On a baking hot summer night a few years ago, some friends and I took a walk through our Somerville neighborhood. The day had been so warm that heat was still rising from the pavement even at 10 pm. A man from Central America was out tending his garden under the pale light of the street lamp. As my friends asked him about his plants, I thought I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a coffee bush. I had never seen one in real life, only in photographs, but I knew right away what it was.
"Is that coffee?" I asked incredulously. "Yes," he said with a grin, and then showed me that he grows it in a huge tub. He takes the coffee bush indoors during the winter and devotes an entire room of his house to caring for his tropical plants. He controls the heat and humidity and runs a sun lamp all winter long. He said he picks and roasts all his own coffee, just as he had before coming to the U.S.
For most of us, however, coffee is a tropical product imported from far away -- and therein lies a dilemma. Since October was Fair Trade month, I decided to check out some of the local Fair Trade businesses to see what their take is on importing tropical products.
The first thing that I see as I enter the offices of Equal Exchange is a young woman dressed as a French maid running up a flight of steps. Rodney North, Equal Exchange's "Answer Man," meets me in the foyer and introduces himself ... while a woman dressed as a witch heads up the stairs. "That's a Hallowe'en costume," he explains. They don't call him Answer Man for nothing.
Off of the foyer is the world's coolest break room/cafeteria/public space. There's a full kitchen with a fantastic stove, modern wood cabinetry, small clusters of tables and chairs, and a big window that lets in lots of light. As one might expect from a coffee importing business (it also imports cocoa, tea, and sugar, among other products), there are several pots of coffee ready at all times. I have a cup of their hot chocolate and we sit down at one of the tables.
Rodney explains that because their headquarters is sort of isolated, they have a "co-op within the co-op" they open for an hour every day -- employees can buy ingredients for making lunch. He himself had just bought some eggs from a fellow employee who keeps chickens.
Rodney tells me about Equal Exchange's history and some of the commodities and products they sell. We discuss the ways Equal Exchange benefits farmers, both economically and environmentally. One hundred percent of Equal Exchange's tea, cocoa, chocolate, sugar, and rooibos is organic, as well as 80% of their coffee. The remaining twenty percent of their coffee is either uncertified organic, like their Tanzanian coffee, or produced with "low-spray" sustainable methods.
The basic idea behind Equal Exchange is to shorten the distance between farmer and consumer, and by doing so guarantee that farmers receive a greater portion of each dollar consumers spend on coffee or other crops. (Here is an excellent diagram comparing regular commercial trade, with all the middlemen and brokers involved, and Fair Trade.)
In addition to working with small farmer co-ops to guarantee that farmers are paid more for their harvests, Equal Exchange supports organic agriculture for its environmental health and safety benefits. This means that the farming methods are better for the earth (less erosion and better bird habitats if coffee and cocoa beans are shade-grown, for example), less exposure to pesticides for the farmers and their families, both directly and through the water table and other water sources, and less exposure to pesticide residue for the consumer.
Clearly, using Fair Trade products is an appealing option, but what about all the valid counterarguments for maintaining a locavore diet? Rodney remarks, "There really is no conflict between a locavore ethos and consumption of tropical products. Consumers can still make informed, thoughtful, ethical choices. Most people are going to continue to drink coffee and tea, and those will always come from a tropical source. Given that, the best thing consumers can do is to make responsible choices, which organic farming and fair trade help to provide."
Environmentally speaking, this leaves the thorny issue of "food miles" aside. Rodney explains Equal Exchange's take on the subject:
We certainly understand and appreciate the food miles issue, and people who object to the long-distance transport of food should, of course, abstain from such food -- or at least minimize their consumption of it. By the way, that might include a lot more food than just what comes from tropical countries. Sometimes you'll have a local alternative -- like Vermont apples in place of Dole pineapple. But many foods -- like coffee, cocoa, and bananas -- only grow in the tropics. For such things, one still can make an environmentally and socially responsible choice by choosing organic and Fair Trade. And if you both need your coffee and feel strongly about this, you might choose coffee "origins" that are closer to your favorite coffee roaster -- like maybe opting for Mexican beans, as they're the closest major source for most U.S. roasters.
