City officials celebrate introduction of the product, which is the opening salvo in a nationwide campaign

Contra Costa Times
By Darren G. Brown
August 26, 1999

BERKELEY -- City officials in the nation's most liberal city celebrated Tuesday the first branded, socially conscious coffee introduced in the Bay Area.

The introduction - which was celebrated with a ribbon cutting at the Berkeley Bowl - is the opening salvo for a nationwide campaign to persuade retailers and consumers to buy coffee branded by TransFair USA, an Oakland-based nonprofit organization.

TransFair USA buys beans from coffee-growing families above market prices. The group argues that many small farmers are impoverished by selling their coffee below market price, and large bean growers are more likely to clear cut rain forests to grow coffee beans. The group then sells raw coffee beans to middlemen called roasters in the United States who toast the beans brown. The roasters sell the beans to retail shops.

The group believes U.S. coffee drinkers, the largest coffee market in the world, will pay 10 cents more for a cup of coffee or up to $10 a pound for coffee it certifies as produced from "fair trade" beans.

"For most people, 10 cents a day is nothing," said Jason Mark, a spokesman for Global Exchange, another nonprofit group among more than 40 sponsoring the effort.

In the next two weeks, 82 retail stores and coffee shops in the Bay Area will also sell coffee certified by the group, including some Safeway and Whole Foods stores. TransFair has signed agreements with about 20 more retailers.

Eventually, TransFair USA officials hope their certification will be accepted into the mainstream. One of the most successful attempts, the group cites, was a campaign against tuna caught with nets that also trap dolphins. A campaign by an advocacy group helped reverse demand for tuna caught with dolphin-friendly nets. More than 90 percent of the tuna sold in U.S. markets today are caught in nets without snaring dolphins.

The group saw Berkeley residents as the most receptive audience. In June, city officials mandated that all city coffee must be labeled fair trade and be organically grown, and many coffee shops in Berkeley already sell fair trade coffee that is not labeled so by TransFair. Oakland mayor Jerry Brown has also said he was interested in a similar agreement.

Mark said the group is attempting to get Starbucks to sell coffee certified by TransFair USA.