Rachel Cope writes in... "I'm part of BuyWell out of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Basically, our idea took root a little over year ago with the ambition of introducing Fair Trade coffee and other products into the mainstream by absorbing costs. Acting as a bridge between the farmer and consumer, we measure our success by the number of people we bring out of poverty. Forgoing the traditional corporate model we are starting with an almost non-existent marketing budget, we pay our CEO 10 bucks an hour and buy our office furniture at the local thrift shop in order to provide great Fair Trade Organic coffee to our consumers at the lowest prices possible. There's ten of us in the office and over one hundred volunteers throughout the US. After a year of working to promote the fair trade movement and our unique company model we have sold one million dollars of stock, and will begin selling our artisan fair trade coffee by August 1.

"During this pre-production phase we figured it's prime time to network with like-minded, forward-thinking people and organizations. Our website is currently being re-designed and over the next month we hope to link up to other socially-responsible websites to embolden our collective movements. So, give us a visit at buywell.org!

"We appreciate your good work and hope to hear from you soon."

Editor's note: Be sure to check out their page where they explode neoliberal myths about fair trade, something I've been meaning to get to for ages.