Equal Exchange feels that Fair Trade certifiers and importers of Fair Trade products should be focusing more on working with small farmer co-ops, and staying away from plantation systems, which are increasingly being brought into the Fair Trade system so long as certain labor practices are followed.
For example, almost all the Fair Trade Certified tea on the market comes from plantations, whereas all Fair Trade coffee and cocoa comes from small farmers. It's important to Equal Exchange that Fair Trade work to reform the nature of power in these rural communities, and not merely raise incomes of the poor.
So, whereas currently the Fair Trade system might raise the standard of living of either a plantation laborer or a small farmer in a co-op, only the latter has gained more control over his or her economic fate. Too often the plantation system itself is a part of the problem, and raising wages does not constitute a transformation. Supporting small farmer co-ops can, and does, create a whole new, more democratic and egalitarian rural economy in the communities effected.
To be continued next week ...
Comments
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greenlagirl Posted 5:09 pm
05 Nov 2006
http://greenlagirl.com/
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Gregory Dicum Posted 2:20 am
06 Nov 2006
Under the Fair Trade system, the specific definition of Fair Trade is established by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization for each different product. There can't be a blanket definition because the cultivation and trading systems are often distinct for different products.
One manifestation of this is the plantation question in coffee versus tea. Fairly-Traded coffee can only come from democratically-run cooperatives of small family farmers. The reason that's viable is because there are plenty of small family coffee farmers, and helping them organize into coops improves their prospects tremendously.
Tea, on the other hand, is often grown predominantly on plantations, both for historical reasons and because fresh leaves have to be processed every day.
I wrote about Fair Trade Tea for Grist earlier this year. Check out that story for more details about life on Fair Trade Tea plantations in India--there are some very impressive things happening there, all within a plantation context that is totally different from the way coffee is grown.
Also, since she's being modest, let me point out that anyone interested in Fair Trade ought to check out GreenLAGirl's introduction to the subject.
my books: The Coffee Book | Window Seat
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Truly Scrumptious Posted 9:45 am
14 Nov 2006
I am also a big fan of fair-trade in general, and often shop fair-trade products for everything from gifts to housewares. With that and having had a glimpse of the worklife of coffee farmers, I have great respect for what Equal Exchange does.
But what I have found with fair trade coffee is that the quality of the green bean is, uh, inconsistent. The range in size/grade is so wide that roasting can only result in an uneven product. Some beans end up burned to a crisp, others are under-roasted.
Buying roasted beans is no better. Besides starting with beans of varying sizes, and therefore having the same uneven roast in the end, they are often roasted too far past the second crack. This is partly due to consumer expectation (rather recently developed by Starbucks and Peet's) that all coffee be "French" or dark roast (burnt), and partly due to inexperience. A bean can only fully develop its full compliment of flavors and undertones with a slow, gradual roast, and released from the roaster immediately after the second crack (unless you're going for an espresso roast). Some human roasters are doing this; some roasters are automated and programmed to work quickly to crank out more beans.
As every coffee company across America has caved to the charred standards, we've lost a lot of variety across the spectrum of coffee shops, from indies to large chains, but it seems to me that only in Fair Trade coffee has the over-roasted "flavor" been so thoroughly embraced, and coupled with roasting too quickly, it makes for a rather unpleasant cup with an aftertaste reminiscent of an ashtray. I keep trying every Fair Trade coffee I can find (most recently, Sol Colibri), but they never seem to be able to break free from the Charbucks Starburnt Starbucks-defined standards of flavor to present a low-acid, complex and interesting medium roast that excites the tongue, and that I cannot support.
If Equal Exchange is going to focus on the small farmer, I wholeheartedly urge them to also support those farmers in meeting the highest standards for the grade of bean, and to send their roasters back to roasting school* and eschew the dark standard (double entrendre intended). Until then, the sad fact is that there are many who will continue to equate fair trade with poor quality.
*OK, there's not really a roasting school. Unfortunately.
