Organic coffee is coffee grown primarily without the use of pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers. Packages will display one of several logos depending on where they are packaged. To the left are the logos for Canada and the U.S.
Fair trade coffee producers are required to farm with sustainable farming techniques. The rules are intended to improve the community and well being of the workers and less on the coffee product, which organic coffee’s main concern is. So fair trade is a little looser on the restrictions to their farming techniques than organic coffee.
Fair trade farmers are encouraged to farm organically, through a premium paid if they are organically certified. Every year fair trade certified farmers are converting over to be organic certified as well. I saw a statistic recently that suggested a little over half of fair trade coffee is also certified organic. From looking around online, it would seem like that is a close enough estimate.
I would think anything to get chemicals out of what we ingest has to be a good thing. If we can make it a cup of fair trade organic coffee, then even better!
Enjoy!
Ian
Tags: Fair Trade Coffee, Organic Coffee
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