BERKELEY -- Some people take their cup o' java quite seriously. Only the richest beans and freshest grounds from the most exotic lands can be used. But Rick Young takes this mind-set a few paces further.

To Young, the steaming coffee he drinks every morning symbolizes the struggle between small coffee farmers and large agribusiness concerns in Latin America and elsewhere as well as worries about the impact of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on the environment.

So Young and his allies are asking voters next month to force the 350 or so Starbucks, Peet's and other restaurants and coffee bars that sell brewed coffee here to only use beans that are either grown organically, in the shade, and/or are cultivated by farmers who receive "fair-trade" value for their products. It would be the first law of its kind in the nation.

"I drink a lot of coffee," said Young as he sat outside a favorite Berkeley coffee shop that uses organic beans in its mochas, espressos and lattes.

"I started reading about all the problems coffee can cause environmentally and socially. It seemed sort of silly to serve a product or allow a product that has all these problems when there's an alternative," he said.

But silly is just what some Berkeley coffee shop owners and business leaders are calling the initiative -- Measure O -- which garnered 3,000 signatures to make it on the ballot.

"This is creating awareness of the issues, and the issues are enormous," said Orrel Lanter, owner of the Uncommon Grounds roastery in Berkeley, who has actively supported efforts to raise consumption of organic, fair-trade and shade-grown beans. "But should people go to jail for brewing a politically incorrect type of coffee?" she asked. "I don't think so."

Measure O stems from concerns of environmentalists and other activists who contend that large Latin American operations that seek higher yields by clear-cutting of trees and using pesticides are pushing out small family farmers who traditionally cultivated coffee under rain forest canopies.

"We don't think that corporations have a right to use exploitive labor practices and to pollute the drinking water and the environment where coffee is grown," said Simon Harris, national campaign director of the Organic Consumers Association, which supports the initiative.

Furthermore, a glut of low-grade coffee varieties grown in Vietnam and Brazil has forced down world prices, from a high of $3.15 per pound in mid-1997 to as low as 50 cents last July. That has caused economic chaos in two dozen coffee-growing nations, including Costa Rica, Guatemala, Bolivia, Haiti, Uganda and Ethiopia, said Kenya Lewis, spokeswoman for TransFair, an Oakland-based organization that certifies "fair-trade" coffee. Earning a "fair-trade" price of at least $1.26 per pound, she added, gives small farmers a chance to band together into co-ops and gain better access to markets. And pushing for shade-grown beans will save trees that harbor migratory birds, she said.

Advocates hope Measure O, which would establish misdemeanor penalties of a $100 fine and/or six months in jail, will spur similar laws elsewhere and increase demand for organic, fair-trade and shade-grown coffee.

"It's just a general sense of fairness," said Young, a 36-year-old lawyer.

"People I don't think want to wear clothes that came out of a sweat shop. I don't think people want to drink a coffee product knowing that you exploited a lot of workers." At A Cuppa Tea, owner Lee Vu said business has been good in the four years since he started serving nothing but organic java. He said prices for organic coffee hover at about the same level as that for non-organic varieties. To be labeled organic, foods must meet standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "I support it," Vu said of the Measure O. "It's great for the consumer."

But Ann Lauer, co-owner of the popular Berkeley restaurant Rick and Ann's, said the proposal smacks of overheated government regulation.

"I think people are educated enough. They have the ability to make a choice," said Lauer, who noted that her customers rarely request the type of coffee that would be mandated by the initiative. "I don't think we need to have another inspector, another tax to cover someone coming to check and see if we're using fair-trade coffee."

Other opponents contend the measure will aid few small farmers because "fair-trade" certification is too costly, difficult and time-consuming. And while critics acknowledge that Berkeley's actions don't amount to a hill of coffee beans in the context of a $55 billion worldwide coffee market, they worry that the sentiment will spread to other products and other cities.

"Where does it end?" asked John DeClercq, a vice chair of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce board of directors. "One person could do a similar matter in San Francisco. The 'left coast' is renowned for goofy things, and it would be easy to jump across the Bay."

Starbucks, which operates four shops in Berkeley, has taken myriad steps to improve the lives of coffee farmers, noting its fair-trade "coffee of the day" promotion once each month, said spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff.

"Starbucks does not understand why the residents of Berkeley would want to limit consumer choice," she said. Young said he intentionally wrote the initiative so it would not apply to the sale of whole or ground coffee beans, knowing that to do so would attract the opposition of large grocery store chains.

DeClercq insists the proposal is garnering little support in Berkeley. In fact, Young is a bit uneasy, saying the city's political orientation has moderated in recent years. "At the same time, it's still is a progressive place. It's an educated place," Young said.

"Some people are going to say, 'Crazy Berkeley,' " he added. "But what's more important is getting the issue out there, and most people evaluate the issue for what it is. Not, 'Oh, it's coming from Berkeley.' "