>I use a single cup coffee maker

A popular guy like you?

As for Starbucks, rarely darken its door - damn T-mobile Wifi ripoff.

All this banter has caused me to get a nice cuppa Earl Grey.  Ever notice that there is no such thing as a cup of tea for a Brit?  It's always a "nice cuppa" tea.

There's no real certification of the 'free tradeness' of the coffee...

Not this or this?  Hmmm.  Sweet Maria's has this page on the topic.  I think the Co-op stuff is also said to be shade-grown. 

Fair Trade != good deal for the grower necessarily. The certifications are really akin to having your ordination from some internet church. While they do some checking and what not there is no force of law or regulation that guarantees what you get with the label is 'Fair Trade.'

So what you're saying is that the certification is no better than the certifying body, right?  Well sure, but if you believe in the organization(s) and its motives, then this might be as good as you can do.  It might be better to have strict standards in laws, perhaps, w/ third party audits.  Obviously the government intrusion into organic foods didn't help, though.  The government gets lobbied by huge agri-business to corrupt the process (though that wasn't nearly such a problem when Dems ran the federal gov't., and before the "free market" went nuts to out-muscle gov't). 

I'm not so cynical about Rainforest Alliance, though, to think they would as easily sell out.  Also, I would tend to believe that awarding such certifications haphazardly would be a big risk if it were revealed that the programs are bogus or flawed.  Sure, there are still ways to cheat, but the certifying body still has its own reputation to drive its standards high.  As for being a good deal for the grower, there's nothing wrong with that.  That is the incentive for them to undergo the scrutiny.

Yours is also a good argument to take the words on the Sweet Maria's page to heart:

"...Sweet Maria's is an extremely small business, scratching to make ends meet and working like nuts to keep up with demand. But after 4.5 years of running the show here and 12 years in the coffee business I realize that it is important to take a more active role in providing for the people who grow coffee worldwide, some of the poorest in the world, especially when disaster strikes. We make small donations whenever we can to the following relief agencies. When possible we target the donations to a particular area (as of this writing we have 2 coffees that we send .25 cents per Lb to coffee kids, and one that we send .20 cents per Lb.: Bolivia Caranavi , Peru Norte and Nicaragua San Martin!). ..."

So they try and give back, even when they don't sell FTO, shade grown, or whatever. 

Sibyl, I would read about gear at sites like SM's before plunking down that kind of change for a fancy maker.  Roasting is pretty darned easy and excellent beans cost only about $5/lb. before shipping.  I've learned that the time from roasting to brewing is what really constitutes fresh.  Otherwise you never really know when your purchased beans were roasted.  It makes a big difference.