Coffee that helps better the world

By:MIKE CHAIKEN, Editor January 30, 2003

How can coffee change the world?
Well, former Thomaston businessman Naren Sonpal explained, if that coffee has been "Fair Trade Certified" and has been labeled "USDA Organic," you have taken steps toward improving the lives of coffee farmers and helping your own environment.

Naren, and his wife Gun, have become experts in the process of "Fair Trade" and the meaning of "organic." They also are walking encyclopedias about coffee.

But then they should know about the commodity. The Sonpals gave up their business on Electric Avenue, NS Fluid Dynamics, to start their own coffee roasting and tea business. Working out of the basement of their Goshen home, the Sonpals roast all their own coffee, which has been grown organically and purchased under the process of Fair Trade.

"Fair Trade" and "organic" coffee are fairly new developments on the East Coast, said Naren. But Fair Trade and organic coffees have been popular for a considerable time out west, Naren said. "It's slowly coming to this side (of the country)."

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