The instability of the coffee market in recent decades plunged thousands of small-scale coffee producers in Latin America into the cycle of poverty. Enter Fair Trade, a unique business model that partners industry, farmers, and United States consumers to promote equitable trade.

In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, David Funkhouser, strategic outreach coordinator of TransFair USA, discusses the history of the Fair Trade movement, how it works, the impact it is having in coffee-producing countries, and what TransFair, the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, does to ensure that the needs of producer cooperatives, exporting companies, purchasers, and consumers are well addressed.