AGRO Cafe
Fair trade coffee is no longer uncommon; what’s unusual about Canadian AGRO Café is that it went so far as to create its own NGO arm to make sure it serves only coffee that’s ethically and environmentally sound.
With two Vancouver, British Columbia, locations, AGRO Café sources its coffee direct from small-scale farmers in Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia and Uganda through AGRODEV, its nonprofit NGO established specifically for that purpose. Through AGRODEV—short for Agricultural Growers Resource Organization Developing Economic Viability—the café encourages farmers to adopt ecologically sound methods, and supports them during the transition; it also ensures that they are paid fair wages. Samples of each crop are sent to the café for approval before harvesting; once they’re picked, AGRO Café roasts the beans in-house so as to provide the shortest distance possible between producer and consumer.