9. Certified Coffee and Solidarity

During the Coffee Crisis in the early 2000s, consumers in developed countries enjoyed cheap coffee while coffee farmers in developing countries suffered from poverty. Thus globalization disconnected the farmers in developing countries and consumers in developed countries. Farmers are interested only to increase the production volume and they do not care for what kind of coffee the consumers may prefer. On the other hand, the consumers are looking for cheap coffee products and do not care the impacts of their behavior on the environment and the life of the farmers. After the Coffee Crisis, consumers began to know this relationship and some of them tried to help the poor farmers by buying at higher price as is the case of Fair Trade. In the same way, some of them who are interested in environmental protection and willing to pay more to avoid environmental destruction supported other certified coffee such as Rainforest Alliance. It is not easy for consumers to contact directly with farmers and we need intermediaries to connect them. In the case of coffee this role is taken by the certificates such as Fair Trade. Even though the percentage of certified coffee may be small, its influence is widespread. With the development of information technology, the role of such intermediaries will be more and more important.