Paul Rice, MBA 96 - Changing the World, One Cup of Coffee at a Time | OneHaas

Paul Rice, MBA 96 - Changing the World, One Cup of Coffee at a Time

Paul Rice, the CEO and founder of Fair Trade USA, has spent his career making a huge difference in the lives of farmers and growers. In this episode, he sits down with Bree Jenkins to share his learning journey dedicated to social change, which includes buying a one-way ticket to Nicaragua, where he started and led the country’s first fair trade co-op and ended up staying for 11 years. He discusses how sustainability and social responsibility are the real drivers of success, and he calls us to find any and all creative ways to bring purpose into business, what some call conscious capitalism.

Episode Quotes:

On Fair Trade:

“And here's the secret sauce of fair trade. We require that brands and retailers pay more money back to the farm owner or the factory owner. We're not saying be more sustainable y'all, and the cost of that is your problem. That's not what we're saying. We're saying more sustainable. Treat your workers right. And take care of your environment, and the consumer is going to help pay for that through the retailers.”

On his experience with projects funded by international aid:

“I worked on a lot of really well-intentioned projects that were funded by international aid. And I'll tell you, I got really disillusioned with it. It wasn't really very effective, in my experience, in helping farmers develop their own capacity to solve their own problems and helping them to think about markets.”

On Social Change:

“I think about social change, not in terms of years, but in terms of decades. We're definitely playing the long game.”