New Orleans Every time we think we might be surprised at the avarice of major financial institutions, we are reminded that in the real world, there are no limits either to greed or the willingness for banks to rip off anyone available including preying on desperate, poor families. More sickening evidence was available in a …
Category: Coffee
The Paradoxes of Certification in Fair Trade & Social Responsibility
New Orleans The ineffective anarchy of FLO certification through the various national fair trade organizations (though not the USA, since ours has disaffiliated, further weakening the standards) is crumbling before my eyes based on their own inability to change and the constant assault by both major corporations on one hand, who assert that they can do …
Why Not Coffeehouses in Latin America to Support Cooperatives and Organizing
Miami The more we talked to coffee producer cooperatives in the Marcala and San Juancito mountains of Honduras and tried to piece together a plan to directly trade coffee to the USA and Canada and especially our own Fair Grinds Coffeehouse in New Orleans and its monthly support of our offices in Central America, the …