Fair trade coffee: a symptom and a glimmer of hope

Looking at coffee, we can see both a glimpse at the suffering that permeates most of the… Looking at coffee, we can see both a glimpse at the suffering that permeates most of the developing world, and the first signs of hope that it doesn’t have to go on forever.

Coffee isn’t a special case. Most agricultural products grown in the developing world are facing crises. But coffee is the largest market commodity in the world, after oil. So, the straits are especially dire here. We’re talking about more than 25 million families being forced into poverty and starvation, large scale corporations manipulating farmers into interminable cycles of life and debt, and a total population of about 250 million people dependent on an industry that is currently being pillaged.

I don’t wish to come off anti-business, and especially not anti-capitalism. I only wish to say that I am against any practice involving large-scale exploitation of human beings. And I try to do whatever I can to wash my hands of it.

Currently, self-employed coffee farmers are responsible for about 50 percent of the coffee beans grown worldwide. You must understand that these people, and even the majority of the small farms which compose the other 50 percent, only grow the beans. They don’t have the capital to buy all the machinery necessary to roast the beans or do any of the other things that are necessary before the coffee can be sold. All of this is in the hands of corporations that buy the beans from the farmers. And there are four big ones who buy about 40 percent of the beans on the market: Phillip Morris’s Kraft division, Proctor ‘ Gamble, Nestle SA of Switzerland and Sara Lee. So, we have poor and disorganized farmers, scattered across borders with no effective organization with which they can approach collective bargaining, forced to negotiate with four of the largest corporations in the world.

What has happened generally goes as follows. The corporations play the farmers off of each other and force them to sell for as low as possible. In Nicaragua, this amount averages about 60 percent of the cost of production. The farmers are forced into debt. They only have coffee to sell and are not able to get a high enough return on it to even continue production, let alone support their families. They need immediate money and begin to sell rights to their future harvests to speculators for less than they’re worth, simply to have enough money to live. In this way they are caught in a cycle of life and debt perpetuated by the unmediated drive of corporations to seek the lowest price. Parents pull their children out of school to stay home and work. Local money is siphoned out of the country. Society erodes. Those less willing to give in turn to more profitable harvests like the poppy and coca plants.

I’ve left out details about how policy changes at the end of the Cold War initiated the price collapse responsible for the current situation. I didn’t go into the fact that most coffee that is sold as high end is actually cut with cheap beans, and I opted not to discuss in detail the homeless masses of farmers wandering about Vietnam; at the beginning, I promised a glimmer of hope and I suppose it’s time for that.

In response to the coffee crisis, there has come a fair trade movement, which, while growing, is still in its infancy. It’s anchored in the larger idea that as a civilization, we should have come far enough by now to be able think about more than just money when making our economic decisions. We are privileged enough that we should be willing to pay a little more if it’s the moral thing to do.

And so we have fair trade coffee, which is basically coffee sold through certain certified organizations who guarantee that the farmers will receive a fair wage in return for their beans. No debt, no poverty and it costs about a dollar extra per pound. The problem is knowing where to find it. A few places around sell it in bean form, the only place I know of that brews it is Quiet Storm on Penn avenue. Ask around at your local coffee shop. It never hurts to be aware of what you’re consuming.

At Quiet Storm: “This coffee is really good,” my friend LG said. “That’s how coffee is supposed to taste. It’s just that the coffee you normally drink is imbued with pain and suffering,” I said. “Shut up Will.” Questions, Comments, Insights or Suggestions? WMinton@pittnews.com