Ethical Funds Inc. today announced its support for the Coffee Rescue Plan proposed by the international development organization Oxfam, and other humanitarian and environmental organizations.

Oxfam is calling for a Coffee Rescue Plan to make the coffee market work for the poor as well as the rich. The plan calls for major coffee roasters — Kraft Foods, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee — to increase the market for Fair Trade coffee, to bring the current oversupply of coffee back into line with demand, and to help ensure coffee farmers earn a decent living. To support the Coffee Rescue Plan, Ethical Funds has joined with 30 other socially responsible investment institutions in Canada and the U.S., inviting coffee roasters to enter into a dialogue.

“The coffee industry is facing a ‘perfect storm’ of industrial, institutional, and social failure,” said Robert Walker, vice president, SRI Policy & Research at Ethical Funds Inc. According to Oxfam, the real price of coffee beans is now 25% of its level in 1960.

Walker cites falling prices, ecosystem degradation, and financial catastrophe for low-income farmers in developing countries, as problems with the current coffee industry. “The situation is not sustainable, socially, environmentally or economically,” said Walker. “Ethical Funds believes that the coffee roasters will heed our call and come to the bargaining table. Our hope is that by working together we can take steps to address the crisis and reduce the gross inequities we see today in the coffee industry.”