http://www.transfairusa.org/content/certification/producer_certification_guide.php

The coffee guide to producer certification for coffee says, “The Standards laid out in this document apply to small farmers’ organisations
ONLY. For Standards related to hired labour situations please see the respective
document”. It says that a farm has to be part of a cooperative to be certified. I asked a representative of Transfair at the SCAA in Long Beach in 2007 this exact question and she said that it was correct that a small to medium farm that had employees could not be certified unless they were part of a coop and even then it can be difficult as 50% of the coop has to be a “small farm”, ie no non-family employees. I have alot of friends in my town that have recently started small organic farms. I know it would be difficult for them to make a profit and grow if they had to work under those restrictions. The lady from Transfair said that there is a movement to change the rules but that things change slowly in the organization. I imagine there is a YouTube video out there somewhere of the panel discussion.