Peace Coffee is an organization based in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, Minnesota that sells organic, fair trade coffee. The company sells coffee through

grocery A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...

retail stores The retail format (also known as the retail formula) influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services ar ...

, food co-ops, and via the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. The organization operates throughout the United States with a strong presence in the

Upper Midwest The Upper Midwest is a northern subregion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed upon, the region is usually defined to include the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wi ...

. Peace coffee is one of 24 fair trade coffee roasters part of Cooperative Coffees.

History

Peace Coffee was formed by the

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

in 1996 The company also partnered with

Rigoberta Menchú Rigoberta Menchú Tum (; born 9 January 1959) is a K'iche' Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the rights of Guatemala's Indigenous peoples during and afte ...

. The idea for Peace Coffee came from

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

coffee producers who had the goal of selling 100% certified organic and fair trade coffee. In 1999, Peace Coffee joined the group Cooperative Coffees. Currently, Cooperative Coffees has partnered with 20 different coffee-growing cooperatives in the countries of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, and

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. In early 2018 the company was purchased from IATP by long time CEO Lee Wallace and her business partner, Kent Pilakowski.

Coffee sourcing

Peace Coffee sources coffee in two distinct ways. The organization partners with larger coffee-growing co-operatives that are fair-trade certified rather than individual farmers. Groups such as Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, which have over 10,000 members, allow for

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...

to exist while maintaining a farmer friendly attitude. Co-operatives are necessary due to the high scale of demand from a large company like Peace Coffee. The disadvantages of not working directly with these farmers include less direct control over farming practices such as harvesting and processing improvements. Although Peace Coffee does consistently travel the countries of origin, visiting their co-ops at least once every two years, they do not have the same influence on cup quality because of the larger number of growers. Peace Coffee also founded its own coffee importing cooperative with other roasters in 1999. Since then, Peace Coffee has imported coffee from cooperative farming groups that support small-scale farmers around the world. Being an owner and importer gives the organization increased access and transparency in the supply chain. Peace Coffee publishes contracts with its coffee farmers on its website Fair Trade Proof.

Reception

Peace Coffee received publicity after rapper/actor

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

mentioned that he often made Peace Coffee in the morning in an interview with

Bon Appétit ''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center ...

magazine.

Energy efficiency

Peace Coffee has a mantra "pedal not petrol", which refers to the company's policy of using bicycle couriers to deliver their product to stores, coffee shops, and food co-ops. While the company uses the bicycle couriers within the cities, it purchased a

biodiesel Biodiesel is a renewable biofuel, a form of diesel fuel, derived from biological sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases, and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made from fats. The roots of bi ...

van for deliveries to the suburbs and out of state.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Website
Fair trade brands Coffee companies of the United States Certified B Corporations in the Food & Beverage Industry 1996 establishments in Minnesota