Leelanau-based Higher Grounds: Michigan's Fair Trade Coffee Leader
Yesterday's Detroit News had a great feature on Chris & Jody Treter and their Higher Grounds Coffee Trading Co., Michigan's only 100% organic and fair-trade coffee producer. After having first year sales of just $60,000, Higher Grounds is now approaching half a million dollars. It sells about 100,000 pounds of coffee each year throughout Michigan.
Chris says "Most coffee in the world is grown off the sweat of extremely poor peoples' backs. If consumers could travel and see those families, most would change their habits."
Higher Grounds seeks to do exactly that, and we encourage you to read SUSAN AGER: The joy of the grind in the Detroit News and visit the Higher Grounds Coffee web site.
Thank you for sharing your incredible photography, Andrew.
The Treters are incredible folks. I used to be in Fair Trade coffee and everyone in the business holds them in the highest regard.
-Scott James
http://www.fairtradesports.com
Comment by ScottJames — November 2, 2006 @ 9:59 pm
Hey, you're welcome Scott. Some of the stuff on our site is by other folks though! I agree with you that Chris & Jody are wonderful - it's so nice to see people who use their business to help build a better world!
Comment by Andrew McFarlane — November 3, 2006 @ 12:04 pm
For those of you who are interested in the issue of Fair trade, there is a powerful documentary out called “Black Gold,†that documents the lives of Ethiopian coffee farmers and clearly demonstrates why all of us should be asking for Fair Trade coffee. The film was recently released in the theater but is now available to the public on DVD via California Newsreel. You can read more about the documentary or pick up a copy of it here at http://newsreel.org/
Comment by leashd — May 14, 2007 @ 1:45 pm