An Interview with Paul Rice of TransFair USA

Paul Rice is the founding President & CEO of TransFair USA, the only Fair Trade certification organization in the U.S. today. Since launching the Fair Trade Certified label eight years ago, TransFair has established Fair Trade as the fastest growing segment of the $19 billion coffee industry.  TransFair is rapidly expanding Fair Trade certification into tea, chocolate, rice, sugar, bananas and other fresh fruits.

Previously, Paul worked for 11 years as a rural development specialist in the Segovias region of Nicaragua, where he founded and led an organic coffee export cooperative called PRODECOOP.  In 2000 he received the international Ashoka Fellowship for his pioneering work as a social entrepreneur in the Fair Trade movement. Paul was also honored by the Klaus Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as one of the world's top 40 Social Entrepreneurs in 2002.  More recently, Paul spoke on Fair Trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2004 and 2005.

You can read a transcript of this interview on my blog, Have Fun * Do Good.