The UUSC Coffee Project was launched at General Assembly
in June of 2001, just as world coffee market
prices were beginning to collapse. Years later, the coffee crisis continues
as prices remain at their lowest point in decades, devastating farming
communities across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
In 2003, Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country increasingly were
making a difference in the lives of small coffee, tea and cocoa farmers.
About 500 congregations – nearly 50 percent of all UU congregations –
are now participating, offering hope to small farmers at a critical
time!
The UUSC Coffee Project partners UUSC with Equal Exchange,
a worker-owned fair trade organization founded in 1986. Buying coffee, tea and cocoa directly from farmer cooperatives, Equal Exchange follows the
standards and principles of fair trade on 100 percent of its products,
ensuring that low-income farmers earn a fair price for their products.
Direct payment to farmers also eliminates the
middlemen, giving farmers a much larger share of the profits. In
2001 alone, Equal Exchange paid farmers almost $1 million above what they
would have earned under conventional trade practices. This allows
farmers to better meet their families' basic needs, such as food, education,
and health care.
In partnership with these small farmer cooperatives
from India and Tanzania to Guatemala and Mexico, Equal Exchange also provides
essential pre-harvest credits, gives technical assistance to cooperatives,
encourages environmentally sustainable practices and healthy and safe
working conditions.
Putting Unitarian Universalist
values into action
Action steps
UUSC Coffee Project Fact Sheet |
Equal Exchange Website
Download
UUSC Coffee Project Order Form
