The Inner Dilemma of a Coffee-Lover

It's the end of winter quarter 2015, and for the first time, I've overindulged in coffee and dessert during finals week. My sudden lax in self-control both intrigues and frightens me. Furthermore, coffee from external vendors near UCLA are quite costly. We're talking Starbucks and Peet's Coffee, where small-sized drinks average $3-4.

Back in high school, I actively took part in campaigns that urged consumers to purchase fair-trade products such as fair-trade chocolate and fair-trade coffee. Fair-trade sets a just compensation for farmers who produce goods that are purchased in first-world countries. For example, coffee is one of the most traded commodities, but many coffee-producing farmers are in a cycle of poverty due to labor exploitation.

So the question is, where does all the money go for all the high-priced coffee at chains such as Starbucks? Most of the money we pay goes directly to coffee exporters who take advantage of the situations and use profit for their personal gain. Fair trade USA, even though more expensive than their non-fair trade counterparts, claims that

Our mission is to enable sustainable development and community empowerment by cultivating a more equitable global trade model that benefits farmers, workers, consumers, industry and the earth.

In my generation, fair trade is also relatively unknown and rather inaccessible. There's always a part of me that truly enjoys the delicious aroma and taste of well-brewed coffee, but another part of me says to be more minimalist and concerned about what happens behind the scenes. This internal battle takes place all the time whenever I decide to go out and have a good time with friends. Eating meat is bad for the environment, they say. You're contributing to terrible employee treatment, they say. Stop drinking coffee when it has such a terrible colonial history, they say.

So where do I draw the line?