This May, check out Black Gold.

With a title like Black Gold, you may think we’re referring to the number one most traded commodity on the market – petroleum; but this Black Gold comes in a close second in both its impact on the sustainability of our world, and its monetary value- producing over $140 billion in trade every year. We’re talking coffee.

Black Gold is an incredibly poignant and engaging documentary, showing how consumers and farmers’ fair trade cooperatives can make a difference to lives around the world, improving human rights, environmental sustainability, education, and socio-economic viability. Filmed, directed, and produced by Marc Francis and Nick Francis, with a fantastic music score by Andreas Kapsalis, this film reconnects every coffee drinker with the origin of the drink and its production, prompting its audience to change the world, one cup at a time. And with over 2 billion cups of coffee drunk every day, this change will come about more quickly than you’d think!

Black Gold follows the story of Tadesse Meskela, the manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmer’s Copperative Union in southern Ethiopa, and his pursuit for a fairer trade system. Tadesse represents over 74,000 coffee farmers who are trying to create a better future for their families and communities by asking for fair trade prices for their coffee exports. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, and is still the largest producer of coffee in Africa where over 15 million people depend on coffee for survival. Coffee represents 67% of Ethiopia’s export revenue. Not coincidentally, over 7 million people in Ethiopia are dependent on emergency food aid every year, and Africa as a whole is more dependent on emergency aid than every before.

Tadesse has had success finding a few international buyers who are willing to pay fair trade prices for his coffee, a fraction of whom are even considering disregarding the price dictated by New York and London’s stock exchanges altogether. This extra income goes directly back to Ethiopia’s farmers, who choose to invest to better their communities, in education, clean water, and other community based development initiatives.

Currently, on a $3 cup of coffee, farmers only receive 3 cents with our current international trade rules and practices. For a whole day of sorting coffee beans by hand, workers receive less than half a dollar per day. Farmers would require a tenfold increase in their revenue to be able to afford the only bare necessities for survival- food, clean water, shelter, clothing, and basic education for their children. Our daily coffee purchases, without fair trade, directly impede sustainable development.

Tadesse’s advice to all coffee drinkers and those of us who want to see the world shift to a more sustainable paradigm:

1. Ask companies to pay a fair price for coffee and other primary exports from developing nations. Ask your coffee providers what they pay their farmers, and let them know you expect this kind of transparency.

2. Demand trade not aid: If Africa could increase its share of trade in international markets by just 1%, it would gain an additional $70 billion a year! This is 5 times as much as the continent currently receives in aid.

3. Pressure governments and international trade organizations like the WTO to change trade rules which currently allow the prices of primary goods to be dictated by people in suits behind closed doors, with no consideration for or input from the people who are directly affected by the price of the product. Ask your government to remove agricultural subsidies that make it impossible for developing countries to compete in international markets.

4. Spread the word! Vote with your dollars, and opt for fair trade products whenever possible, and know that you’re making a difference, helping to make sustainable development possible at the grassroots level across the globe.

For more information on the film, and a great forum on fair trade coffee, visit http://blackgoldmovie.com/