Direct Fair Trade happens where the boot hits the dirt
In 2005, Level Ground Trading and Colombian agronomist Juan Velez had several objectives in mind when they began working closely with 25 small-scale coffee farming families who grow Café San Miguel.
- Pay premium prices for their coffee based on cup quality and socio-economic conditions
- Offer technical assistance in organic farming methods including avoiding agro-chemical usage, practice crop diversification and installation of technologies such as biodigestors and wet mills.
- Transfer knowledge of cup quality to farmers
- Invest in education for their children
- Create a direct link from producers to consumers
- Increase awareness and support for more organic methods of farming coffee
- document GPS coordinates of each farm (a service provided by Famicafe students). With an accurate map of the farm's perimeters some families were able to apply for an official land title.
- Agreement from the government cooperative mill to separate the coffees from participant farms for export to Level Ground. This practice will allow Level Ground to trade directly with specific farmers and provides new opportunities for the Fair Trade premium distribution.
