificially covers up the fact that the coffee growers may not be growing something to their best advantage (Wikipedia (2019))
    - but: there may be no alternative crop that pays more than regular market coffee prices (www.greenoptions.com)
- but: social welfare systems are always economically inefficient, but socially necessary to ensure the observation of basic welfare needs of the individuals

Bacon, C. (2005). Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua?. World Development, 33 (2), 497–511. (http://www.laborrights.org/projects/conference/fair-trade-coffee1.pdf)

Ramirez-Vallejo, Jorge. (2002). "A Break for Coffee". Foreign Policy. No. 132 (Sept 2002). pp. 26-27

Rice, Robert. A. (2001). "Noble Goals and Challenging Terrain: Organic and Fair Trade Coffee Movements in the Global Marketplace." Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, Vol. 14, no. 1 pp. 39–66.

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/short-black-and-sides-how-to-judge-a-green-brew-20070508-gdq363.html

https://www.tradeaid.org.nz/IM_Custom/ContentStore/Assets/6/11/0cb00b90a6c5b50ac78fd03f1fceea04/Vital4.pdf