Buying is voting: The case of coffee

We often hear cynically that "money rules the world." But money is not the only economic power, and this book focuses on a power that is within everyone's reach: the power to contribute to the development of a responsible economy through one's consumer choices. Eager to share the results of several years of research and fieldwork, Laure Waridel dissects in this book the commercial mechanisms that contribute to increasing inequalities between producers in the Global South and consumers in the Global North. Laure Waridel analyzes in particular the case of coffee, retracing its journey from plantation to cup. She presents the main intermediaries and explains the social and environmental impacts of the consumer choices we make. Then, she reports on the experience of the UCIRI coffee cooperative, located in southern Mexico, which was one of the first farmers' organizations to export fair trade and organic coffee to Europe. Through her moving testimony, the author tells the story of this small, proud, tenacious, and courageous indigenous community, whose daily lives, hopes, and challenges she shared. An edifying story that describes the importance but also the limits of fair trade and shows the need to establish a global economic system that serves people rather than multinationals. This book is a call to action!