It used to be that coffee was just coffee. It came in a round tin with a plastic lid at the grocery store—regular, decaf or instant. It was a simple drink, sweetened up, mixed with creams or taken black. Sometimes it even gave you bad breath.
But as more and more people are learning about the consequences of their consumer habits and are turning to labels to guide them down the ethical shopping aisle, the gas station drip coffee of yesterday leaves us all with more than a bad taste in the mouth.
We don’t want to be drinking our coffee, knowing that rainforest was cut down, pesticides were sprayed over the crops and that the farmers were paid a bean price so low they couldn’t afford to keep their land.
There’s a whole new kind of coffee available—and not just the fancy gourmet roasts you can pick up at the local cafe or off the store shelf. Although this stuff is indeed of the highest quality—it can taste like an orgasm smothered in chocolate—this new coffee is at the heart of a growing peasant revolution that is challenging corporate globalization. It’s called fair trade.
It’s such a big deal, in fact, that the Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op in Grand Pre, now the largest distributors of fair trade products (coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar) in Canada, just last week opened the first-ever fair trade museum in North America. It may seem silly or trite: a one-room display featuring interpretive panels and a to-scale replica of a coffee farmer’s hut, but it’s just one of many indications that more people in the world are adding ethics to their shopping lists.
Last year, in France, fair trade grew an impressive 150 percent. In Canada, it grew 50 percent, squeezing its way for the first time onto the Starbucks line-up. Although it’s still only one percent of world coffee, five years ago, few had ever heard of it.
Currently, Just Us! coffee is the best-selling product in the natural foods section of all Atlantic Superstores. Just Us! is also expanding its facility from 3,000 to 6,000 square feet, upping its production to 675 kilograms of coffee a day. Soon, the Just Us! Co-op will open the first Fair Trade Chocolate Factory in Hantsport.
Fair trade, in its most basic definition, means the farmer is getting paid a fair price. For a coffee to be labelled fair trade the farmer has to make a minimum of US$1.26 per pound.
“If you want to develop a fairer world, a healthier world, a peaceful world, we have to address these trade issues,” says Jeff Moore, a founding board member of the Just Us! Co-op. “A fairer and more sustainable trading system is needed but government is interested in corporations and the corporations are interested in maximizing profits in the short run.”
The fair trade system is different. It usually entails cutting out the middleman, or “coyote”—the guys who work for the transnational corporations and pay dirt for beans, sometimes as low as 15 cents a pound. The system means villages, or regions of coffee growers, will band together into worker-owned cooperatives to share resources, and mass together their green beans (pre-roasted bean colour) to make their products available to the fair trade buyers. The result: villages thrive, schools are built, roads are maintained, children are fed, the land is taken care of and often certified organic, the farmers own their land and self-govern their community.
In places like the Chiapas, Mexico, where indigenous coffee farmers have endured decades of attacks from police, and multi-national corporations have assumed ownership over traditional agricultural lands, the success of local fair trade cooperatives has meant the survival of a people.
As with the problems of the “organic” labelling system, fair trade is suffering a similar plight. Too many organizations offer different labels, which stand for different things. In Canada we have four different fair trade labels, each with its own set of rules and criteria. Although the base US$1.26 per pound is universally agreed upon, some labels mean that the company or organization selling the coffee is 100 percent fair trade, others not. The most popular label, TransFair Canada, is fairly broad in its definition, but due to its large membership, has the funds for extensive marketing and advertising campaigns.
Another problem is deceptive marketing. Green Mountain, the largest coffee company in New England, says it supports fair trade when only a small percentage of its coffee is actually certified fair trade.
Nonetheless, the movement is gaining widespread momentum, with major label corporate companies like Nabob looking into starting their own line of fair trade coffees.
Michael King of Bean North Coffee Roasters in Whitehorse, Yukon, one of only four 100 percent fair trade coffee roasters in Canada (including Just Us!), is happy fair trade is taking off but is concerned that mass popularization will have negative impacts on the kind of work he does.
“Fair trade doesn’t care about price,” he says, “it cares about community. But it’s turned into a buzzword now. Sir George himself is even talking about it, so is Mr. Martin. It’s going mainstream—it’s going big time.”
King has individual relationships with all the coffee co-ops from which he gets his beans. In fact, in his model of fair trade, the price is closer to $1.80 per pound, depending on the co-op he’s buying from, because he adds special surtaxes for community development. The extra coin is enabling many coffee villages to build schools, repair roads and buy needed equipment.
“Since I signed on with fair trade I haven’t made money,” says King, “But I’m a happier person, a better person. It gives me way more satisfaction than any money could.”
But that’s not to say fair trade businesses can’t flourish. The Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op expects to have $3.2 million in sales this year, up from $30,000 in annual sales 10 years ago. Jeff Moore says the company has been “profitable for the last 6 years. We’re not going to help anyone if we’re not a viable company.”
Because the fair trade co-ops pay the farmers more for their beans, they also charge more when they sell them. For example, a 227 gram (a half pound) bag of Just Us! whole bean French Roast sells for $6.49 (or $12.98 per pound) at the Atlantic Superstore on Barrington Street. In comparison, for 907 grams (two pounds) of the President’s Choice whole bean costs $10.99 (or $5.50 per pound). And a one kilogram (2.2 pounds) can of Maxwell House ground coffee goes for $6.79 (or $3.08 per pound). And since Moore considers Just Us! coffee to be premium beans, like those sold at Starbucks, he says his prices are quite competitive. At Starbucks you’ll pay between $14.65 and $15.65 for 453 grams (one pound) of coffee beans.
This year, the global coffee bean price took an unexpected spike. For the first time ever, the market price has surpassed the fair trade price. After over 50 years where the price fluctuated around 30 cents US a pound, it is now soaring around US$1.32, making it difficult for fair trade to stay competitive.
“They grab the cash, no one can blame them for that,” says King. “The coyotes knock on the door and pay right away. Even though people know that they could benefit from the co-op in the long term, there’s that human instinct to take the money and run, especially when you’re poor.”
But for most established co-ops, with deep-rooted relationships with the fair trade distributors, the price fluctuation makes no difference. King says there’s a deep commitment to community development that goes way beyond just getting some cash.
Others like King gathered for the grand opening of the Just Us! Fair Trade Museum last week, attracting hundreds of folks from all over Canada and the world, including the forefather of fair trade himself, part Dutchman, part Mexican coffee farmer, part priest, Francisco Van der Hoff.
Twenty-five years ago, Van der Hoff helped establish the first fair trade coffee co-operative in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Uciri Co-op is now the most successful co-op in the world, serving as a kind of showcase for other co-ops needing guidance.
Now a peasant farmer himself, Van der Hoff has a deep understanding of the situation farmers face in rural third world countries.
“There is no such thing as poverty,” says a teary-eyed Van der Hoff at the museum opening. “There is just exploitation.”“There are two main pillars of fair trade,” he continues. “The consumers and the producers. Consumers are not aware of the powers that they have. As soon as they organize themselves and demand what they want, we can make the world what we want it to be.”
Michael King concurs. In conjunction with his fair trade development work in the south, he is helping people in the north too. His new Bean Caribou coffee donates $4 per bag to help save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, the famous calving grounds for the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
“Consumers have incredible power,” says King, “If we only knew how powerful we are we could change the world.”
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2005.