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Peace Coffee launches mapmybeans.com
A key principle of Fair Trade is traceability; the consumer should be able to follow the path of a delicious cup of joe, bar of chocolate, or sprinkle of sugar back to the farm and coop behind the product. Peace Coffee recently launched a bright, fun, user-friendly website for people to dig deeper into their daily brew and learn about where the coffee comes from and who produces it.
From a recent "press release" in their monthly newsletter, Peace Coffee says...
"At Peace Coffee, we think that part of our work as committed fair traders is making connections between the global chain of people who work to deliver your morning (or afternoon, or midnight -- we don't judge) cup. Part of the larger picture of Fair Trade is drawing those connections between the amount of work that goes into a product and the livelihoods of its producers. While the ultimate way to do that would be to take every one of you coffee drinkers on a trip to visit the coop who grows the coffee in your favorite blend or single origin, that's a little beyond our scope. And, if you went to Indonesia when the coffee flowers were in bloom while the Minnesota winter was in full swing, we might lose a customer.
Instead (or hopefully just until you make the trip yourself), we've created MapMyBeans.com -- an interactive tool to bring you, the coffee drinker, a little closer to the amazing folks who grow your coffee. After lots of tinkering on Google Maps and the hard work of some great local geeks, we're ready to let you start exploring.
You can trace your favorite coffee selection across the globe, get some fast facts on the farmer coops, see some faces, and hear the words of some fellow travelers. If you want to know more, we've got links to in-depth farmer profiles, and, if you want to dig still deeper, all the contracts, invoices, even bills of lading and organic certificates for your favorite coffees (and maybe a few you haven't tried yet) can be found. We're posting these documents in collaboration with our importing partner, Cooperative Coffees -- it's part of our effort to change the face of trade from mysterious valleys and top-secret pricing to open sharing of information all along the supply chain
-- in a word, transparency. In a global trade like ours, realistically, you can't go talk to the coffee farmer whose tree grew your pound of coffee the way you might shake hands at a farmer's market or visit your CSA's field. Take this as a virtual handshake, our way of bringing you into the transactions that make up our supply chain and make us proud to come to work everyday.
Take a look now and then check back again regularly -- we'll be adding more photos, additional resources (maybe even how to get there!) and much more.
*All our claims, both Fair Trade and organic are also independently verified by a third-party certifier, so the responsibility's not all on you to be sure we've got our i's dotted and t's crossed!"
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