Map East Africa

East Africans living in rural areas are mainly subsistence farmers. This means they grow just enough food for their families to get by. Because this is often their only work, most families don’t have money to send their kids to school or buy medicine when they need it.

Most families don’t have money to send their kids to school or buy medicine when they need it.

Farming of different kinds is also done on a large scale for profit in East Africa. Crops are harvested and sold within East Africa or exported to other parts of the world. In Kenya, agriculture makes up 30 percent of the economy.

Coffee is a major East African industry.

The biggest crops include coffee, sugar and cotton. The coffee industry in East Africa and all over the world has been criticized recently because importers—including North American companies—don’t usually pay a fair price for coffee. This trickles down all the way to the farm workers, who don’t usually earn enough money to fully meet their families’ basic needs.

Fair Trade Coffee

Around the world and especially in East Africa, people have started to ask for coffee that is made fairly. This kind of coffee is called “Fair Trade” and it’s made without hurting workers or the environment, and without child labor.