Eventually, the biggest stumbling block in the Fair Trade movement might be consumers. They have to make the final choice when they step up to the coffee counter. When I ask more than a dozen customers milling around a Starbucks kiosk in Seattle if they know what Fair Trade coffee is, most say no. "Is that a new brand?" one man asks.
One woman says she's heard of Fair Trade coffee, and she knows in general that it's designed to help poor farmers in developing countries. But when I ask if that's important to her, she shrugs. "One needs to choose," she says slowly, searching for just the right words. "You have only so much time in your life, and so you need to choose your issues. You need to choose the things that you want to be passionate about, the things you want to care about, give your money to, give your attention to.
"And quite honestly," the woman says, Fair Trade coffee "is not one of those issues."
