Well, not really on Wall Street, but The Wall Street Journal featured an article on point-of-origin tours on March 11*. "Tours to Fair-Trade Farms Help Coffee Sellers Spread Word" tells about tours to coffee producing regions being conducted by various coffee companies. The article really hits on the transformative nature of these trips. When you have a chance to visit the origin of the products you consume - especially in the case of coffee - you realize how difficult life is in many of the communities that produce coffee.

Coffee Kids member Java Republic from Ireland recently joined us on a point-of-origin trip to visit our partner CECOCAFEN in Nicaragua. The group saw parallels between conditions and life in Nicaragua and Ireland from 50 years ago and returned from the trip even more dedicated to helping improve the lives of coffee-farming families. Carolyn Fairman, executive director at Coffee Kids, chronicles the adventure in the blog "Irish Eyes on Nicaragua." You can also see photos from the trip on our Flickr site

*Thanks to Derek for pointing this article out.