Roasting our own coffee...

 motivates us to know:  More about the growers   How much the growers are paid 
 How the world coffee trade either helps or hurts coffee growers, many of who are among the poorest families in the world.

Certified “Social Purpose” coffee costs more because the certification processes are run by organizations who charge for this service and that cost ultimately needs to be passed on to the customer.

Global to Local offers both certified and what we call “Default Social Purpose” coffee. These are coffees that may not be certified Organic, Fair Trade or Shade Grown but still help the causes we believe are important.

The fact is that many of the growers are too poor to use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, and because they are small they join together forming co-ops to process and ship their coffee.

However, not all coops are permanent, since forming coops often revolves around a particular crop in a particular year, either to cover the costs of processing the newly picked beans and/or to put together enough volume to stock a full container ship.

These more ad hoc coops may not be willing or able to meet all the requirements of international certification, even while meeting some of them such as no use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers (“organic”) and/or consistently being paid above the world market floor price even while not quite reaching the official Fair Trade price.

Nonetheless, this can meet many of the objective of “Fair Trade”, which is to be paid “sustainable” prices enabling them to stay in business, keep their land and housing, and feed their families. In these ways, such arrangements less formal than certified Fair Trade contracts with supportive buyers nonetheless also helps growers maintain a higher quality of life than millions of others who have been driven off their land and out of business due to extremely low world coffee prices

.Want more “Change” than just what goes into your pocket with your coffee?

The choice is all yours……

Fair Trade, Organic and Shade Grown are social purpose categories that may or may not provide the highest quality of coffee at any given time. Some consumers value social purpose over the ultimate quality, other don’t.

Global to Local seeks out the best quality coffees that are:

Certified Fair Trade
Certified Shade Grown
Certified Organic

Default Organic -- grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, but whose growers can’t afford the high price of certification.

Default Fair Trade -- purchased from small farmers, including the same grower cooperatives selling Fair Trade but not certified due to the high cost even while valued for its quality).

Through the variety of coffee we offer from many of the 40 coffee growing countries, Global to Local gives you the choice of how much change you want from what you pay for your coffee, but quality and taste will never be compromised.