I became interested in Doi Chaang coffee after reading a research report about Fair Trade coffee

I used to buy two or three or more cups of coffee every day, at coffee shops everywhere. I now grind my own batches of Doi Chaang coffee using a mid-level Cuisinart coffee maker. I drink two cups per day.

The text at the link at the previous sentence is committed to the principle that white lettering on a dark background can serve as a great way to read a text. The principle is sound, but the choice of font, line spacing, and size determines legibility of such a text. The text at the link I’ve mentioned isn’t all that easy to read, for which reason I share the text with you below:

• The story of Doi Chaang Coffee is as rich as the coffee itself. It’s set in a small village located within the Northern Thailand region of the Golden Triangle. It all began when the hill tribe families of the Doi Chang Village united together to create their own coffee company; after 20 years of cultivating and processing coffee, the farmers grew frustrated selling their high quality beans for minimal prices to coffee dealers who would blend them with other inferior coffee beans. Through their own initiative, our families decided it was time to directly offer the unique taste of their own premium, single-estate, organic Arabica coffee.

• The villagers soon established themselves as independent, successful coffee producers, building their own processing plants, drying facilities, and storage warehouses. The coffee is cultivated in small family gardens with everyone committed to maintaining sustainable agriculture and having minimal impact on the natural habitat. All aspects of production are carefully monitored to ensure consistent and optimal taste in every cup of Doi Chaang Coffee.

• Committed to offering Doi Chaang Coffee as an exclusive single-estate, certified-organic Arabica, the growers approached a small Canadian group of coffee enthusiasts to bring Doi Chaang Coffee into the international market. In recognition of the equal value of their contributions, the growers and the Canadian group established an equal partnership for the international distribution of Doi Chaang Coffee. The growers continue to focus on cultivation, processing and domestic sales, while the Canadian group provides financing, marketing, roasting and distribution for the international market.

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I became interested in Doi Chaang coffee after reading a research report about Fair Trade coffee in East Africa. I figure I save well over one-thousand dollars a year by brewing my own coffee. I still like to go to coffee shops to buy coffee – but that’s when I’m meeting people for coffee, not generally otherwise.

I look forward to doing my due diligence, to establish that the rhetoric for Doi Chaang coffee matches the reality. The narrative that I’ve encountered to date has a feeling of soundness to it.

For many years, I bought “Fair Trade” coffee every day, on the understanding I was helping far-way coffee farmers. When I began reading about the topic, I began to wonder about who it was that I was helping, by accepting the brand story at face value. The exploration of the connection between reality and rhetoric regarding the benefits of Fair Trade – as a reality as distinguished from as a brand – is of interest.

Updates

A Huffington Post article, downloaded July 19, 2015, is entitled: The Myth of the Ethical Shopper. We’re still trying to eliminate sweatshops and child labor by buying right. But that’s not how the world works in 2015.

Also of interest: The Rebel Sell: How the Counterculture Became Consumer Culture (2004).

A Jan. 29, 2016 CBC article is entitled: “Coffee cups: 3 months later, are they being recycled at Tim Hortons and Starbucks?”