Higher Grounds: Traverse City, MI
Higher Grounds Trading Co. was envisioned through passion for both social justice and the environment. To this day the company and its owner Chris Treter continue to make strides in supporting & fundraising these very fundamental causes both locally and throughout the world. Chris is originally from Toledo, Ohio and ventured to Vermont to attend graduate school for Organizational Management of Social Change. After graduation in 2001, he travelled to Mexico with a human rights organization where he met coffee farmers struggling for basic human rights. These coffee farmers were also producing high-quality coffee but had no connection to the international market. Chris saw an opportunity to import great coffee using fair-trade practices and help the coffee farmers to earn what they deserved.