One of the most elevating aspects of Fair Trade is the opportunity it provides for those of us in the US to develop close personal relationships with our producer partners and their communities throughout the world’s coffee lands. From time to time we are called on to take action and leverage our society’s abundant resources on behalf of our producer partners who find themselves in particularly dire circumstances.

Twelve months ago, Hurricane Stan ravaged southwest Guatemala, including the community of La Asociación Maya de Pequeńos Agricultores in Santa Anita la Unión, a small coffee producer cooperative and community comprised of 38 families. Their subsistence-level livelihood depends primarily on their coffee production. Unfortunately, Hurricane Stan not only wiped out 25,000 of the 35,000 new coffee plants planted by the community, it also reduced the community’s coffee yield by more than 50%, leaving its members with neither sufficient income to meet their basic needs nor the resources they need to harvest this year’s crop.

During his visit to Americus last week, the community’s director of commercialization Rigoberto A. Ramirez explained the nature of the community’s current financial crisis. He also articulated his community’s unwavering commitment to the concept of Fair Trade and determination to overcome their present circumstances no matter the sacrifice he and his fellow coffee producers have to make.

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Café Campesino is a proud supporter of the Several Dancers Core/CORE Performance Company’s U.S. premiere of Corazón Abriendo (Heart Opening) at the 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta from November 10-12. Corazón Abriendo is described as a "portal that transports the audience into the vivid, lush atmosphere of the highlands and rainforests of Chiapas, Mexico, through a multimedia cloth of dance, sculpture, video and music skillfully woven together. Echoes of ancient civilizations overlap with the energy of modern life as the artistic sensibilities of contemporary dancers meld with the traditional weaving arts of the Mayan people."

In this edition of Fair Grounds, we're offering three FREE pairs of tickets to Corazón Abriendo. To learn how you can enter to win a pair of free tickets, see the Show Your Café Campesino Pride.

To learn more about Corazón Abriendo, read on..

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A big Thanks goes out to our friends at BRAG for their continued support and to Sheila Crowley and Stacey Johnson who helped Lee and Bill serve up Café Campesino and talk Fair Trade at this year’s Fall BRAG BikeFest in Newnan, Georgia. Unlike last year, when our BRAG crew had to weather constant rain, this year’s crew lucked out, enjoying perfect coffee-drinking temperatures and crystal-clear blue skies.

From Thursday, October 12th through Saturday, October 14th, Tripp and Bill will be at our friend's Larry’s Beans in Raleigh, North Carolina, for Cooperative Coffees’ Annual Meeting. This annual event will bring together the coop’s now 21 members to discuss business, hear from four of our producer partners and plan for the future.

During the weekend of October 14th -15th, Sheila Crowley and Marysol Pomeroy will be serving up lots o’ Café Campesino java at this year’s Green Festival at the Washington D.C. Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW. Look for them at booth 11 in the Green Festival’s food court on Saturday from 10AM to 8PM and Sunday from 11AM to 6PM.

And on Sunday, October 15th, while Sheila and Marysol are serving up Café Campesino, Tripp and his compadre Ethan Fogleman of Larry’s Beans will also be at the DC Green Festival, leading three workshops on behalf of Cooperative Coffees in the Festival’s Fair Trade Pavilion. Joining Tripp and Ethan will be our good friend and fellow Fair Trader Michael Sheridan of the CRS Fair Trade Coffee program, of which Café Campesino and Larry’s Beans are active participants. For more info on this year’s Green Festival in DC, visit www.greenfestivals.org; to learn more about the CRS Fair Trade Coffee program, visit www.crsfairtrade.org.

From Friday, October 20th through the 22nd, Tripp and Stacey will be serving up Café Campesino at the 2nd annual BIONEERS Southeast Leadership Forum at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. This gathering of local artists, policy makers, business people, designers, educators, healers, activists, farmers, and many others is a dynamic, interactive forum addressing solutions to relevant local and regional challenges. Engaging speakers and insightful workshops create a connecting atmosphere supported by our region’s most forward thinking organizations and businesses. To learn more about BIONEERS and the 2006 Leadership Forum, visit http://www.inspiringfutures.org/bioneers.

On Saturday, October 28th, Tripp will join Café Campesino customer Garden of Eat’n in Jesup, Georgia, to serve up Café Campesino coffee and talk Fair Trade for the many, many folks expected to attend the town’s annual Dogwood Arts & Crafts Festival. For Café Campesino customers who live in the Jesup area, Garden of Eat’n is a must see natural foods market. They’re located at 140 SW Broad Street and their telephone number is (912) 588-9393.

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"In every community there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it."

