Try this link:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...1/MN122988.DTL

ahw gee wiz, and I thought you would be talking of the final end resalt. when liberals get in control, all opposition to them is some
form of biget or racest. when the libs big plans fall flat, they are never to blame.

<font color="#22cccc">I am pretty sure that after living in Berkley for one week, I would have become clinicly insane [img]smile.gif[/img]

And NO my therapist says I am not insane, Im just "special"</font>

[ 06-21-2002, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

It is pretty silly, and most likely illegal as noted in the article. But the intention is good. Free trade/shade grown coffee is better in every way when compared with plantation style coffee. The yields are larger, the impact on the forest/local ecosystem is far less, and the people growing the coffee get a much better price for their labor.

Berkeley does do some wacky things at times, but some of the time they are pointing the correct direction. For instance they were the first town to advocate divestiture from business doing business with apartheid South Africa. Which eventually was one of the factors in that system being dismantled.

'Scuse me, Arvon, MagiK, but what exactly is wrong in wanting stuff you use having being produced in a decent manner ? :eek:

<font color=white>It's a threat to America's way of life, which wouldn't be possible without cheap foreign labor giving us loads of stuff at lower prices. Now, political correctness is just what Orson Welles was afraid of in 1984, and he's right, we're going that way, and when we're done, we'll be in a police state.</font>

[ 06-21-2002, 09:12 PM: Message edited by: Oblivion437 ]

hmmm...strange people does strange thing. enough said. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Why buy coffee from mexico and columbia when we have coffee growers in America?? I could care less if a bunch of bass ackwards farmers from some 3rd world nation are only getting 46 cents a bag for coffee. What about the hawiian coffee growers who are growing Kona coffee beans?? Why not toss a little more buisness to them? After all , CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME !!I am almost positive something you can buy from within your own borders that doesnt face international trade taxes will be cheaper than stuff that is imported. Kind of like how Budweiser is cheaper than Heineken or asti spumanti is cheaper than Dom Perignon. This is just another example of political correctness being a crutch for the weak and stupid.

Coffee doesn't grow well in Canada, so i buy fair-trade coffee instead of home-grown brew. I've studied agronomy for a while, so i can give you a couple good reasons to buy fair-trade coffee.

1- First, there's no pesticide in it. DDT (for those old enough to know what it is) and other products might be banned in the North, but we still produce it to be used in the third-world countries. There are still traces of it on imported fruits (bananas etc...). Plus, you know those farmers won't die of cancer or lung diseases at 35.

2- Instead of giving cash to the transporters/transormers/stock brokers, i give a decent share of it to the producer. Normal coffee producers get around 7 to 20 cents a kilo. Fair-trade producers get 70 cents to 1 $ a kilo.

3- To get the "fair-trade" label, part of this profit has to be used for the whole local community, financing education, healthcare etc...

4- Fair trade coffee is actually a bit more expensive than normal coffee but this is due to the smaller flow of importation (transport cost more per kilo if you fret a container than a whole boat).

5- And a final arguments for the rednecks: richer people down there means LESS IMMIGRATION. That's right folks! if they can live decently at home they have no reason to come bother us and steal our jobs.

They are not just wanting it they are trying to pass a law stating that everybody has to conform. If they want it then they should buy it, if somebody else doesn't want it then they shouldn't have to buy it.

Personaly I think it couldn't happen to a nicer city :D