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Background and downloadable action materials from www.organicconsumers.org.

Speak to your local fair trade convenors about what is happening at a Starbucks near you.

The Press published this letter yesterday. There will be a follow up piece tomorrow.

Dear Sir,

Wake up and smell the corporate spin! Starbucks employees are to be paid for doing community work, as a response to perceptions of them being seen as outsiders. Perhaps that is because their profits go offshore to the same multinational that owns KFC and Pizza Hut.

If Starbucks is such a good corporate citizen why haven't they dropped their prices when world coffee prices are the lowest they've been in decades? Why aren't they purchasing certified fair trade coffee, which guarantees farmers a minimum living wage? Their corporate greed continues to put profit before people.

What can we do about it? Purchase certified fair trade coffee, ask your MP or local body candidate where they stand on trade agreements that foster this kind of exploitation, or simply boycott Starbucks until they purchase fair trade coffee.

Simon Gerathy

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world. Current market prices are less than 50 cents per pound. This is creating coffee refugees - farmers driven from their land in order to feed their families. Certified fair trade prices are $1.26 per pound - based on a living wage. Starbucks NZ does not buy any fair trade coffee.

Up until now coffee has been GE free, but a US company called International Coffee Technologies is developing a technology to control the ripening process of coffee trees. This will mean coffee cherries will only ripen once "switched on" - triggered by spraying with the chemical ethylene. Further detail at www.actionaid.org

Further info from me at Trade Aid 03 385 3535 x235 or 025 937 875.
Simon Gerathy

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