Peace Coffee started as an experiment by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) to test if Minneapolis had a market for Fair Trade coffee. IATP, a nonprofit working to protect family farms around the world and confront globalization, wanted to put some of its ideas into action. So in 1996, it marketed Fair Trade coffee sold under the name Guatemalan Peace Coffee.

Melanee Meegan, Fair Trade and Marketing Coordinator, explains, “We want to see farmers being treated fairly in the same way we’d want ourselves to be treated.” Peace Coffee buys its coffee from cooperatives in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, Ethiopia, Peru, and Sumatra. Through the Fair Trade system, coffee producers receive a living wage for their product, so wealth is not just accumulated by the few but is shared in a more equitable manner.

Fortunately for the farmers, IATP’s experiment was a success. Today, Peace Coffee sells 17 different kinds of Fair Trade coffee, such as Sumatran Italian roast and Guatemalan dark roast. Its offices are located in the Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center, a green commercial building that houses only green businesses.

The facility also sits next to a bike path, which comes in handy for the company’s signature bike deliveries. In 2004, Peace Coffee added a van to their delivery options to service the surrounding suburbs, and it runs on 100 percent biodiesel.

Peace Coffee sponsors a 45 person bicycling team, the Peace Coffee Racers, which includes many of its employees. Every summer, the team tours around the state to hold races and raise awareness about Fair Trade. Because of its strong Fair Trade ties, the company organized quickly to help its farmer suppliers in Guatemala rebuild after the hurricanes last year. In October 2006, four employees traveled to Xela, Guatemala, with Habitat for Humanity to build two houses near the city of San Marcos after Hurricane Stan’s destruction. For four days, the employees laid concrete blocks and worked closely with members of the coffee-growing community to rebuild their homes.

Andy Lambert, Demo and Outreach Coordinator, says, “It was something that we will never forget, working along side people who have experienced so much tragedy, yet made us feel so welcome.”

—Aditi Fruitwala