— Marianne Williamson

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• September 2006 For the Love of Big Yella, Many Paths to the Top by Café Campesino's Bill Harris
• August 2006 The Golden Rule of Fair Trade by Tripp Pomeroy, Café Campesino's General Manager
• July 2006 The Fair Tradin' Cross Road Blues by Bill Harris, Café Campesino President
• June 2006 2006 World Fair Trade Day - Americus Style, Building Community Right Here at Home by Bren Dubay, Director, Koinonia Farm
• May 2006 What Fair Trade Is All About, By Tripp Pomeroy, Ten Ways to Celebrate World Fair Trade Day
• April 2006 Bill's Spring Break Travels Part I by Bill Harris, Call to Action: World Fair Trade Day
• March 2006 Café Campesino Teams Up with Guayakí, On The Road With CRS in Nicaragua by Michael Sheridan, Call to Action: Global Exchange Reality Tours
• February 2006 True Love is Café Campesino, Café Campesino Honored at GA Sustainable Business Day, Call to Action: Bioneers
• December 2005 Celebrating a Great Fair Trade Year, Fair Trade Partner: Café Conciencia, Fair Trade Partner: No Sweat Apparel
• November 2005 Gearing Up For the Holiday Season, Café Campesino Community Caravan, Show Your Café Campesino Pride and Win!, Return of the Monarch Butterfly
• October 2005 Hurricane Stan Ravages Our Guatemalan Friends, Report From the Fair Trade Futures Conference, Customer Spotlight: Sobornost for the World Foundation's World Village Fair Trade Market, Fair Trade Partner: Maya Tech Learning Centers
• September 2005 Cooperative Coffees and Producers Meet in Guatamala by Tripp Pomeroy, Café Campesino's General ManagerSupport OXFAM - Support Fair Trade, Customer Spotlight: Rainbow Natural Grocery, Fair Trade Partner: A Different Approach
• August 2005 Producer Profile: Fondo Paez, Customer Spotlight: Apoteca, Fair Trade Partner: Pachamama, A World of Artisans
• July 2005 Harrar Joins Our Coffee Lineup, Producer Profile: Ethiopia's OCFCU, Fair Trade on the Home Front
• June 2005 Sumatra Update: June 2005 provided by Thomas Fricke, ForesTrade, National Fair Trade Conference, Fair Trade Partner: Three Frontiers Trading Co.
• May 2005 Producer Profile: ACMPASA Santa Anita, Top 10 Ways to Support Fair Trade, Customer Spotlight: Crimson Moon Café, Fair Trade Partner: Fair Trade Resource Network
• April 2005 An Eye-Opening Trip to Guatemala by Bill Harris, Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Coffee Program, Manna Grocery and Deli, La Esmeralda Stove Project
• March 2005 Insights From Our Guatemala Producer Partners by Tripp Pomeroy, Take Us To Your Coffeehouse!, Customer Spotlight: The Sentient Bean, Fair Trade Partner: Mexico Solidarity Network
• February 2005 Meeting Our Guatemala Partners Face to Face, Producer Profile: APECAFORM, Customer Spotlight: Mayflower Coffee Company, Fair Trade Partner: CoffeeTradeJustice.com
• January 2005 Tragedy's Wake: Update From Sumatra, Producer Profile: PPKGO Cooperative
• December 2004 Mexico: Notes From the Field, Customer Spotlight: Ten Thousand Villages, Fair Trade Partner: Cloudforest Initiatives
• November 2004 Conscious Consumption: A Personal Perspective, Customer Spotlight: Oyamel - Cocina Mexicana, Fair Trade Partner: Three Frontiers Trading Co.
• October 2004 A Mission...Not a Market: The 2004 Vote: Making it Work
• September 2004 Producer News: CECOCAFEN in the Off Season, Customer Spotlight: The Healthy Gourmet
• August 2004 Producer Profile: Cooperativa Café Timor, Fair Trade Friends: Marketplace of India
• July 2004 A Fair Trade Reality Check, Fair Trade Friends: Tribal Fiber, Coffee Lab International
• June 2004 The Promise of Fair Trade, Fair Trade Friend: Global Crafts
• May 2004 Fair Trade at the Carter Center, SCAA meeting.
• April 2004 Coffee and Community in Nicaragua, Fair Trade in Americus Makes the News!
• March 2004 Fair Trade chocolate, Rosetta's Kitchen
• February 2004 Bill's Return to Guatemala, Guayakí Rainforest
• January 2004 Espresso - What's the Buzz?
• December 2003 Fair Trade: Global Exchange's Fair Trade Challenge; Fellow Fair Traders: SERRV International
• November 2003 Fair Trade: More Than Just a Fair Price; Fellow Fair Traders: Lucuma Designs
• October 2003 Exploring the Coffee Regions
• September 2003 Cooperative Coffees Annual Meeting
• August 2003 Fair Trade Friends: Oxfam America; The Art (and Science) of Roasting Coffee
• July 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Sumatra
• June 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Guatemala; Gayo Mountain Adventure; Dr. Coffee - Cupping
• May 2003 Fair Trade Friends: United Students for Fair Trade; World Fair Trade Day
• April 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Ethiopia; Celebrating Earth Day with Fair Trade
• March 2003 Bill's Central American Adventures, Part 2; SWP Decaffeination
• February 2002 Bill's Central American Adventures, Part 1
• January 2003 My Life as a Bean
• December 2002 Exploring Our Origins: East Timor; Sustainable Development
• November 2002 New Website; Gift Baskets
• October 2002 Interview with roaster Lee Harris
• September 2002 ForesTrade Wins UN Sustainability Award; Exploring Our Origins: Sumatra's Gayo Cooperative
• August 2002 Producer News: Shade Grown; Fair Trade Friends: Atlanta Audubon
• July 2002 Exploring Our Origins: Colombia
• June 2002 Back Roads Journal: Cooperative Coffees and Café Campesino; Exploring Our Origins: Peru; Fair Trade Friends: Music of the Andes
• May 2002 Staff Notes: Cinco de Mayo; Producer News: Visit to Mut Viz; Back Roads Journal: SCAA Meeting
• April 2002 Back Roads Journal: Travels in Fair Trade; Customer Composting Tip