Sustainability essay

SUSTAINABLE COFFEE(coming soon: a better title)

by Jesse Nevel

One of the things I like about English Composition 1 is the way it organically interconnects with my other courses and my personal interests, due in large part to the malleability of the curriculum and the transgressive pedagogy of our teacher, Dr. Trey Connor. The subject of this essay -- fair trade coffee farming -- relates directly to sustainability (economic and environmental), globalization (the focus of my World Regional Geography class, as taught by Ravic Nijbroek) and my personal interests, namely coffee, which I consume incessantly. I decided to focus on fair trade farming after watching a documentary called Black Gold in World Geography. I recommend this film to everyone, especially coffee-drinkers. Check it out here: www.blackgoldmovie.com

To further investigate the topic, I talked to local coffee shop owners and inquired about the origins of their coffee. I also went to Starbucks, urged them to promote fair trade coffee more visibly. These experiences as well as my findings are recounted in this essay.

I drink coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Every single day I drink at least three pots of coffee. That's a minimum of 24 cups of coffee per day. Recently I have been drinking Dunkin Donuts medium roast coffee, sold to me in a giant orange bag conatining enough coffee roast to brew 135 cups. I have no idea where this coffee came from. I don't know who farmed it, I don't know how much they got paid, I don't know what their working conditions were like, and I don't know what agrochemicals were used. I know as much about my coffee as most coffee-drinkers do when they order their favorite drink at Starbucks or Barnie's or any other big coffee company. We drink our coffee and then we go about our day. Not a second is spent wondering about the journey embarked upon by that coffee before it found its place in our cups.

What the Hell is Coffee?

Coffee is a stimulant beverage prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant. It doesn't take a long time to drink of cup of coffee, but coffee berries undergo a lengthy process before they can be consumed. Farmers pick the coffee berries, remove the flesh of the berry and then ferment the seeds to remove the layer of mucilage residing on the bean. The beans are then washed in fresh water, dried, sorted, and labeled. Coffee beans are roasted at a temeperature of at least 200 °C. The flavor of the bean is determined by how it is roasted. The aromatic oils, acids, and caffeine are weakened. The beans are ground and brewed and then served.

It's also the one of the world's most traded products, second only to oil. The International Coffee Organization has operated under the International Coffee Agreements of 1962, 1968, 1976, 1983, 1993 and 2001, agreements negotiated under the authority of the United Nations. The objective of the agreements was to stabilize the market by controlling coffee supply, addressing issues pertaning to importing and exporting countries, the implementation of a quota system and price controls. These agreements bolstered the economies of coffee-rich African and Latin American countries. The International Coffee Agreement's success was largely due to the participation of the United States, who enforced the quota system to stop communism from destabilizing impovershed Latin American countries.

Because America's involvement in controlling the price of coffee was motivated by our pathological obsession with destroying communism, when that ceased to be an issue, the US pulled out. This was in 1989. The ICO suspended the quota system and extended the 1983 agreement to make time for negotiations. A consensus regarding price regulation was never reached. Coffee prices took a steep dive. By 2001, coffee prices had reached their lowest levels. Over twenty-five million families in coffee-producing countries were affected. The economic stability of numerous Latin American, Asian, and African countries deteriorated. The countries providing the world with so much of its coffee got left behind. This is an inevitable outcome of capitalism and globalization: corporate dominance of the global market.

Business is Business

It is important to understand what the coffee crisis consists of before discussing possible ailments. Coffee farmers are severely underpaid. Exporters pay below market rates and then sell at rates set by the New York Coffee Exchange. The excess money gets pocketed. The entire system of globalization and free trade functions at the expense of small farmers and poor countries.

The World Trade Organization's free trade/liberalization policies have also impacted coffee prices. The WTO negotiates/regulates international trade agreements. Free trade is supposed to benefit importers and exporters alike, but wealthy economies impose prices at the expense of poor countries. The prices determine who truly benefits. Unrestricted corporations engender competition between countries by lowering wages to incraease profitability. Corporate ownerships/monopolies are top priority. Labor, the environment, and sustainability are relegated and dismissed.

Fair Trade: Fixed Minimum Price, Good for the People, Good for the World

Fair trade is one way to help solve the coffee crisis. Farmers are guaranteed a fixed minumum price for coffee, sometimes amounting to two or three times the unsubsubsized market price. The money goes directly to the farmers, eliminating the ability of exporters to exploit farmers with below market rates. Fair trade farmers enjoy better work conditions by controlling their own means of production. Fair trade farming is also infintely more conducive to environmental sustainability. Agrochemicals and GMOs are not permitted. The health of the world's ecosystems, along with the health of the workers, are considered top priorities.

