In US local politics voters decide on proposals for law reform, not unlike in Australian referenda. However one town’s proposal stands out. In Berkeley, California, voters had the opportunity to decide on a ballot initiative requiring coffee houses to sell environmentally and politically correct brews.



The proposed law would make it a crime punishable by up to six months in jail to sell brewed coffee not certified as Fair Trade, organic or shade-grown. Fair Trade means farmers are assured equitable prices and shade-grown coffee is grown under trees that provide bird habitat and protect soil.



(From an original story by David Crary, AP National Writer)