Teacher to study coffee in Brazil

For one week in July, Georgi will travel to southern Brazil to meet with farmers, coffee cooperatives, teachers and service providers to understand how fair-trade standards improve social, economic and environmental conditions for farmers and their families.

Fair-trade certification is a market-based model of international trade for products such as tea, coffee, cotton, chocolate, fruit and sugar. Farmers are paid a guaranteed, minimum price for their harvest in exchange for meeting environmental standards, investing in community projects, and prohibiting child labor.

Nine other winning teachers from across the country will join Georgi in traveling to the mid-Brazilian highlands, according to Kristen Keller of Café Bom Dia, a Brazilian coffee company.

In October 2007, the 10 winning teachers wrote essays detailing how they would incorporate the knowledge and experiences from the trip into their classrooms, Keller said.

Georgi said the subject and content of the trip fits into Urbana Middle’s curriculum and mission, since the school tries to give students an international perspective.

‘‘That’s what we do. We do Latin America, ancient history and modern history, and a lot of the economics we need to teach the seventh-graders is involved in all of this - the whole issue of production, process, shipping and consumption,” Georgi said.

Sam’s Club, which Wal-Mart owns, has sold fair-trade coffee since 2006 when it partnered with Café Bom Dia to offer ‘‘Member's Mark by Marques de Paiva” coffee in its stores.