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  • Bernadine Carey-Tucker

    CORRECTION Fair Trade Coffee
December 5, 2009

Coffee: Fair trade bean company

ALLENDALE (AP) -- A western Michigan couple say their coffee business is working to help Central American farmers earn a better living as it satisfies their customers' caffeine urge.

Grand Valley State University graduate Derrell Jackson and his wife Missy operate the Bean by Bean coffee company.

"Bean by Bean guarantees a fair trade wage for the Central American farmers they work with by cutting out the middleman and paying the farmers directly," university writer Abby Hartig said in a story on the Allendale school's Web site.

Bean by Bean operates from the couple's home in Jenison and has shipped coffee "all across the United States," Missy Jackson said Friday.

According to Derrell Jackson, fair trade practices sometimes help poor workers but often benefit wealthy landowning farmers who have better market access.

"Bean by Bean works only with the smaller-scale farmers, paying them a fair wage so that they can feed their families.

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