just a couple of dollars a day. Fair trade tells us that we can help simply by buying

a cup of fair-trade labeled coffee. But I have to ask myself, how effective is that

really? It's a complex issue but we owe it to those in need to make sure that every dollar

counts. I'm Colleen Haight, assistant professor of

economics at San Jose State University. I've spent the past 10 years or so researching

fair-trade coffee, and I've also spent a lot of time on coffee farms in Central America

actually talking to the coffee farmers about their experiences.

The goals of fair trade are very admirable, and I love the fact that it's a voluntary

organization. They've done an outstanding job of creating better consumer awareness,

for example. Consumers today are much more appreciative of how their purchases affect

the world's poor in our global economy. However, if you really want to help the poor, the fair-trade

model for coffee isn't the most effective way to do that.

Fair trade operates by asking consumers to pay a few cents more for each cup of coffee

they buy. They even convey this extra money all the way down through their supply chain,

all the way to the small farmer who grew the coffee. The problem is fair-trade regulations

define that small farmer as a small land owner, but the poor in the coffee farming community

don't have enough money to own their own land. If you really want to help the poor, you have

to address yourself to the migrant farm workers. Migrant farm workers have to constantly move

from farm to farm, picking up whatever work they can. The fair-trade regulations only

say that we have to pay these laborers the country's minimum wage. The problem is that's

already the law. Fair trade has absolutely nothing else to say about the migrant farm

worker. So how can you make choices that better benefit the poor?

It might seem odd but one way you can do this is by buying high-quality coffee. High-quality

beans take more time and care to harvest. This results in higher pay for the seasonal

laborers who pick the coffee, as growers insist on quality beans that will fetch higher prices

in the market. As the demand for premium coffee grows, more of these higher-paying jobs become

available. It may be counter intuitive, but migrant workers who pick beans for premium

coffees tend to receive higher pay than those workers who pick beans for most fair-trade

brands. Since the price of fair-trade coffee is more or less the same as it is for premium

coffees without the fair-trade label, consumers can do more for the poor by actually not buying

the fair-trade label. At the end of the day, you have to remember

that fair trade is a brand just like any other brand. As a conscientious consumer, we can't

just accept the claims that are made. We have to do our own investigation. Our dollars are

limited. We have to make sure that all of our choices have the impact that we want them

to.