Someone’s profiting from your coffee addiction.

If you want it to be the little guy in the developing world instead of a multimillion-dollar corporation, consider buying fairtrade coffee.

Coffee is the world’s secondmost traded commodity. So where your coffee money goes makes a difference, according to TransFair Canada.

The not-for-profit organization is uniquely authorized in Canada to seal imports with a fair trade logo. The Fair Trade Certified seal indicates that the product meets criteria created by developing-world producers and buyers.

The 10-year-old global trade monitoring group pledges that its seal on a product “guarantee(s) that the farmer was paid a fair price for the product.”

TransFair Canada says it “ensures that as the product has been produced and brought to market, high quality environmental and trading standards have been maintained at every step along the way.”

Fair trade also means that buyers may pay suppliers in advance, which helps farmers avoid market - rate debt.

TransFair Canada is affiliated with the global umbrella organization TransFair Labeling Organisations International (FLO). According to the global group, farmers sell onlyabout 20 per cent of their coffee crops at fair trade prices. Ryerson’s food contractor, Aramark Canada, offers one fair trade certified

“Java signature blend” coffee at the Hub. Java is the company’s own coffee line. John Corallo of Ryerson ancillary services said buying fair trade started three years ago, in response to student demand. “There were questions about selling it and being more socially responsible,” he said.

A cup of fair trade costs the same as the other seven Java blends available at the Hub: $1.20 for a medium. Demand used to be higher, said Corallo. “It’s pretty slow. Not many go for it.”

Both CKLN and the CESAR student lounge sell TransFair certified coffee for $1 a cup to whomever stops by. The Roncesvalles Avenue roastery, Alternative Grounds, supplies the coffee.

We’re talking community customer service here. The idea is simply buying a cup out of the pot they’ve got on the go already for staff or students. The station recommends that students bring a travel mug, but they also have disposable cups on hand.

“We’re offering coffee cheaper than where you can get it elsewhere on campus. And it’s coffee with a conscience,” said Daniel Vanderhoot, CKLN’s fundraising co-ordinator, who buys the coffee. The CESAR lounge has a similar deal, where you can enjoy coffee with one of their mugs, bring your own, or use one their disposable cups.

Chris McNeil, vice-president finance, said since it’s getting colder he’s hoping more students willstop in for a cup of fair trade joe. “We’re trying to get more people using it,” he said. “If a student comes in and they want a cup and there isn’t any, we’ll make a pot.”

Global Exchange, a U.S.-based fair trade advocacy organization, has an online campaign encouraging consumers to always ask Starbucks to offer brewed certified fair trade coffee. As the advocacy organization notes, while Starbucks throws around environmentally friendly marketing language, only its coffee marked fair trade certified is that.

It costs the same amount for a cup of fair trade Starbucks as it does for a regular cup: $1.60 for the small size (about the same volume as the Hub’s medium).

Starbucks in the new Business Building doesn’t do fair trade.