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willa Posted 11:41 am
14 Nov 2006
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swozniak Posted 2:25 pm
14 Nov 2006
As for the quality issue, it's part of the certification process to improve the quality of the coffee to meet and, in many cases, exceed the standards set by the Speciality Coffee Association of America and other such groups. These standards differentiate a Folger's cup of coffee from a more favorable cup, the minimum standard of which might be a cup of Starbuck's. It's increasingly becoming a method of international development, as seen by the PEARL project at Michigan State University and the CAN project at UC-Santa Cruz.
Farmers and development practitioners do this through a variety of methods, such as pulling out unripe cherries at washing stations, using organic agricultural methods, roasting at the point of brewing and sale instead of at the point of being picked, etc. There's a lengthy packet available from the Fair Trade Labelling Organization which will tell you the standards farmers have to meet to become Fair Trade Certified.
Hope that helps, and I really hope to see Fair Trade grow even more. It's been amazing thus far.
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Truly Scrumptious Posted 9:56 am
17 Nov 2006
For my part, if I'm not at home, I seek out Fair Trade coffee at indie shops, even though I know it won't taste good. So maybe I'm the eco-sucker in this exchange, huh? ;-)
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bookerly Posted 10:15 am
17 Nov 2006
I am not in the coffee business, and I guess I am ignorant and silly, but politics aside, I never thought Starbucks coffee tasted good.
(Of course most Americans think that what is called mustard in the US actually tastes good, and people buy Lipton tea, which I consider abhorrent.)
I always drank the coffees from the Thanksgiving Coffee Company (mostly anyway) when I was living in SF, I particularlty liked their French Roast End the Cuba Blockade (Organic Fair Trade). The name might not be right, but it tasted just about perfect to me.
And to any of my friends who drank it. I should say that I made it at home in my own little expresso maker. And it wasn't laden with sugar, just a little milk.
My point would be that suggesting that all Fair Trade coffee tastes bad seems curious to me. Perhaps Truly Scrumptious doesn't like it. But I did. And other people do as well. Everyone who buys it doesn't prefer Starbucks.
(To be honest, I wasn't that great a fan of Starbucks organic fair trade coffee either.)
patrick
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Truly Scrumptious Posted 10:21 am
17 Nov 2006
I didn't see quality standards for the humble bean itself, or did I miss it? I see in individual Producer profiles mention of "sun dried" and "technical training in __" as examples of their attention to quality, so I'm not sure what's happening between farm and shelf that I can't see that quality coming through. Maybe jet lag is furthering the problem by making what's on the shelves/in the shops a bit old (stale) and also not up to newer standards...?
Anyway, when I must buy coffee I'll take the fair trade mud over the monopsony's "finest" any day! :)
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Truly Scrumptious Posted 10:53 am
17 Nov 2006
I know people like it, just like people like cheap wine, Hershey's milk chocolate, and Budweiser. Everyone's allowed to decide what they like. But that shouldn't mean that the microbrewers should make their beer more watery, or that a fine chocolatier should add more oil and filler to their product, or that any producer should otherwise bring their standards down to the level of that defined by mass marketers (or by the monopsony, my new favorite word).
This has been a long process, this slippery slope of coffee quality. So I think that Fair Trade producers entered the market quite awhile after taste buds had been well manipulated to accept a rather bland cup, and their quality reflects that.
Now, not to put too fine a point on it, you're talking about the Thanksgiving Coffee roast you buy to use as espresso, while I'm talking about coffee. Plain ol' ordinary medium-roast beans ground to be brewed for a plain ol' cup of coffee. Any beans used for espresso should be dark roast to hold up under the extraction method, but a cup of coffee is like a fine wine to me, offering complexities and characters that unfold over the course of enjoying the cup, right on into the long finish.
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bookerly Posted 11:08 am
17 Nov 2006
There is no good coffee near me (the closest is a mickeyd, and I pass), so I drink swill (instant don't ask!).
You are correct that we are talking about two different things (that was not clear to me before, thanks!).
I did notice that when I went back to the states, that a lot of the coffee was atrocious (the cuppa joe kind). Shudder.
You should offer coffee tastings to help people train their palates! (If I ever get back that way, I would love to attend!).
patrick
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Truly Scrumptious Posted 2:01 pm
22 Nov 2006
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