Global Issues Flow Into America's Coffee

By KIM BENDHEIM

A buzz in California has caught the attention of the world's biggest coffee companies.

In a growing movement reminiscent of the grape boycott in the 1970's, antiglobalization and human rights advocates in California have been promoting the purchase of Fair Trade certified coffee — coffee that guarantees a so-called living wage to poor coffee farmers in developing countries. An estimated 25 million of these farmers have suffered because raw coffee prices have fallen below the cost of production.

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