Toledo native distributes fair trade coffee and tea

by Emily Rippe  
March 5th 2008  
Toledo City Paper                   

Mary Lee Treter still worries from time to time when her 33- year-old son travels out of the country on business. She used to wonder why fair trade coffee was so important to Christopher, why it meant risking his life on dangerous routes in Mexico and Columbia. But now she understands.

“As a little boy, Christopher was so adventurous,” Mary Lee Treter said. “It never surprised me that he is doing what he’s doing now. This is his niche.”

Six years ago, Chris Treter and his wife Jody founded Higher Grounds Coffee Co. – a 100 percent fair trade and organic coffee company located in Traverse City, Mich. The couple sells a combination of medium and dark roasted single origin and coffee blends.

“We only buy high grade specialty coffees,” Chris Treter said. “It’s some of the best coffee in the world.”

Some of Higher Grounds’ unique flavors include the caramel-esque Highland Humanity Blend, the sweet Mayan Magic Espresso Blend and vanilla and citrus flavored Justice Blend, which all sell for $9.75 a pound.

The Treters even make their own vanilla syrup for their fair trade loose teas.

However, most of their time is spent teaching the community about the importance of buying fair trade. Every Friday, the couple gives tours of their store, showing people how the coffee is processed. Throughout the year, Chris Treter takes groups of students from the University of Michigan down to Mexico to show them more than what many people would care to know about where their coffee comes from.

It was something he had to do after having lived in Chiapas, Mexico and witnessing firsthand the poor living conditions of the region’s coffee farmers.

“The industry was devastating,” Chris Treter said. “The farmers had to migrate and leave their fields in order to make any money.”

Chris grew up in a world far different from the farmers he befriended in Mexico. He considers his childhood and early adult life to have been blessed by family, school and good fortune.

“Once I left the comfortable confines of Toledo, I met people living throughout the world with no shoes or running water,” Chris said. “This disparity was not something I could forget.”

Buying fair trade products – like the coffee produced and sold at Higher Grounds – ensures that the farmers get a fair price for their harvests in order to achieve a decent living wage. And many of the profits often go back to the countries where the crop is grown. Higher Grounds uses its money to provide a sustainable water community in Mexico, and education and library services in Ethiopia.

But why should people in Toledo, where fair trade coffee is available to purchase, be concerned about coffee farmers in Mexico, Ethiopia or otherwise?

“We as consumers play a huge role in determining the well-being of these coffee growers,” Chris Treter said. “Let’s say coffee growers lived in Toledo. Instead of corn, there was coffee everywhere. If people could see how much trouble the local [coffee farmers] were in, they would all buy fair trade.”

To Chris Treter and many others in the Fair Trade Movement, it’s extremely important to support the global community. This can be difficult to understand for people who have never been outside of the U.S., unable to view the poverty-stricken farmers for themselves.

People like Mary Lee Treter, who was often critically asked by her son, “Why are you drinking Maxwell House coffee?”

“I just didn’t get it,” Mary Lee Treter said. “The whole fair trade thing.”

But a little over a year ago, Mary Lee Treter saw the pictures from one of her son’s trips to Mexico; she realized what she needed to do.

“I remembered reading an article in the Detroit Free Press about Christopher’s work, and after seeing his pictures, I got more of the pieces,” Mary Lee Treter said. “It made it all clear, so obvious.”

Mary Lee Treter currently works as Higher Grounds Trading Co.’s sales and promotions coordinator in Ohio and Southern Michigan, since her son is now living up north.

“The timing was great since I was looking for a way to give back,” Mary Lee Treter said. “I knew that if I could help the farmers get a fair price for their coffee, while at the same time getting good coffee for the people here, that everyone would win.”

Higher Grounds coffee is available locally at the Toledo Zoo, Claudia’s Natural Food Market, The Anderson’s, The Rouge Bistro, Phoenix Food Co-op and Rosie’s