The neighborhood Dunkin' Donuts shop would seem an unlikely place from which to watch a battle for economic justice percolate.

But the doughnut chain is at the center of a burgeoning social movement brewing up farmer-friendly cappuccinos and lattes in support of impoverished Third World coffee growers.

Fair Trade beans are being rolled out at all 4,000-plus Dunkin' Donuts stores in the United States, company spokeswoman Julie DeCarlo said.

The Fair Trade label - which certifies that growers produced their crop under relatively safe conditions and received a minimum payment - is suddenly turning up on the shelves of thousands of mainstream supermarkets and coffeehouses across the country.

While many companies are responding to pressure from human rights advocacy groups such as TransFair USA and Global Exchange to add some political correctness to the bean bag, they also are listening to a growing number of customers who want to sip without guilt.

"It's the one program that has improved lives in (Third World) communities," said Torrey Lee, co-owner of Cafe Moto, which roasts and distributes Fair Trade coffee and other varieties to Southern California businesses. "It has also helped promote sustainable systems" of agriculture.

But are companies such as Starbucks - which has carried some Fair Trade products since 2000 - acting out of sentiment for poor farmers or with an eye toward the bottom line?

Fair Trade-certified coffee imports have grown at a dramatic 75 percent annually since Oakland, Calif.-based TransFair, the certifier of Fair Trade product in the United States, launched the label in late 1998.

Last year, 18.7 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee were certified, up from 9.8 million pounds in 2002.

Supplemental income generated for growers in 2003 totaled $15.9 million, bringing the extra income farmers have received from U.S. Fair Trade sales in the past five years to $34 million.

"There are consumers who are very conscious about environmental and health issues and in issues which impact workers around the world," said George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos, Calif. "The question is, is this a big enough movement to sustain itself" economically. You can see coffee, cocoa and teas from the niche Fair Trade industry - which makes up only a fraction of the $15 billion U.S. coffee business - on display at mainstream retailers such as Nordstrom, CostPlus, Trader Joe's, Vons and Whole Foods among dozens of other chains.

Starbucks recently featured Fair Trade brew as the "coffee of the day" at its stores nationwide in honor of World Fair Trade in early May.

The Seattle-based company bought 2.1 million pounds of Fair Trade beans last year, about 10 percent of the entire certified crop for the year.

"Starbucks and the Fair Trade movement share common goals - to ensure coffee farmers receive a fair price for their beans and that they can sustain their farms into the future," Sandra Taylor, senior vice president at the chain, said in a statement. Adding still more marketing muscle to the cause is household-products giant Procter & Gamble, which last year launched its Millstone Mountain Moonlight brand. The medium-dark blend derives from the slopes near Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, where some of the best Arabica beans in the world are harvested.

Procter & Gamble "is dedicated to coffees which promote sustainability, economic, social and environmental progress," company spokeswoman Tonia Hyatt said. So far, the company offers the coffee only on its Web site because initial demand has been low.

"But it is growing in popularity. ... We want to be the No. 1 seller of Fair Trade coffee" in the country, Hyatt said.

The Fair Trade movement began to perk in the late 1990s as world coffee prices started to plummet and many farmers were forced to abandon their land for brighter pastures.

Most coffee farmers still live in poverty on small plots of land, isolated from vital news about java futures and commodity rates, analysts say. Many don't even have a truck to transport their crop or a scale to weigh it.

But a small number of farmers embracing the Fair Trade campaign are beginning to smell profits.

Last year's crop was harvested by about 1.1 million farmers and their family members, who live in Fair Trade cooperatives in 30 countries in Central America, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Most importantly, they were paid a minimum of $1.26 a pound - a relative windfall compared with other Third World farmers who typically earn as little as 20 cents a pound for their labors.

Organic coffee farmers pulled in even more, about $1.41 a pound.

Bourque said the elevated pay provides farmers with a stable environment to grow high-quality specialty beans, which comprise the bulk of the Fair Trade crop.

"There are no middlemen (under the Fair Trade banner) to scoop out a lot of the profit," said Haven Bourque, a spokeswoman for the California-based organization. Bourque added that Fair Trade coffee is a win-win proposition for farmers and consumers because it costs only "a few pennies more a cup" at the retail level than other common brands such as Folgers and Yuban.

TransFair - which is part of a global certification network in more than 60 countries - employs 28 workers and operates on a budget of $3 million a year, Bourque said. The organization has built an audit system that tracks products from farm to market and verifies industry and farmer compliance with its relatively strict standards. Certified companies such as Peet's Coffee and Tea are authorized to stamp TransFair's Fair Trade label on products.

Bourque said the economic transformation at Fair Trade co-ops in the past decade can be seen in microcosm at a farm in northern Nicaragua, where workers now enjoy such amenities as electricity, sewage services and relatively modern irrigation systems. Besides harvesting top-grade organic Arabica beans, the co-op operates offshoot projects such as a worm-compost production plant, which sells the commodity to other neighboring farms.

The farmers "make enough money to ensure that they will stay in business," Bourque said.

TransFair recently announced it is going beyond coffee, tea and cocoa to begin certifying Fair Trade fruit, including pineapples, mangos and grapes.

Wild Oats, which operates the Henry's grocery chain in Southern California, is one of several major retail chains now offering Fair Trade bananas alongside a wide range of other certified products.

The company said it was moving to add more Fair Trade goods in the bins as a way of making sure farmers - some of whom make only $3 a day - are treated fairly and equitably.

"We now have the reassurance that we are doing our part to support banana farmers in Third World countries," said Perry Odak, Wild Oats' president and chief executive officer.

At the People's Organic Foods Market in San Diego recently, several shoppers said they patronize the membership co-op largely because of its broad line of Fair Trade products.

The store not only carries nine different varieties of Fair Trade coffee, but also certified cocoa and tea.

Moreover, the market offers some noncertified handicrafts that nevertheless were produced under Fair Trade conditions.

"There's more of an elevated consciousness" among consumers today, store spokeswoman Amber Forest said. "At People's anyway, this is not a fad."

SIDEBAR Fair Trade facts Copley News Service Fair Trade coffee is certified as having been grown under relatively safe conditions with farmers receiving an established minimum payment. Fair Trade coffee and other products are purchased directly from small farmers and their cooperatives for prices that can be up to five times higher than noncertified products. Importers and wholesalers pay a fee to cover certification costs, and importers also offer farmer cooperatives affordable credit. Certification is performed by a network of nonprofit organizations, including TransFair USA, which allow companies to stamp their Fair Trade products with a uniform consumer label. Besides coffee, Fair Trade products include tea, cocoa, and bananas, grapes, mangos and other fruit.