Regular, decaf or ethical?

In our globalized society, ever mindful of social inequities and ecological depredations, it seems to have come to this: To buy a cup of coffee is to make a philosophical statement -- a statement for, or against, better pay for dirt-poor Third World farmers, for or against "sustainable," environmentally friendly land use.

If your statement is on the "for" side, you'll pay a little more for a cup of "fair trade organic" brew. Otherwise, you'll settle for the same old joe as ever and think nothing more of it.

Has it really come to this? Well, yes, if you're at least dimly aware of the issues surrounding coffee. The same could probably be said about any number of products produced in developing countries that wind up in Vermont.

What's different about coffee -- aside from the fact that most adults seem to depend on it -- is that some of its small-scale producers overseas are connecting with a network of progressive advocates, from importers and roasters to coffee shop owners, who are vigorously marketing the farmers' product in hopes of getting them a better deal.

For years, by some accounts, they've been getting a lousy deal. How lousy? What about a farmer who gets 40 cents for a pound of coffee beans that wind up being sold in Vermont, roasted, for $10 a pound?

A panel of six people connected to the coffee trade -- via research, business and public policy advocacy -- gathered in the University of Vermont's Davis Center on Friday afternoon to discuss the coffee trade, in a presentation titled "Just How Green is Your Coffee?" All were supporters of the fair-trade regime that has grown and evolved over the past few years, and the audience of about 40 people seemed fairly conversant with the themes. When the panelists referred repeatedly to "the coffee crisis," the audience apparently knew what they were talking about. Nobody asked, "What coffee crisis?"

"The coffee crisis" refers to the plight of small-scale coffee producers, who supply more than half the world's coffee beans. Until about two decades ago, an International Coffee Agreement controlled supplies and set export quotas for various countries, keeping prices up to at least $1.20 a pound. That agreement collapsed in 1989, and export prices dropped, bottoming out at about 40 cents a pound in December 2001, according to one of the panelists, Seth Petchers of Oxfam America, a nonprofit development organization. Results included a major loss of export revenue for Ethiopia, affecting 15 million people in the coffee business, and about a half million people in Central America thrown out of work.

Other roots of the "crisis," as described by Ernesto Mendez, a UVM assistant professor of agroecology and environmental studies, were the vulnerabilities of the small-scale coffee growers (many of them illiterate, lacking health care or other public services), the power imbalances in a commodity chain that included multinational corporations, and oversupply from large-scale production in Brazil and Vietnam that flooded the market.

Responses to the "crisis" came in various forms, but one was to guarantee a minimum price for producer cooperatives -- now $1.40 per pound -- for a product that can be certified as "fair trade" and marketed, if the quality warrants it, as specialty coffee. "Fair trade" coffee that's "organic" -- like all of the bulk coffee for sale in City Market, for example -- has a double cachet.

Another response was to work with small-scale coffee producers to strengthen their cooperatives -- by providing technical advice to improve quality, raising educational levels, and so on. A common strategy invoked by the panelists -- among them, Monika Firl of Cooperative Coffees -- was to build "relationships" with the producers. Mane Alves, founder of Vermont Artisan Coffee, said he makes a point of visiting and getting to know the growers he buys from.

Bill Eichner, co-owner of Finca Alta Cracia Coffee Farm in the Dominican Republic, said that even after paying fair wages and farming organically, there was the problem widespread illiteracy among the growers.

"Answers will come in time," he said, "but challenges crop up every day."

Fair trade labeling started in the Netherlands about 20 years ago, Petchers said, and accounts for around 30 percent of the Dutch market, compared to about 2 percent in the United States.

Paul Ralston, owner of Vermont Coffee Company, said that when fair-trade coffee is just one option offered, like another flavor, consumers might not see it as the philosophical choice it is. Ten years ago, he said, businesses like his didn't exist around here; now, he said, entrepreneurs who embrace the free-trade philosophy are helping to create demand.

For the producers, Mendez said, free-trade and organic designation is "one piece of the solution."

"Farmers are getting a better price," he said. "That's a start, but it's not the only thing that's needed."

"Nothing happens overnight," Firl said.

Contact Tim Johnson at 660-1808 or tjohnson@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
LEARN MORE "Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America," edited by Christopher M. Bacon, V. Ernesto Mendez, Stephen R. Gliessman, David Goodman and Jonathan A. Fox
Published by MIT Press, 2008, 390 pages.