Considering all the fair trade certification problems that’ve been pointed out (See the Coffee Crisis series for more details, or this post for a quick run-down), you’d think that it’d be pretty much impossible for small, local companies to pony up the money and resources and get fair trade certified.

Not so, necessarily. Thom, founder and monkey of Monkey and Son Coffee Company, is not only small and local, but also 100% fair trade AND 100% organic certified.

The reason? Simple: “I believe in it.”

Thom comes from a long line of farmers in Northeast Montana — His father had to quit farming because the farm went under. So when Thom’s own son was born 13 months ago, he started Mokey and Son. “That was something for my kid. When he was born — I wanted to give something back.”

Aaaahhh — I know. Too sweet. But Monkey & Son isn’t just hearts and flowers — It’s about pragmatic, forward-looking business savvy too. According to Thom, the fair trade revolution’s just begun: “I think people are beginning to see the writing on the wall,” he says.

Meaning that as consumer demand for the fair trade label grows, companies without the certification will begin to get somewhat stigmatized. Part of Monkey & Son’s biz strategy is to stay ahead of that trend.

Of course, Thom’s quick to point out that Transfair, the company that does the fair trade licensing for US coffee companies, is not perfect. And while he’s opted for 100% certification, he says he can understand, to a degree, why some of the more consciencious coffee companies have opted against it. “I don’t look down on them,” he says about those companies. “Transfair IS very bureaucratic.”

But Thom’s stance is — “you gotta start somewhere.” Like it or not, TransFair IS the only company doing fair trade licensing in the US right now. So if coffee companies want to engage consumers about fair trade issues, companies need to work WITH TransFair, even while pushing TransFair to address issues of concern: “It’s about doing the right thing.” And, despite the organization’s faults, the people at TransFair are “really good people,” Thom says, with limitations, difficulties, and challenges of their own as a nonprofit organization.

His biggest critique is for the coffee companies that complain about the cost of certification. “Why not just pay the few extra cents? I think it’s a cop out.”

If you’ve been following the Starbucks Challenge at all, you know my opinion here’s biased — That’s no secret. Monkey & Son provided one of the prizes for the first Challenge awards — and he’ll be providing the second too! (More deets on that tomorrow) Still, this socio-enviro conscious lil local coffee company is one after green LA girl’s own heart. And the Velvet Hammer is really, really yum.

What does Thom think of Starbucks? He still goes there sometimes, and is impressed by their consistency. But he’s turned off by their efforts to cut out mom-n-pop stores, saying that whenever an indie coffee shop opens, Starbucks plants new stores on either side, driving the indie cafe out. “That’s what Starbucks is about,” he says.

And as a musician himself, he’s peeved that Starbucks’ CDs only market already-successful artists. “I’m kind of sick of Starbucks’ Walmart approach to everything,” Thom says. “Support the little guy!”

Filed in: monkey&son fairtrade coffee organic starbuckschallenge starbucks transfair

5 Comments | Email this post

After reading through 133 participating blogs, with 135 challenges taken in 11 countries, 24 states, and Washington DC, City Hippy and green LA girl have each picked a winner for the first month of the Starbucks Challenge.

City Hippy’s choice: Thanks for not being a Zombie.
Not-Zombie took loads of challenges — all with awesome, detailed descriptions and thoughtful commentary. City Hippy found the posts thorough and humourous — especially the post where Not-Zombie mentioned the “man in colonial dress riding a Segway” — we spent a good 10 minutes chuckling at that image.

Award: Fair trade yummies (coffee, tea and hot chocolate from Clipper-Teas.com)

green LA girl’s choice: Dirty Greek
In addition to taking a couple challenges himself, Dirty Greek fielded questions (insults?) not only about the Challenge but also about fair trade in general from less-than-knowlegeable people on The Wolf Web. Dirty Greek got a lil help from J_Gatsby, who in frustration ended up calling naysayers “plebian fucks.” Tee hee!

Award: A 2 lb bag of Monkey & Son Velvet Hammer fair trade organic coffee.

What did YOU help accomplish through the Starbucks Challenge? Starbucks sat up and took notice, contacted us, then admitted that they weren’t living up to their “legendary service” promises. Cindy of Starbucks acknowledged Starbucks had a “break down in customer service.”

So all North American stores, regional VPs, and international market presidents got emails “reminding” them about the coffee press policy for customers requesting fair trade. Cindy also forwarded bloggers’ feedback to relevant district managers for follow-up.

The effect of these efforts on Starbucks’ part? Mixed, to say the least. Some challengers have since noted that their Starbucks has gotten markedly fair-trade friendlier; others, not so much. At the last challenge green LA girl took, the barista flat out lied to avoid French-pressing a cup of fair trade coffee.

