Economic Justice, Cup By Cup

Anger rips open Leonard van Baelen's mild face like a clap of thunder during a silent snow. "Fair-trade coffee," he growls, "is of a wonderful quality." Having shot down a pernicious argument multinational corporations put forward to avoid buying fair-trade coffee — that the coffee, which is sold for premium prices to give local growers an equitable wage, just isn't very good — he again looks like the gentle, white-haired Capuchin priest he is, rather than the radical thinker he also is. It's a familiar transition for a man whose ideas have helped bring a rare glimmer of hope to the...