Research Paper On Tim Hortons

Many concerned individuals struggle with an inner morality court which prevents unethical decisions. These concerned individuals, strive to make a difference in the world at large. One of these ethical decisions deal with purchasing non-fair-traded goods from a consumer market. Many groups and activist have urged for a boycotting of certain food items in a protested hope of stopping this occurrence. Nevertheless, it continues to occur in a consumer based society and the validity of the fair trade is also questioned. In this essay, I will put to trial the coffee production franchise Tim Hortons; I will use the grounds of “beyond reasonable doubt”, to produce a fair verdict in the matter of unethical trade, resulted from traceability of coffee

As an acclaimed Canadian company, Tim Hortons understand the demand of fair trade consumerism in Canada. The official Tim Hortons corporation claims to produce coffee based on purely ethical means; this claim is declared on the official Tim Hortons website. They state, “The majority of the coffee we purchase comes from “small holder” farmers” (Tim Hortons 2017) The site also provides a chart which demonstrates the process in which Tim Hortons buys its coffee from “small holder” farmers all the way up to its importer, ending with the consumer. The official owners of the Tim Hortons chain suggest, “Tim Hortons verifies detailed compliance with our Vendor Code, confirming that our coffee is ethically sourced.” (International, 2016)The official website, also provides a third-party verification called the “control union”, which claims a “certified” verification stating the results of audited procedures taken by the company (https://certifications.controlunion.com/en, 2014) From a distant observation, it would seem this report suggest Tim Hortons to produce their coffee based on purely ethical means. Traceability is keen in understanding where the actual product (coffee in this case) comes from. Based on the official Tim Hortons website and its ownership reports, the official response is Tim Hortons gets its coffee from several of the world's renowned coffee-producing

However, many groups and protesting individuals have strongly disagreed with this stance. The issue with a lack of traceability has been the topic of discussion for these advocacies. Tim Hortons attributes its production as fair trade however, as one article notes this is only a temporary scheme. According to the no child for sale website, (https://nochildforsale.ca/challenge/ask-for-ethical/, 2010) Tim Hortons uses a special blend of coffee under the association of “coffee partnership”. This is a special blend in which Tim Hortons has made to help “4000” farmers across South America. The promotion was a means to help farmers with the special blend; nevertheless, this advertisement only mentions 4000 farmers who were to benefit from this special blend. The no child for sale foundation demands that Tim Hortons publishes the exact number of ethically sourced coffee and the number of unethical coffee. This vague definition suggest that Tim Hortons is falsely advertising their ethical production according to other sources such as suggested by Julie Craves, who completely rejects the Tim Hortons idea of fair trade and declares it as non-accurate. (RSS, 2007) Similarly, Tim Hortons is questioned by its exploitation of using the Canadian identity. In an article written on in the National, Tim Hortons is questioned as to why they use this false Canadian identity for