Every cup of coffee has a face behind it. The people at Global Exchange want to ensure that face isn’t a child laborer.

Melissa Schweisguth of Global Exchange, a human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political and social justice, spoke to about 50 people last night about the international coffee crisis and Fair Trade.

“The world price of coffee is 50 cents a pound, and it costs at least 60 cents a pound for a farmer to produce,” Schweisguth said. “The world price was $1.50 in 2000, and the coffee prices have gone up for consumers.”

Plummeting coffee prices have pushed farmers into poverty, she said.

Child labor is a major problem for poor families who can’t afford to send their children to school or spare their labor in the fields.

Large coffee producers, such as Folgers, contribute to the loss by using a hybridized form of coffee that ripens at the same time and encourages monoculture, she said. Monoculture makes farmers “more dependent on foreign nations to provide them with basic foods and grains.”

Fair trade proposals ask that the farmer receive $1.26 per pound, instead of 50 cents. The contract would be directly between the buyer and the farmer, eliminating the middleman common in larger companies, Schweisguth said.

“If Folgers converted just 1 percent of all of its coffee to fair trade, it would double the amount of fair trade coffee sold in the world.”

Chocolate prices across the globe have also fallen, creating another economic burden for farmers.

Fair Trade Cocoa guarantees a minimum of 80 cents per pound to cocoa farmer, and prohibits child labor.

Nathan Schwake, junior in pre-business, attended the lecture to increase his knowledge of international business.

“Everything matters in business,” he said. “You just can’t afford to not be informed about a topic.”