FAIR TRADE AND STARBUCKS

TAPACHULA, MEXICO: FEBRUARY 16
I drink Corona larger while attempting to close my ears to the Mexican weep-music emanating from the plaza. My companion is the leader of Oaxaca's association of small coffee producers. So many people make fortunes from coffee. My companion instances Nescafe and Starbucks.
He asks why must small farmers starve.
I don't have an answer.
Fair Trade?
Trade is seldom fair.
At finca Los Andes, I learned Starbucks' regulations.
No small grower could afford a fraction of Jim Hazard's investment in eco-purity.
Even gaining an organic lable demands frequent inspections and is beyond the individual grower's purse. Nor is a cooperative practical. Growers distrust each other. Inevitably one or other would use fertilizers. The cooperative would lose its certification.
I listen and sip my beer and hide my skepticism as to an alternative of artesaneria made from coffee prunings,