The Fair-Trade Program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy started HeadWaters International as a for-profit company in 1995 to promote sustainable production and fair-trade markets. The goal of HeadWaters International was to ensure a fair income for farmers involved in small-scale producer cooperatives while at the same time developing a lasting fair-trade system to help fuel economic development.

Peace Coffee was a direct outgrowth of this endeavor. Originally named Guatemala Peace Coffee after the Guatemalan Peace Accords, IATP worked with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan Indigenous leader, and Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, president of HeadWaters International, to bring this coffee to the U.S. and Canada directly from the Indigenous coffee cooperatives in Guatemala.

The photograph of Rigoberta Menchu and Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin was taken at the founding of Guatemalan Peace Coffee.