Turning an Idea into a Movement: Paul Rice and TransFairUSA

Published November 21, 2008 @ 01:28PM PT

I was scanning the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday and how surprised was I when I noticed a story about Paul Rice and TransfairUSA. Paul Rice is the founder and man behind TransFairUSA. The article tells the story of Rice's Fair Trade beginnings of farming alongside Nicaraguan coffee farmers during the Contra-War, to his work on a Chinese rice field and finally telling the story of how his vision of helping out the coffee farmers eventually turned into a reality that now helps million of small-scale farmers all across the globe.

A Dutch friend then told him about a "strange idea" called fair trade that was just beginning to catch on in the Netherlands.

Hooked on the idea, Rice left Nicaragua to earn an MBA at UC Berkeley, taking his Nicaraguan wife, Marisol Aguilar, and his young son, Emiliano, with him. In an Oakland warehouse, he started a certification and labeling organization for fair trade goods.

After years of fundraising, TransFair USA was born in 1998.

Since 1998, Paul Rice has been tirelessly encouraging consumers and businesses to buy Fair Trade. In 2007, specialty coffee sales reached $13.5 and $837 of those sales were for Fair Trade Certified coffee and Fair Trade coffee is currently the fastest growing segment of the $44 billion coffee industry. Not a bad feat for what first started out as a "strange" idea.

Photo: SF Chronicle

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Author

Zarah is the Operations Manager for the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store, a project of the international human rights organization, Global Exchange. Alongside her work with marginalized communities from all over the world to get their products into the international market, Zarah serves to educate and inform the public about a more just and sustainable trading system.