Читать книгу Living Me to We - Craig Kielburger - Страница 7

MORNING

Wake Me Up

7:05 a.m.

Java Jolt

Make Your Cuppa Count

DOES A CUP OF FAIR-TRADE COFFEE taste better than the conventional stuff? In a taste-test showdown, we bet only the finest coffee connoisseurs can tell. But it's where your espresso comes from that could leave a bad taste in your mouth.At the beginning of the coffee-picking season in Ecuador — one of the biggest coffee exporters in the world — we drove along a dirt road edged by plantations. We pulled over to take a look at the coffee cherries hanging from the trees and caught sight of a group of pickers. There were whole families of transient workers, dragging with them the day’s harvest in brown burlap sacks. Some were kids, not even taller than the sacks that hung from their necks. As we chatted, a truck pulled up and a farmhand called out for the workers to take their bags to the weighing station where the day's wages were paid out based on bulk. A picker muttered that the scale was crooked. The farmhand yelled back that the pickers were the thieves, tipping the scales with metal hidden in the bags. As a blistering sun beat down and the argument heated up, we looked on, understanding only the worried looks on every face.Later, we visited a fair-trade cooperative of family-owned farms. There were no kids running around. One farmer proudly told us they were in school. That evening, we sat with other co-op members, sipping the fruits of their labour. A feeling of excitement filled the air as they discussed buying new books for the school and a water cistern with their fair wages. Here, the future wasn't something to be feared. It was embraced.In the Canadian cafés where we grab our skim lattes or double grandes, those scenes feel far away from us, especially with the music and conversation and coffee percolating in the background. The hot drink in our hands comes to us with a dark track record; coffee beans are the second most traded product in the world after oil. It's impossible to ask for fair trade at the gas station, so instead we can take advantage of what's on offer behind many local coffee counters. It always keeps us connected to the farmers down south.

A GOOD BREWIf you're often forgetting your flower-decaled thermos on your desk, buy a few and keep them at key coffee-fetching points throughout your day: in your car, at your desk and in your backpack.Keep a bag of fair-trade beans at your desk so you can make your own fair-trade brew cheaply whenever you can.Share the wealth: buy a bag of fair-trade beans for a co-worker, friend or family member.Ask for fair-trade wherever you can: choose fair-trade chocolate, sugar, flowers, honey, gold, rice, spices, herbs, tea and bananas.Buy fair-trade chocolate for Easter, Christmas, Hannukah or Halloween.Buy a fair-trade soccer ball for a child's birthday.

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Living Me To We | Morning

MORNING

Wake Me Up

7:05 a.m.

WHAT YOUR CAFFEINE FIX COSTS

GO TO PAGE 152 FOR MORE TIPS AND INFORMATION

Source: 2005 Study, Coffee Association of Canada, adjusted for higher coffee prices.

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Morning | Living Me To We