Tag Archive 'oxfam'

Oxfam coffee ‘harms’ poor farmers

Posted by TheShot on 27 Apr 2007 | Filed under: Beans, Fair Trade

Need any more evidence that Fair Trade coffee isn’t unquestionably the “right thing to do” when it comes to poverty and the world’s coffee growers? Today’s The Australian reported on two Melbourne academics who have lodged formal complaints against Oxfam Australia, which oversees Australian Fair Trade certification, challenging that Fair Trade doesn’t achieve what it [...]

A Hot Cup of Money: Starbucks, Ethiopia, and the Coffee Branding Wars

Posted by TheShot on 16 Nov 2006 | Filed under: Beans, Starbucks

There’s been a lot of “he said, she said” going on between Starbucks and representatives of the Ethiopian coffee trade lately. Ethiopian Sidamo and Harar (two generally excellent bean stocks, mind you) were up for trademark protection when a “certain voting member” of the U.S. National Coffee Association (or NCA, a business interest legacy of [...]