Just us

Many folks know Just Us! as Canada's first fair trade and organic coffee roaster, but we didn’t begin with the goal of selling coffee. We've always been centred around social and environmental justice, aiming to promote an alternative to an exploitative global trade that favours white, western cultures. Since the beginning, our coffee has served as a vehicle for change.

20+ years later, Just Us! continues to thrive as a wholly Canadian-owned worker co-operative, still committed to our founding mission. We've proved the spirit and model of an alternative approach to business while becoming a key rural employer in Nova Scotia. We're invigorated, and we're happy our connected communities in the Global North and South are invigorated as well.

Organic Products

The Just Us! commitment to organic excellence has been a founding principle from the get-go. Organic agriculture is crucial to the nourishment and health of people, wildlife, and the earth:

“We no longer have the luxury of prevention. Now we are in the dire situation of needing a cure, a reversal. Correcting agriculture is an answer to climate chaos, and that hinges on human behaviour. The massive awakening itself is the cure. The future is underfoot. It's all about healthy soil."
—Mark Smallwood, Executive Director of Rodale Institute.

Fair Trade Practices

We were the first company in the world to join the Small Producers Symbol in 2011. We often refer to it by its Spanish acronym, SPP. It is the only fair trade network in the world that is 100% small producer-owned. Meet our Small Producer Partners >>

 

 

Where it all Begins

We promote a system of trade that stands for fair prices and practices, equity and inclusion, environmental stewardship, democratic control, and the building of communities and individual capacity. We don't think of coffee as a mere commodity, but as a great human story that should—and can!—centre human health. We believe economies near and far can transition from being machines of exploitation to relationship-based systems in which producers have autonomy over their own destinies.

Empowerment. Autonomy. Dignity. Fairness.

It's the Just Us! way. Welcome!