Demanding Fair Trade Coffee at SECOND CUP

We, the undersigned, represent a growing number of environmental and economic justice advocates, students, parents, workers, and consumers who are concerned about the catastrophic crisis facing coffee farmers due to the plunge in the world coffee price to historically low levels. Coffee, the worlds second most valuably traded commodity, is also the source of livelihood for millions of small farmers in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. Over 25 million coffee producers are affected by the current coffee crisis. Producers, most of whom are small-scale landowners, are now selling their coffee for less than the cost of production. The World Bank has estimated that as many as 600,000 coffee workers have lost their jobs in Central America alone and many are facing starvation due to the crisis.

As consumers of coffee, we are requesting that your company offer Transfair certified Fair trade coffee. A recent Simon Fraser University study found that 2 out of 3 coffee drinkers surveyed said they would be willing to buy Fair Trade coffee if it was more readily available. Fair trade coffee has increased in popularity since Starbucks began offering it to their customers in 2000. Starbucks purchases 1 million pounds of Certified Fair Trade coffee. Coffee shops in universities and specialty high-quality coffee retailers are also meeting the demand and offering fair trade coffee to their consumers.

As the largest retailer of gourmet coffee in Canada, Second Cup has an opportunity to keep up with the current trends and meet the demand of their customers for certified Fair Trade coffee. We strongly urge Second Cup to immediately offer consumers the choice to purchase certified Fair Trade coffee on an on-going basis, at every one of your nearly 400 cafes nationwide, with the goal of purchasing 5\% of your coffee as certified Fair Trade by 2008.

About TransFair Certified Fair Trade:
TransFair Canada is a not-for-profit, independent fair trade certification and labeling organization and is Canadas only member of Fairtrade Labelling Organization International based in Bonn Germany. TransFair Canada, based in Ottawa, licenses companies across Canada to deal in fair trade and certifies their products. The Fair Trade Certified logo appears on certified products, providing consumers with an independent guarantee that their purchase benefits farmers in developing countries. Additional information about Fair Trade and TransFair Canada can be found at: www.transfair.ca