It is a definite first. A fast food chain has actively and vocally chosen to be socially and environmentally coffee conscious. The company to lead the way is McDonalds UK.
McDonalds UK has pledged to purchase their coffee only from Rain Forest certified farms. The Rain Forest Alliance is a non profit organization that focuses on protecting the environment and its ecosystems – which means the people and wildlife that reside within these places as well. Specifically in this case, it means that they will get their beans only from farms that meet the standards set by this independent organization which protects third world farmers in countries such as Brazil, Columbia and Ethiopia.
This is meant to be but the first step in the process of ethical coffee selection. McDonalds aims to have all of their European branches following the same standard, hopefully within the year, just as soon as they iron out some supply problems.
The best part: they may be getting premium coffee but the prices won’t be changing any time soon.
[tags] coffee,Environment,ethics,standards,coffee beans [/tags]
Originally posted on January 8, 2007 @ 3:55 pm