When you have access to the information behind the things you buy, you can choose products that exemplify your ideals and you can deny your money to those that don't. Imagine an economy with complete transparency. There would be no sweatshops, no mountaintop coal removal, no factory farms.

Transparency can show you the benefits of money well-spent. And it can reveal the hidden costs of so-called "low cost" goods -- the costs to the environment and to the people who have no other choice but to take a job that exploits their willingness to work.

We put our documentation online in 2004. Now, we're expanding the cause of transparency as a founding member of FairTradeProof.org -- the only trade practice mark held accountable by giving customers online access to the documentation between roaster and farm cooperative.