The fair trade coffee agreement in Costa Rica focuses on labor and trade standards to provide the farmers who have smaller coffee farms a guaranteed price above the conventional market.  However, not all of the certified fair trade coffee is necessarily organic.  In order to have a Fair Trade Certification, it is required for strict environmental stewardship, like prohibiting the use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs and the majority of most dangerous pesticides.  

No matter where we went in Costa Rica, there always seemed to be extensive fields of coffee growing by the road side.  This is obviously a large and very important industry in Costa Rica, not just as a part of the GDP, but also for employing thousands of individual.  An extensive amount of Costa Ricans work in agriculture, about 15 percent.