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Simple answer: Buy fair trade coffee

Detailed answer:

Coffee is a beloved, even addictive, beverage— a popular choice for bringing people together on social occasions. Besides fueling conversation between friends and coworkers, in the morning or after a meal, coffee connects the millions of Americans who drink it daily to the millions of growers around the world who depend on it for their livelihoods.

Today, coffee is a big business— $5 billion per year, of which about 40% falls under the banner of specialty coffee. This market segment came alive in the 1990s as gourmet roasters capitalized on the American appetite for coffeehouse culture and superior brews. Specialty coffee is often regarded as the last hope for small-scale growers. Faced with a worldwide price decline, coffee farmers who fail to reach the specialty market — and get a fair price in the process— often cannot cover their costs of production, meaning dire sacrifices for their families and communities.

Coffee prices on the world market slid to an all-time low in 2002 of 45 cents per pound— well below the costs of production— and led to escalating unemployment, landlessness, and hunger among small-scale farmers and coffee pickers throughout the coffee-growing world. To make matters worse, most small-scale farmers, who are not organized in marketing cooperatives, must sell to local middlemen, capturing a mere 2%-4% of the retail price of coffee. Low prices, lack of credit, and isolation from the processing, export, and marketing of their beans trap farmers in a cycle of poverty and debt even when coffee prices are on the rise.

Through Fair Trade, farmers and their families are earning a better income for their hard work-allowing them to hold on to their land, keep their kids in school, and invest in the quality of their harvest-so they can continue to grow excellent quality coffee for your morning brew.

Fair Trade empowers farming families to take care of themselves - without developing dependency on foreign aid.

Buying fair trade coffee is an investment in quality. Fair trade ensures that farmers can earn enough for their crops to continue producing quality and sustaining their farms. Direct relationships with producers strengthen businesses across the board and help maintain long-term access to the high quality that industry standards demand. These relationships are even more critical in times of crisis for growers.

Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seek greater equity in international trade. Fair Trade helps coffee producers in developing countries to gain direct access to international markets, as well as to develop the business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace. This includes access to capital and training. The coffee farmers then are able to improve their equipment and grow a quality product which is sold at a fair price. This leads to investments in community infrastructure, sustainable farming practices, schools for the children, and thriving families and communities. Due to investment in the community health care is accessible and many children in these communities are the first in their families to graduate high school.

Fair Trade is not charity, it is paying people fairly for their work.