Cindy says that she’ll present the findings of the Starbucks Challenge to Starbucks’ Retail Operations and Communications team, “so we can find a solution.” We’ll keep you posted on that promise.

So — The challenge challenges on! New prizes to be announced shortly — We’re determined that one day, Alabama and Utah will participate.

And even if you’re not “challenging” any more because your store’s passed the test, we hope you’ll ask for fair trade coffee every time you go to Starbucks. After all, Starbucks says that if consumers demand it, they’ll make fair trade coffee more easily avaliable — though as of now, we question how Starbucks is measuring this demand….

Have a fair trade day

City Hippy and green LA girl

FEED (del.icio.us/starbuckschallenge):

Filed in: starbuckschallenge coffee csr fair-trade fairtrade starbucks

3 Comments | Email this post

Thanks to Nuthatch’s suggestion, the Starbucks Challenge has been frappred. City Hippy and I, however, are too overwhelmed at the moment to input the 130+ locations onto the map by our lonely selves.

So — If you’ve taken the challenge, please frappr yourself. Make your mark here, with deets as to your fair trade success or non-success in the “Shoutout” section.

BTW — Radical Congruency’s working on a map on Geektronica.com that’ll automatically pull the info from del.icio.us. If any challenge-friendly techies out there know how we can make this happen, let me know, and I’ll let RC know.

Filed in: starbuckschallenge coffee csr fair-trade fairtrade starbucks frappr

2 Comments | Email this post

The most shocking things about visiting my friend Scott in NoCal earlier this month: Friendly chickens.

I’m all for free range chickens, but I really wasn’t prepared to share a park with crowing roosters. And when Scott and I went to eat at Sunflower Drive-In (I recommend the nutty burger — It’s veggie), these chickens came right up to beg for food, puppy style.

It’s great to know they’re free to roam around, though I wonder how the owners keep track of their feather friends. Also — I’d imagine it’d be tough to kill and eat these things after they’ve become household pets. Some of Sunflowers patrons lovingly scratched the chickens’ heads — Something I was really afraid to do, cuz those beaks looked sharp!

I don’t eat chicken, and rarely eat eggs, but this chicken-as-pet thing really fascinated me — Especially after reading in blogging.la about an odd battle between the Humane Society and Trader Joe’s over eggs — which prompted TJ’s to promote a letter about their egg standards on their homepage.

Of course, what interested me about the blogging.la post was not the eggs, per se, but that, due to a silly comment by someone called Lee, the discussion deteriorated into bizarre insults (”I think FOX News is hiring, if you send them your resume, I’ll be a reference.”), name-calling (”keep your PETA-loving nose out of my kitchen”) and name-denying (”[my nose] is not PETA-loving”).

And less relatedly — To the right is Scott and I, after a few drinks, at Celestin’s in Sacramento. We miss you Scott — Move back.

Update 2/8/05: I ate chicken. In my defense, it was organic and hormone-free chicken…

Tags: chicken, freerange, traderjoes, fairoaks, sacramento, california, eggs

3 Comments | Email this post

Music to feel good about — Oxfam’s sponsoring Make Trade Fair Live at The Avalon Thursday (11/3).

The performers: The Thrills, Hot Hot Heat, Damien Marley, Good Charlotte, Minnie Driver, Akon, and others. Things kick off at 7:30.

I’m not quite sure what the Oxfam “sponsorship” means — No details about whether the money is going toward the Make Trade Fair campaign or the ONE campaign, both of which are mentioned in the email I got from Oxfam.

In fact, I feel like Oxfam could use some PR help — No mention of the concert on the Oxfam, Make Trade Fair, or the One campaign websites, and Hot Hot Heat doesn’t even mention the gig on their gig list, though some Good Charlotte fans are chatting about it a little. Maybe Oxfam wants this to be a small, intimate gathering? Unlikely, considering the venue…

Anyway — Tix are $42.00 before ridiculous Ticketmaster fees, but I just bought 4 for $40 each from a guy called Michael off of Craigslist. Of course, I did this before I rounded up people to go, and it’s turning out to be a bad night for many of my friends. If you’re in the LA area, and want to go, email me.

**Update, 11/02/05: The show’s cancelled! Why? I’m wondering if it was due to lack of ticket sales, due to lack of PR :(

Filed in: oxfam losangeles california hothotheat thefaint music maketradefair fairtrade onecampaign

0 Comments | Email this post

Quick stats update: 127 blogs participating, with 131 challenges taken in 11 countries, 24 states (welcome, Kansas, Maine, and Maryland!) and Washington DC.

I guess I’m gonna have to give up on Alabama and Utah…

Filed in: starbuckschallenge coffee csr fair-trade fairtrade starbucks

2 Comments | Email this post

Lately, the blogosphere’s been sending me one very consistent message: Get thyself a bike.

