7.21.2003 ET

(CSRwire) Canton, MA- Equal Exchange, the nation's leading fair-trade coffee company, today announced the launch of GroundsForAction.org, an initiative that gives coffee lovers a simple way to address the global coffee crisis. Specifically, GroundsForAction.org enables coffee lovers to easily learn more about the importance of Fair Trade coffee, and take action to promote it. Its initial effort will be a letter-writing campaign to the Bush Administration, demanding that the U.S. once again become a positive player in international coffee trade policy. Such a move is a key step to help combat the devastation wrought upon millions of family farmers by the recent, epic collapse of world coffee prices.

"Coffee drinking is an intimate ritual for millions of Americans. Many coffee drinkers in the U.S. understand the close relationship between the quality of the bean and the quality of life for farmers. Farmers need food for their family in order to grow the drink we love," says Organizing Director Virginia Berman. "GroundsForAction.org helps those getting a buzz to build a buzz and end the epic coffee crisis."

In the last five years alone, prices for coffee have dropped 70 percent, driving farmers and rural communities into desperate places, away from their land. More than 25 million farmers in more than 50 countries around the world are struggling as a result of the crisis. In African countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi - which depend upon coffee sales for more than 50 percent of their export earnings - the loss of revenue has crippled efforts to combat famine and the AIDS epidemic.

Through simple actions, however, consumers can help to combat this crisis. Everyday actions, such as shopping and drinking coffee, can become agents for political and social change with Fair Trade. Although Fair Trade is 1.3% of the total specialty coffee sales in the U.S., that's one third more than a year ago. The Fair Trade criteria for coffee are as follows:
1) The coffee is grown by small-scale family farmers and bought directly by importers;
2) Farmers are guaranteed a fair price (currently that means 3 times higher than the world market price for coffee); and
3) Importers provide access to valuable pre-harvest loans.
For many farmers, selling their product to the Fair Trade market is the difference between survival and being forced off the land.

GroundsForAction.org is for those who want a more just coffee trading system and don't want to wait to for the free market alone to end the already epic coffee crisis. "Buying fair trade is step one to making change. Next it's time to overhaul the international coffee trading system and get the U.S. to rejoin the International Coffee Organization (ICO)," states Berman. Oxfam, and most coffee drinking countries support having the U.S. rejoin the I.C.O.

About Equal Exchange
A worker-owned cooperative, Equal Exchange is the nation's leading fair trade coffee company. The company was awarded the Business Ethics award for Stakeholder Relations in 2000 by Business Ethics magazine. In 2002 Equal Exchange bought more fair trade coffee than any other coffee importer and paid about $1,600,000 in fair trade premiums to their farmer partners.

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