As the debate on humane and comprehensive immigration reform heats up in the U.S. Senate, more consumers are looking to "fair trade" as an answer to tackling the desperate economic woes that force many people out of their countries.

"By and large the people we see coming here are coming because they can't feed their families and they can't send their children to school," said Joan Harper of the archdiocesan Office of Justice and Peace. "That comes from not being paid a fair wage for their products and for the work they do. If people are making coffee and they get a fair wage, they are going to stay producing coffee."

Typically coffee farmers get paid 20 to 60 cents per pound of coffee. Fair trade buyers are paying farmers $1.26 per pound for non-organic coffee and $1.41 per pound for certified organic coffee.

Consumers of fair trade coffee end up paying three cents more per cup of coffee, said Allis Druffel, community services director at Holy Family Church in South Pasadena.

The parish now purchases fair trade coffee for its meetings and gatherings and also resells the product to parishioners so that Nicaraguan farmers can earn a fair wage.

"This is not about politics. It's about an equal exchange. This encompasses every single Catholic social teaching principle," said Druffel during a recent workshop held at USC to launch a coordinated Fair Trade movement in Los Angeles.

The fair trade system is built on relationships, said Michael Sheridan, director of the CRS Fair Trade Coffee Program.

"These are relationships based on mutual respect and mutual benefit," said Sheridan who lived in Nicaragua for several years. "It flies in the face of the greed instinct." Consumers, he added, are often "excited" to know they can participate in fair trade.

Fair trade now includes many more products besides coffee, like tea, chocolate, rice and sugar. Key to the fair trade system are organizations that certify specific products as reaching a fair trade standard.

Fair trade begins with quality products that are made using sustainable and environment friendly agricultural practices by workers earning fair wages. Small producers and farming cooperatives also are given access to credit so they can continue to invest in and grow the business, said David Funkhouser of TransFair USA, which has certified several hundred products.

More than 40,000 retail outlets are carrying fair trade products earning farmers millions of dollars more than they would have otherwise, he added.

Because of the growing consumer demand, big companies like Target, Wal-Mart and Costco are now carrying a fair trade brand of coffee on their shelves. Consumers need to look for a label on the front of the product that clearly indicates it has been fair trade certified.

"We can create change with the purchasing decisions we make every day," said Funkhouser.

The afternoon March 5 workshop was attended by more than 50 people, including parishioners, teachers, and college students.

Emily Fernandez, a parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Silverlake, heads the parish's justice and peace committee, which sells Equal Exchange coffee to parishioners. Social activists, who grow weary of being against so many government and business policies that disenfranchise the poor, discover fair trade lets them be for something, she said.

"This is something that works," observed Fernandez. "It's so easy."

Fair trade websites: www.altereco.com www.crsfairtrade.org www.equalexchange.com www.fairtrade.net www.fairtradela.wordpress.com www.transfairusa.org