In the lush mountains of Ethiopia, where barefoot, malnourished children live in thatch-roofed huts, farmers grow the red cherries that yield coffee beans.

In Sacramento, at the cross of 15th and Q streets, the people of midtown relax in the plush interior of The Naked Lounge and sip the brew from those beans.

Somewhere in between are sales and profits.

And to ensure that the farmers see a fair share of the profits, The Naked Lounge and other area coffee purveyors are selling "fair trade" coffee.

Fair trade-certified coffee -- which comes from many countries other than Ethiopia -- was once a little-known fringe product boosted by Bay Area-based campaigns and protests. But it is seeping into the mainstream.

In Sacramento, for instance, it's not only at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, which stocks several brands, it's also at some Albertsons and Safeway stores. It's not only sold by all-organic coffee companies such as Beantrees, which has a downtown cafe; it's also offered at some Java City cafes and Starbucks, where you can get it specially brewed upon request.

Fair trade tea and chocolate also are popping up in stores, based on the same model.

The fair trade system, formalized in the United States in 1999 but originating in Europe, seeks to guarantee small farmers a minimum "living wage" for their goods. A nonprofit organization, the Oakland-based TransFair USA, monitors the use of the fair trade logo, which is its assurance that the farmers got their due.

This is especially important for coffee, the first and most abundant fair trade product in the United States, because the coffee market has been suffering a global crisis for the last several years, observers say. There's simply too much coffee produced worldwide, driving prices below the cost of growing the bean.

In Ethiopia, for example, farmers "are not making enough money from the coffee to buy food," says Tadesse Meskela, general manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, which grows the Ethiopian Yrgacheffebeans found at The Naked Lounge.

"When you enter into any farmer's house, it's empty -- they have no grains," he says. "And they are not able to send their children to school, and they are not able to afford medical care. They have (not) bought clothes for the last four years."

Meskela, 45, sat in a Berkeley coffeehouse recently during a break in a national speaking tour about fair trade. He sees the system as an antidote to the desperation that leads farmers to leave their villages in search of work or grow illegal narcotic crops in place of coffee.

You see, before the crisis hit, Ethiopian farmers were selling their coffee for more than a dollar a pound. Now it has dropped to under 40 cents, Meskela says. But U.S. companies that buy fair trade must pay at least $1.26 a pound -- and more if it's organic -- and all of that must be delivered to the co-op union.

The effect, Meskela says, is simple: "Those (farmers) who have sold the coffee through fair trade are in a better condition."

Advocates also trumpet the system because it bypasses "middlemen" who come between the farmer and the U.S. importer and skim off profits. In Ethiopia, farmers are usually at the mercy of three layers of middlemen, Meskela says.

But with fair trade, he says, the co-op union -- an organization of the farmers themselves -- earns enough money to invest in processing equipment, so it can sell directly to importers and distribute the profits evenly to its members.

The cooperatives are monitored by the Germany-based umbrella organization of TransFair at no cost to the farmers. Co-ops must be democratically controlled. They have to consist mostly of small-scale family farmers, and must protect the environment and reinvest earnings in community development.

From the co-op union, the Ethiopian beans travel by ship east from Africa to the Port of Oakland for importers. Then they get trucked to roasters, like San Diego's Cafe Moto.

"If we can get it fair trade, we feel better," says owner Torrey Lee, who then sends the roasted beans to stores and cafes like The Naked Lounge.

Chris Pendarvis, co-owner of the local cafe, actually isn't that jazzed about the fair trade label. He thinks it's a bonus, but it's the quality of the coffee he cares about, he says.

A small, peeling sticker with the fair trade logo adorns a placard at the front counter. Many customers are unaware of it, or what "fair trade" means.

"I just put down the money and it tastes good," says Brent Meyer, a Sacramento police officer enjoying a cup recently during his day off. But he says he wouldn't go out of his way to get fair trade: "Coffee's coffee."

Indeed, demand for fair trade is low, representing a small fraction of the coffee market. Starbucks and Java City cite slim customer interest as the reason they don't offer more of it. Meskela's co-ops are only selling 10 percent to 20 percent of their beans.

Activists groups and college students are trying to counter-balance the apathy.

The San Francisco organization Global Exchange ran a pressure campaign against Starbucks shortly before the chain introduced a fair trade blend, and it continues to organize protests against the company and others -- to urge them to offer more.

Meanwhile, students struck up campaigns at colleges, including the University of California, Davis, leading to fair trade coffee on campuses.

It's not just an activist thing, though. Industry groups like the National Coffee Association of U.S.A. and the Specialty Coffee Association of America say it's a viable model. But they say it's only a partial solution; the overproduction of coffee needs to be changed, too.

Still, fair trade coffee does have its detractors. Some complain of a bad-tasting cup. Shawn Hamilton, coffee buyer for Java City, says the quality of fair trade coffee, though improving, has been uneven.

And because he doesn't directly see the benefit to the farmer himself, he doesn't fully trust the certification system.

So Hamilton is starting up his own program, inspired by fair trade. He traveled to Guatemala recently to visit the farm of Oriflama, which has cut funding for a workers nutrition program and a medical clinic because of the coffee crisis.

Hamilton says he's paying above fair trade prices directly to the company, helping to bring back the health programs. He hopes to expand that model to other farms.

But he doesn't plan on certifying the coffee as fair trade, raising the question: Is it really fair?

That's where TransFair comes in.

"I think consumers are realizing that there is a need for independent, third-party certification," says Haven Bourque, TransFair spokeswoman. "The industry has a long way to go before (self-monitoring) is going to ensure that the farmers are getting what they deserve."

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The facts behind fair trade Does fair trade coffee make you more confused than caffeinated? Let's straighten out some common misconceptions:

* How does it taste? Fair trade coffee comes in different brands, blends and tastes, and from different countries of origin. It's a business model, not a flavor.

* Does it cost more? It can, but it often doesn't.

* Is it organic? Not all, but most of fair trade coffee is also certified organic. Look for the organic label.

* Free trade? Some people confuse "fair" trade with "free" trade, but it's not the same. Indeed, fair trade advocates say free trade is often not fair.

* Is fair trade just coffee? There's fair trade tea and chocolate, too. Bananas are next.