When you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, what are you actually paying? Unfortunately, the most expensive item in a cup of coffee is the cup itself. Large franchise businesses make their profits through sales promotions and branding rather than the products they sell. (1) Currently, the rate of coffee is lower than it should be due to the overproduction of coffee across the world. The overproduction of this product has a devastating effect on producers. This article will discuss why the cost of coffee is minimal, due to farmers being underpaid for their products and how they are manipulated by big business and the government. Furthermore, we need to examine the extent to which these actions have environmental and health consequences. Therefore, an unequal distribution of profits allows large companies such as Starbucks and Nestlé to maximize their profits and allows us to enjoy a cup of coffee at an affordable price. Large companies aim to maximize their profits and increase their returns to shareholders. They do this by paying producers an unregulated coffee price that is typically less than $0.80 per pound. (8) This rate is much lower than the cost of production and forces farmers to live in poverty. Ideally, coffee farmers should be paid a minimum of $1.24 per pound to produce coffee beans sustainably. (2) Coffee prices even fell as low as $0.40 per pound due to increased coffee production and minimal consumption. (3)These increases in production also lead to lower labor costs. Large companies such as Starbucks and American roasters sell their coffee and specialty drinks at an incredibly higher price than they pay to coffee producers. (9) Provided there is a significant imbalance in the distribution...... middle of paper .......utoronto.ca/docview/229033484/fulltextPDF/141D8D8AD5137EC666C/4?accountid=14771 http ://search.proquest.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/231320448/fulltextPDF/141D8D8AD5137EC666C/7?accountid=14771 http://bf4dv7zn3u.search.serialssolutions.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ ?ctx_ver= Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/ProQ%3Apqrl&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Hispanic+American +Historical+ Revue&rft.atitle=Coffee+anyone%3F+Recent+research+on+Latin+American+coffee+societies&rft.au=Topik%2C+Steven+C&rft.aulast=Topik&rft.aufirst=Steven&rft.date=2000-05- 01&rft. volume=80&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=225&rft.isbn=&rft.btitle=&rft.title=The+Hispanic+American+Historical+Review&rft.issn=00182168http://search.proquest.com.myaccess.library.utoronto. ca/docview/274700686/fulltextPDF/141D8F82C22756DB7E/4?accountid=14771