More money is spent globally on coffee than on any other tradable commodity with the exception of oil. How that money is spent is one of the most important social indicators as to who we are as a global society. The simple act of choosing which coffee to buy is one of the most important daily decisions we make when it comes to social justice and environmental responsibility. For the most part, our buzz is a buzz saw cutting through third-world communities. Put simply, there’s blood in your coffee—but it doesn’t have to be there.

Most coffee farmers in the world do not earn enough money to feed, clothe and shelter their families. Workers on large commercial coffee farms often toil in toxic, pesticide-tainted environments, yet they can’t afford healthcare. The land large coffee fincas occupy is usually a denuded former tropical forest.

The price we pay for coffee bears no relationship to the price small growers get for their crop. Lacking trucks and any means to get their coffee to the international market, they are at the mercy of local monopolies in the villages and towns to which they carry their coffee. Independent growers around the world often receive as little as 20 or 30 cents per pound of premium coffee. In frustration, many are now destroying their coffee trees and replacing them with addictive narcotic crops, such as khat, which fetch higher prices in local markets. The exploitive coffee trade cycle is a parasite feeding on its own host.

There is an alternative, however, in the fair trade and living wage coffee movement. Most quality coffee shops and retailers now offer coffee bought from cooperatives around the world where growers earn around 10 times what their exploited compatriots are paid. This coffee is also usually organically grown, and often “shade grown” or “bird friendly,” which means that the coffee plants live under a tropical forest canopy that is healthy and intact. Environmentally friendly coffee grown by farmers earning a living wage, interestingly enough, often hits the American and European markets costing the same as some of the deadliest “premium” coffee on the market—what I call blood coffee.

This is probably one of the easiest and most painless choices first-world consumers face. You can buy blood coffee from trendy brands such as Starbucks, the number one US retailer of “upscale” blood coffee, or you can opt for an organic fair trade or living wage coffee. As a bonus, you’ll often be getting a better tasting cup of coffee since, wherever coffee cooperatives exist, market principals assure they will get the best beans, since they pay an exponentially higher price.

The number one source for organic living wage coffee in the Buffalo area is Peter Fremming, the coffee trader, researcher and roaster at Premier Gourmet on Delaware Avenue in Kenmore. Fremming has been working over the years to assure that Premier’s extensive coffee selection is 100 percent living wage coffee. This is difficult, he explains, because some coffee blends contain beans from many sources, not all of them verifiably living wage. In an attempt to assure that his coffee comes from living wage sources, and to make sure that most of the money spent on coffee goes to the actual farmers, Fremming has joined forces with other socially conscious coffee roasters in identifying small, independent sources around the coffee-growing world. He then labels all of Premier’s coffees so buyers know exactly where their coffee comes from and how it is grown. My latest favorite is the organic El Salvador peaberry.

The reward for socially and environmentally conscious coffee drinkers is the fact that Fremming and his compatriots have found some of the best coffee buys in the world, identifying, for example, farmers in Guatemala and Honduras who are growing beans that compare with those grown in some of the sexiest coffee regions in the world, such as Hawaii’s Kona region.

When you’re out drinking coffee, don’t just ask for organic fair traded or living wage coffee—demand it. You’re already paying for it. And if the coffee or pastry shop you’re in only sells blood coffee, then find another place to buy your coffee. You owe this to the people who grow your coffee for you.

This brings me back to Christmas. What a great gift for a coffee drinker—an assortment of delicious, blood-free coffees we can feel good about drinking. And don’t just get the coffee—get the story on the coffee, and share it with whomever you give the coffee to. Most ethical coffee retailers provide brochures and other information about their coffee. You can even buy a DVD of the award-winning living wage coffee documentary, Black Gold. If you’re at Premier, try to find Peter and ask him to tell you about the most recent coffee cooperative he’s discovered, and about groups such as “Coffee Kids.” Or go to the Lexington Food Coop and pick up a bag of “Equal Exchange” brand coffee. Lexington, like most coffee retailers, now offers you the ethical choice of blood coffee or fair traded coffee. You can vote with your Christmas dollars to reward them for taking that first step and stocking living wage coffee, while pushing them to take that second step in stopping the sale of blood coffee.

Dr. Michael I. Niman drinks coffee while writing his syndicated Artvoice columns and teaches his Buffalo State College communication classes while enjoying a slight coffee buzz.