Walk down the aisle of your local grocer, and you’ll find choices upon choices of coffee beans, chocolate bars, and bananas stacked high.
But where is your money really going to? The conglomerates? Or to the very people who planted and harvested the products?
That’s the wake-up call Paul Rice, the founder and CEO of Fair Trade USA, has been sounding for decades: your choices travel farther than you think.
I think many of us feel like we don’t have power to impact these big global problems. And yet we do.
— Paul Rice, founder and CEO of Fair Trade USA and author of Every Purchase Matters
And it’s a reality that Paul drives home in his Mindvalley Book Club interview. He reveals how every dollar you spend leaves a trail of either exploitation or empowerment, and what you can do about it.
Watch his interview on the Mindvalley Book Club:
Who is Paul Rice?
You may not hear the name “Paul Rice” in everyday conversations, but chances are, his work has already touched your life. Since 1998, he’s led Fair Trade USA, pushing companies to treat farmers fairly and raising the bar for what ethical trade should look like.
He grew up hearing stories of hardship from his grandfather’s farm in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. This gave him a lifelong empathy for the people who grow our food and make it possible for us to eat sufficiently.
“That connection and that empathy for farmers,” he shares with Kristina Mӓnd-Lakhiani, the host of the Mindvalley Book Club, “led me out of the university when I was 22 to go to Nicaragua.”
What was supposed to be a short adventure turned into 11 years living in remote mountain villages, working side by side with coffee growers.
From skeptic to pioneer
That’s where Paul saw the harsh reality of global trade. Farmers poured their sweat into growing coffee (60% of the world’s beans, mind you) and yet, they remain highly vulnerable to volatile prices and exploitation by middlemen.
“Okay, today’s price for coffee is three cents a pound. Take it or leave it,” Paul recalls of the middlemen rolling in and calling the shots. No matter how much they produced, the farmers were trapped, selling at rock-bottom prices.
Watching this play out, Paul became convinced the system itself was broken. To him, capitalism was the problem, trapping farmers in a cycle of poverty no matter how hard they worked.
It took time for him to realize that the issue wasn’t markets themselves but how they were being used. Because if markets could be reshaped to serve farmers instead of middlemen, they could become a force for good. That idea came into focus when Paul discovered the Fair Trade movement and its rallying cry of “trade, not aid.”
“Farmers don’t need our charity,” Paul points out. They just need a fair price for their harvest, fair access to markets, and a way of building a community that connects their work to conscious consumers around the world.
That realization was the beginning of a shift that would define the rest of his life.
Why every purchase matters, according to Paul Rice
Most of us want to feel good about what we buy. No one wants our chocolate linked to child labor or our morning coffee tied to deforestation. But standing in the grocery aisle, the problems of the world feel too big for one person to fix.
“I think many of us feel like we don’t have power to impact these big global problems,” Paul explains. “And yet we do.”
Even when consumers pay about $1.50 more per pound for Fair Trade coffee and farmers see only about one-sixth of that money, it still proves that change begins with what we choose to buy.
“Every time we go to the store, we have a chance to vote for a better world through the products that we buy,” adds Paul. “Our our purchasing decisions are a way to vote for a better world to advance social and environmental progress.”
Companies are listening. Giants like…
- Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Target, and Whole Foods now stock Fair Trade Certified products,
- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (now Keurig Dr Pepper) grew into the world’s largest buyer of Fair Trade coffee after seeing how consumers responded, and
- Nespresso has committed hundreds of millions to sustainable sourcing programs, crediting customer demand as the driver.
That’s only a handful of examples. The fact is, when these companies move, billions move with them… And it’s all because of the choices made in grocery aisles like yours.
3 simple ways to make your purchases count
It’s easy to nod along with the idea that every purchase matters. But what does that actually look like when you’re standing in the store?
Paul offers a few practical shifts anyone can make without turning shopping into a full-time job.
Every time we go to the store, we have a chance to vote for a better world through the products that we buy.
— Paul Rice, founder and CEO of Fair Trade USA and author of Every Purchase Matters
1. Look for the label
Did you know that over 60% of U.S. consumers recognize the Fair Trade logo? And that recognition keeps climbing.
Here’s why it matters: when people know the label, they start looking for it, and when they look for it, stores stock more of it. It’s a feedback loop driven entirely by what ends up in your basket.
So while it’s easy to grab what you’ve always bought, Paul suggests to “slow down for a second and do one thing, look for the label.”
Coffee, chocolate, bananas (basically the products most of us buy every week) often carry Fair Trade, organic, or non-GMO marks. And when you buy that product, as Paul points out, “just take a second to think about the family that grew that product.”
When you operate with this self-awareness, you’re participating in change. That kind of effort has already helped Fair Trade USA generate more than $1 billion in financial impact for farmers and workers across 70 countries.
So look for the label. And then choose to buy it.
2. Tell someone about it
When you make a conscious choice, it matters. But when you talk about it, that’s when it multiplies.
That’s how powerful word-of-mouth can be. Research shows that face-to-face conversations carry the most weight when it comes to word-of-mouth influence, and it’s far more than what we see in ads or online.
So it’s clear that we’re wired to trust the choices of people we know. Seeing someone shop differently, therefore, makes it easier for us to do the same. It normalizes better habits.
Add the emotional spark of a real conversation, and suddenly a single act becomes momentum. Or as Paul puts it, that’s “how we build movement.”
3. Don’t try to be perfect
Maybe you’ve noticed this trap: You want to make the right choice with every purchase, so you check labels, wonder about certifications, and worry over hidden costs until shopping feels overwhelming.
Paul’s advice? Don’t.
“Don’t try and be perfect,” he says. “It’s impossible right now to lead a completely 100% sustainable lifestyle. So, we do what we can and celebrate the fact that we are on the right side of history.”
The good news is, though, that conscious consumerism is getting easier. When Fair Trade first launched in the U.S., products were limited and often more expensive. Today, you can find thousands of Fair Trade Certified items in mainstream stores, often at the same price as conventional options.
So overcome that need for perfectionsim. Give yourself permission to start small, like swapping your coffee for Fair Trade beans or picking the chocolate bar with the sustainable logo you recognize.
The point isn’t to be perfect. It’s to keep moving in the right direction, one purchase at a time.
(Disclosure: This includes an affiliate link. If you make a purchase through it, the Mindvalley Book Club may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.)
Fuel your mind
Books are more than something you read. They’re also something you experience, especially when you get to hear directly from the people who wrote them.
That’s what makes the Mindvalley Book Club different. With host Kristina Mänd-Lakhiani, you’ll get into conversations that reveal what the authors don’t usually put in print: the doubts, the turning points, and the personal lessons that shaped their work.
Here’s what you can expect:
- One standout book a month, chosen for its impact on real-world change,
- Live, unfiltered conversations with the authors themselves, and
- Practical takeaways you can use right away, even if you never finish the book.
It’s free to join. And it’s your space to learn, question, and grow.
Welcome in.
