Have you ever rolled your eyes or refused to purchase a 20 dollar bag of roasted coffee beans?

When you sit back and think of how the money is broken down and where it goes, you will see just how expensive it is.

You are not just dealing with farmers in our country, there are many different international coffee beans.

The cost of shipping the coffee internationally must be taken into consideration when the final price is created.

This article will discuss a few of the main questions that are frequently asked by interested consumers.

• How much should your coffee beans cost?
• What amount is socially acceptable to spend on coffee beans?
• What amount is too little to spend on coffee beans?
• What is a good balance of cost when it comes to your coffee?

Coffee countries are full of malnutrition and poor education

Did you know that countries that harvest coffee have a variety of serious challenges that we would never even imagine getting ourselves into or out of?

One of the more serious issues in Brazil and Honduras is the dissolution of many children's educations. There is more child labor in those areas due to the high levels of work that need to get completed.

That information came from the Food Empowerment Project.

Child labor is a continuous cycle of no children with education. That leads to poverty-stricken areas with more child labor. Harvesting coffee is not a good job for a child to be handling.

Children should not be exposed to that much time in the sun. Especially when they are unprotected by sunscreen. They should not be around all of those farming chemicals that go into the soil.

Those are just safety hazards that should be prevented. Let's talk about the heavy bags that the children have to lug around. That is not healthy at all for children to be handling things that heavy.

Did you know that even as late as 2003, the Guatemalan harvest workforce did not even get paid the minimum wage?

There were no overtime options for them. They are undervalued and underpaid. There was a study completed on the Hunger in the Coffeelands. They discovered that 63% of households in Central America go through the serious need for food.

They are food insecure with no one to help them. Even though the study was done in America, that doesn't mean that it stops there. This issue is a global one. Malnutrition isn't the only thing the other country coffee farmers have to go through.

They are suffering through debt slavery, lack of healthcare, malnutrition, and much more. The coffee farmers do not live a luxurious life.

Where does the money go?

There have been many studies done to see how the money flows from the consumer's hand to the coffee shop, and then the money trickles down to the coffee farmers.

This is a brief summary of where the money goes.

Green coffee or coffee that has not been roasted - $1 to around $6.00 a pound

This money is split in so many ways it barely goes around. It must be split between the harvesters, employees, processing the cherries, machines, government taxes, and administrative fees.

That doesn't leave much for the harvesters when it goes into so many places. When consumers buy cheap coffee, it is bad for the whole world.

Transportation costs - 0.59$ Per Pound

This cost is for shipping, customs, warehouse fees, and the importer gets profits out of this money too.

Roasting costs - $5.00 to around $6.00 a pound

This process is the most costly of them all. The money will pay for the water weight loss, the packaging, the administrative fees, and the roasting facility fees.

As you can see, this does not pay for the coffee employees. It shows that coffee that is under 8 to 9 dollars per pound, is not beneficial to the coffee workers. It also shows that green coffee is priced too low to benefit the coffee farmers and harvesters.

Do you think that 20 dollar bag of coffee sounds too expensive now? If you purchase the more expensive coffee, you are helping coffee farmers and harvesters to get the hard-earned money that they deserve.

The fight against poverty by the roasters and organizations

There are hundreds of coffee roasters that have come together with many coffee manufacturers to fight against this generational poverty that strikes the coffee worker community.

Fair Trade is one of those organizations that are helping in this fight. They raised the minimum purchasing price to help give more wages to the workers.

This is why consumers pay a higher price to ensure that the workers are getting a sufficient amount of money to live a decent life.

Thrive Coffee is one of the organizations helping coffee growers with sustainability and growing science. This will assist them in making high-quality coffee to be able to ask for a higher purchase price.

The more money consumers will spend, the more money the coffee farmers can make.

Direct Trade coffee roasters are able to make the most money out of all of the roasters. They do not have anyone in the middle that has to be paid. They deal with the roasting and trading, so they get to keep double the profits.

What does this mean for you?

If you want to be a part of the fight against poverty and malnutrition in coffee communities all over the world, then you should purchase your coffee thoughtfully.

You will need to read the packaging to know if the coffee roasters are of high-quality. When you begin to read the bags, you will see that a lot of roasters do not produce good coffee.

This low-quality coffee usually is found in grocery stores and low-grade coffee shops. Try to stay away from those places if you want to buy high-quality coffee that will be fighting against the poverty of the coffee worker's community.

It is easy to get caught up in your own life and forget about the malnourished and under educated around the world. Everyone is guilty of this if you have the means to purchase high-quality coffee, then you should do so.

It will not only benefit you by having amazingly flavored coffee, but it will also benefit the farmers and harvesters that need the money.