Today as a final installment of the Fair Trade series, I speak with Siel from the popular Fair Trade blog greenlagirl.com. Siel tells us about the Starbucks Challenge and how it got started, and she also gives us some insights on Fair Trade from the consumer’s perspective.

Have a listen and please enjoy.

Today we delve deeper into the Fair Trade debate, as we host a roundtable discussion with Matt Early of Just Coffee and Demian Luper of Transfair USA. The debate centers around the certification standards and system, and both of our guests address the issue of “greenwashing” from very different perspectives.

This is our first multiple person interview, and adding another voice adds technical complexity at the same time that it adds content richness. Unfortunately, the sound quality isn’t as high as I’d like it to be. Still, the interview is excellent, and I encourage you to listen.

Today we speak with Rodney North, aka the “Answer Man” of Equal Exchange, a mission-based Fair Trade cooperative dedicated to social justice and an improved bottom line for the impoverished farmers of the world.

Rodney gives us the low down on Fair, “greenwashing”, the Fair Trade supply chain, and the debate around moving beyond Fair Trade. This is an excellent and provocative interview for both novices and experts alike, so please have a listen.

After a bit of an absence, we are back with some more great content. Today we begin a new series of shows about Fair Trade, with a focus on the coffee industry.

For our first interview, we speak with Patrick Stewart, Director of Marketing for Greenwell Farms/Kona Coffee. Pat gets us up to speed on why Kona is special, how the coffee supply chain functions, and how Fair Trade coffee relates to the coffee market in general. We also talk about the future direction of the industry.

Thanks for joining us, and we plan to have several more great shows about coffee and Fair Trade in coming weeks.