Coffee Farmers in Crisis: Support a Living Wage for Coffee Growers and their Families!
What's That In Your Coffee? Poverty in your cup!
A GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
The market price of coffee has fallen 70 percent in the last five years. These rock-bottom lows have caused a global humanitarian crisis, devastating 25 million coffee farmers, their families, and their communities in over 50 countries around the world.
Coffee farming families in Latin America, Africa and Asia are now living with hunger and suffering on a daily basis. Millions of families have been forced to give up medicine and healthcare, take their children out of school, and move off their lands. Reuters reports that in Nicaragua alone, at least a dozen farmers have died and over 1,600 children "are suffering from severe malnutrition." Thousands of workers and their family members are homeless, left to beg in the streets and forage from garbage cans.
TOWARD A SOLUTION
Oxfam has launched a global campaign to support small coffee farmers and find solutions to the crisis. One piece of the solution is Fair Trade Certified coffee - - environmentally friendly coffee that ensures farmers get paid a decent and steady price for their harvests! Oxfam is urging coffee companies to pay farmers a decent FAIR TRADE price for their beans. We need YOUR support to show the big coffee companies that we're serious.
WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW!
E-mail Procter & Gamble (P&G) -- maker of Folgers and Millstone, and one the largest coffee companies in the world. Tell Procter & Gamble about this crisis and ask them: How can I buy Fair Trade Certified coffee?
SIGN TODAY!
ATTN: Letter to Procter&Gamble's customer service department
I have recently read about the crisis that is destroying the livelihoods of 25 million coffee farmers in over 50 developing countries. Farmers and their communities around the world have seen prices fall by 70 percent in the last five years. Unable to cover their costs of production, coffee farmers and workers cannot feed their families, send their children to school, purchase essential medicines, and stay on their land. I find it deeply troubling that my daily cup of coffee may actually be contributing to the misery of Third World farming families.
Fortunately, there are solutions to this global crisis. I believe that Fair Trade Certified coffee offers small farmers a decent and steady price. I also appreciate the added credibility that comes with independent certification. Your website states that Procter & Gamble seeks to address "social issues associated with [its] products and services." Given the company's historic commitment to social responsibility, I feel that Fair Trade is a good fit for P&G.
As a coffee consumer and loyal P&G customer, I want to ensure that the people who grow and pick my coffee are paid a decent price. Please let me know: How can I buy Fair Trade Certified coffee from your company?
Thank you.
The Undersigned!
