Coffee growers merit fair price

World coffee prices have plummeted 70 percent over the past five years due to a glut that began with deregulation about a decade ago. That's fairly shocking news to most Americans, who have been paying roughly the same for a cup of joe at their local cafe, and only a little less for a can of the stuff at their supermarket.
Greed -- on the part of major coffee companies like Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Sara Lee -- is a big reason. They're making out like bandits at the expense of hundreds of thousands of small family farmers in places such as Nicaragua, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. The price paid to these farmers is now between 15 cents and 25 cents a pound, substantially less than the world market price of about 50 cents.

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