According to Coffee Joe, last year Americans and Canadians imported 89 million pounds of organic coffee. Certified sustainable coffees such as Fairly Traded, and Organic did very well into 2009 and beyond …. It seems helping others is still in favour in North America.
Coffee Joes says it’s nice to know organic thinking is growing, so to speak. However, it seems that consumers still pay more attention to what their pets eat than themselves or their children. The pet food industry is big business. There are over eight million pet cats and dogs in Canada and more than 160 million pets in the US. Last year, Americans alone spent over US$45 billion on their pets, including US$18 billion on pet food, while Canadians spent over 2.0 billion. Yes, billion with a “B”.
Coffee, of course, is our business. We deal with the coffee farmers direct, visit their communities, and try to make sure they receive fair value for their product. However, it’s all to no avail if the consumer doesn’t care enough to pay a little more to buy organic, knowing it will make a huge difference for the future health of the planet and these farmers.
Spend less on cat or dog food, and give it to the coffee farmers, or the tea and cocoa plant growers. People should be more important than animals.
Don’t you agree?
Tags: coffee farmer, Fairly Traded, organic, Sustainable Coffee
[...] But really, CJ says, organic food for pets? Is it a legitmate claim? Perhaps. Lots of consumers think so, if you check the stats in Coffee Joe’s April blog, entitled “Organic Living – Pets or People” [...]