Change Agent, Patrick Wagner reporting from Toronto, Canada. I just read a great article in the Toronto Star (click here), about ethical shopping and reading the fine print - figuring out what it all actually means at the end of the day. As we all know there is usually a lot more behind what companies say and what is actually being done. Hence, what I forsee is consumers becoming overloaded with reading fine print to ensure that they are truely helping the world.

Any user can review Starbuck's 19-page PDF document about its coffee sourcing practices (go to their website at http://starbucks.com/aboutus/sourcingcoffee.asp).

What's the bottom line? A company the size of Starbucks can't buy all their coffee organic or shade grown since there just is not enough of such coffee being produced. Starbucks demand simply cannot be met.

This is supported by Dennis Macray, director of business practices who stated that "Categories such as organic or fair trade and even shade-grown coffee are recognized by most customers as living up to tough environmental and social standards, but simply don't produce enough coffee for a company the size of Starbucks".

So how much coffee is socially and environmentally friendly? "About 6 per cent of Starbucks' coffee last year was certified as fair trade. The company buys almost 300 million pounds of coffee a year." So, you will pay a premium price such as a $1.75 for a cup of coffee "... with about a 10 per cent chance of being socially responsible, says Gavin Fridell"

So what does this mean to you? Perhaps that the next cup of organic shade grown coffee you drink from Starbuck's, well, may not exactly be that.

Does that mean I will stop drinking my Starbuck's Organic shade grown coffee - No! - because now I know the full story, I know they are supporting fair trade farmers. Fair trade farming needs to increase inorder for Starbucks to continue to increase the % of their coffee beans that are "fair trade". I'll drink to that any day.

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