Numerous impact studies have been conducted to assess fair trade farming. Virtually all of them conclude that fair trade farming is beneficial to farmers, the economy, communities, and the environment. Here's one example:

Daniel Jaffee studied Michiza cooperative coffee producers in Oaxaca, Mexico and authored the 2007 book Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival. Jaffee wrote:

"Fair trade's higher prices increase gross household income - although, because most fair trade coffee is also certified organic, producers have higher costs of production as well. Participation in fair trade reduces households' debt and enhances their economic options, affording them the possibility of better feeding and educating their children. Fair trade affords peasant farmers partial protection from some of the worst aspects of commodity crises and in many cases allows them the breathing room needed to engage in more sustainable agricultural practices. Furthermore, the extra capital from fair trade can generate important economic ripple effects within communities, providing additional employment even for nonparticipating families. However, fair trade is not a panacea, and it does not bring the majority of participants out of poverty. (...) Demand for fair trade products must increase dramatically in order to augment the economic benefits for such small farmer families and allow the system to include many more producers of coffee and other commodities around the world."

Starbucks and the Siren's Eye

Starbucks prides itself on being the largest buyer of fair trade coffee. About six percent of their coffee is fair trade. (I suspect that percentage is exaggerated.) They claim they would buy more fair trade if more existed. Of course, if they increased the demand for fair trade coffee, there would be more to buy. Fair trade farmers often end up selling their coffee conventionally because they lack buyers.

There are four Starbucks stores within five miles of my zip code. I walked to one of them this morning to see how visibly the store promotes fair trade coffee. After all, they can buy as much as they want, but if they don't market it properly to consumers, it won't make any real difference. There is a tall, wide display of bags of coffee across from the cash register. 18 different blends are on display: only one blend, Cafe Estima, is fair trade. Next to the food and cold beverages, there is another rack displaying about five or six other Starbucks blends. None of them is fair trade. The "Gazebo blend" displayed near the cash register is not fair trade. Also near the register is a blend called "Pike Place Roast," which has a Conservation International label on it but not a fair trade label. (This CI label means the coffee was grown in the shade of healthy forests, a step taken to stabilize climate change.)

The most prominently displayed bags of coffee beans -- immediately visible to anybody who walks into the store, a rack positioned near the entrance -- is the "anniversary blend." It is, of course, not fair trade. Displayed on the other side of that rack, the side not facing the entrace, is the fair trade Cafe Estima. A sign next to the Cafe Estima coffee proudly proclaims that this "rich, full, tasty coffee is a testament to Starbucks commitment to sustainable coffee."

After looking around for a bit, I went to the register and spoke to Matt, the shift supervisor. He told me that Starbucks offers no fair trade coffee drinks on its menu. Apart from the Cafe Estima rack, here is nothing in the store about fair trade coffee, nothing to encourage ethical consumerism. The only way you can buy a cup of fair trade coffee at Starbucks is if you ask them specifically to brew you the Cafe Estima blend, which they use a French press to make. Using the French press costs extra money. I asked Matt how much and he said "I have no idea." I asked him how often people request fair trade coffee. "Every now and then." I asked him if there was a way he and his manager could post information or somehow promote fair trade coffee to their customers. "No. That's all corporate stuff. We get a big book telling us exactly what we're supposed to advertise and how." The book is called Siren's Eye. It's a workbook sent to Starbucks stores before each promotional phase, outlining the visual arrangement of merchandise. I asked Matt if I could take a look at the most recent issue. He said no.

Weird Questions About... Coffee

Of course, Starbucks ain't the only game in town. There are other chains, and a nice bevy of independently owned coffee stores all over St. Petersburg. I decided to make a few calls and visits. I dialed up Barnie's, a well-known coffee chain. The man who answered the phone had no idea what percentage of the coffee sold at Barnie's is fair trade coffee. He turned to his manager and said, "Melissa, there's somebody on the phone with a weird question about... coffee... something about fair trade labels... what percentage of coffee is fair trade...?" I heard his manager's voice in the background telling him to direct me to the store's website. So I went to their website and typed "fair trade" into the search engine: "We could not find any matches for your search."

I phoned a representative at a company called Southern Heritage Company, who told me that they sell coffee to food service businesses, wholesalers, distributors, and others. The percentage of the fair trade coffee they sell increases steadily. The woman I spoke to referred to it as a "growing area."

The Globe was the most reliable place to buy fair trade coffee I was able to find. The Globe is a coffee shop located on 1st Ave North. It was founded in 1999 by Joellen Schilke. I spoke to Joellen about her coffee and was pleased to learn that the Globe sells "mainly, but not exlusively" fair trade and organic coffee. Their coffee is purchased from Global Exchange and two local roasters, Kawah and New Harmony. To explain her reasoning for selling fair trade coffee, Joellen quoted Star Trek: "Do no harm." I asked Joellen why more coffee shops don't sell mainly fair trade and she answered, "They do. Most individually owned coffee shops care about that sort of thing."