It’s that time of year when weight-conscious people, determined to shed the pounds they put on during the holidays, pay closer attention to food labels. While the savvy are skeptical of overreaching health claims, newly published research suggests an entirely different assertion can lull us into caloric complacency. It finds socially conscious consumers are more likely to perceive a chocolate bar as being low in calories if it is labeled “fair trade.” “Ethical food claims can bias consumers to see poor-nutrition foods in a healthier light,” reports a research team led by ... Read More
Chiapas’ Coffee Growers: Accidental Environmentalists
October 17, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Every steaming cup of coffee could tell a story, and the shade-grown coffee from southern Mexico’s Chiapas state tells tales of a disproportionate role in sustaining local villages, hillsides, and wildlife. It’s a story with several lumps of conflict and uncertainty stirred in. The volatility of the global coffee market makes it a difficult business, and Chiapas’ small farmers face the precarious equilibrium common to all small farms and businesses. But they face an additional set of unique challenges, including the shaky political truce between the government and Zapatista rebels ... Read More
What’s In a Label?
January 29, 2010 • By • 4 Comments
You've probably seen a "fair trade coffee" sign in the window of your favorite gourmet coffee shop, but what exactly does fair trade mean — beyond a $4 cup of coffee, that is? Although it doesn't have a universally accepted definition, fair trade is generally understood to be a movement that promotes sustainability in developing countries and tries to pay "fair" prices to the local producers exporting from them — most notably farmers raising coffee, bananas and tea. The reasoning behind this is that small-scale farmers in developing nations cannot compete with industrial farmers, ... Read More
Coffee Won’t Keep Your Conscience Up at Night
June 12, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
In recent years, buying a pound of coffee has come to require a moral and gastronomical scrupulousness not normally associated with food staples. Walk into the supermarket today, and you'll be confronted by bags of organic, fair-trade, shade-grown, bird-friendly, single-source coffees, each proudly emblazoned with a wordy label and an assortment of certifications. It can be a disorienting experience. "Sometimes I look at my own coffee, and I scratch my head and I say, 'How could anybody figure this out?'" says Donald Schoenholt, the proprietor of New York-based Gillies Coffee, a specialty ... Read More