The first message: My blog friend Anna told me about Xtracycle — a bike with an attachment for hauling your stuff. Here’s Anna (left), on her Xtracycle, in front of McCabe’s where once she hopped off her bike, we went in, had drinks, and shot pool, sort of. In a mild drunken excitement, we made tentative plans for a huge, bike-fueled Starbucks Challenge parade that pedalled all over Los Angeles –

The second message: Roger, gone green. Just about every other of his comments has to do with how, if I had a bike, I’d be able to do more stuff without grumbling about driving.

And the most inspiring message of late: eecue’s bike posts. This dude cobbled together a DIY bike with a lil help from the Bicycle Kitchen, (photos here), and even posted a lil map of his first fixie ride. Now, he’s offering up DIY advice to would-be bikers!

Despite this blog enthusiasm for biking, LA still has some serious kinks to work out to make biking more accessible. It’s pretty much impossible to register your bike, for example. And though eecue and others are adamnant that biking in LA is not dangerous, I’ve been scared shitless about biking since 2 bikers were killed in an accident on the PCH last month.

I’m not sure if I’ve been inculcated into an irrationable fear of biking through gas-lovin’ naysayers in the MSM, or if my fear really is warranted. While I figure that out, I’m gonna start running blogads, so that by the time I get over my fright, I’ll hopefully have enough cash to buy an xtracycle.

Unrelatedly — My fave eecue post is Brick!, about a helicopter-heavy night when a somewhat crazed man threw bricks off the roof of the Alexandria Hotel. Something about this post — now updated with a pic of a smashed brick — makes me reflect on the incident constantly. Dunno why — Maybe the painful brick beauty of incidental urban art, or the smashed-up madness of this brick-built society, or some other crazy half-baked brick of a notion –

Filed in: bike bicycle xtracycle brick losangeles california

6 Comments | Email this post

I’m so shocked about this that it’ll take me a lil while to digest what it means for the fair trade movement, but guess what: McDonald’s is gonna sell fair trade coffee!

For now, let me just say that Starbucks better get their shit together. Surely the mermaid behemoth wants to do more for the coffee farmers than McDonald’s?

The deets: McDonald’s will begin by serving fair trade coffee in 658 of its restaurants in New England and Albany, NY — beginning on Nov. 1, my birthday. Coincidence? ;)

And — there’ll be none of this hassling the barista shit. Participating locations will be switching to 100 percent fair trade certified organic coffee from Newman’s Own Organics, roasted by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. No reviews of the coffee yet, but Green Mountain’s known for roasting some yummy stuff.

Starbucks — What’s your move?

**Update: There’ll prolly be a slight price increase: “Green Mountain executives said they understood there probably would be a 10- to 15-cent price increase.” That’s still like half the price of a tall cup of non-fair trade, non-organic coffee at Starbucks.

**Update, 10/29/05: BTW — for those trying to cut back on caffeine intake — McDonald’s will be offering both regular and decaf (see paragraph 7).

Tags: starbuckschallenge, fairtrade, starbucks, newengland, albany, mcdonalds, greemountain, coffee, newmans

7 Comments | Email this post

When a lil drink thing got moved all the way to the Good Microbrew & Grill in Silverlake, I freaked out about the driving & pollution issue. Then I thought, hey, I’ll take the Starbucks Challenge at a store on my way there! 2 birds with 1 stone.

Then I looked things up. There are SIX Starbucks between me and Good Microbrew. I’m not talking about any of the side roads — just the ones strictly on La Cienega and Sunset — the most efficient route, according to Mapquest.

In the interest of time, and to minimize parking stress, I decided to just hit the four on Sunset.

The first victim: The Starbucks right next to Saddle Ranch. The barista told me there was no fair trade coffee in store, and that their manager had stopped ordering the blend entirely, so none had been on the premises for quite some time. He also said, quite confidently, that all Starbucks brew fair trade coffee on Wednesday mornings.

I’m not sure how they even come up with this stuff. Are the baristas actually fed this misinformation? And if so, by who? And — how can all stores brew fair trade coffee if this store doesn’t even keep it in stock?

Second victim: The Starbucks on Sunset & La Brea (right). I asked for fair trade, and the barista told me what they had on brew. I asked if they could make a cup of fair trade for me, which she agreed to do — in 10 minutes.

Then she started scanning the shelves, and asked if I’d like the Serena Organic Blend.

Me: Um, is that fair trade?
Barista: I don’t…
Another barista piped in and said that it wasn’t. I actually had to scan the shelves myself and pick out a Cafe Estima bag for her — at which point she said the blend was “really good.”

So for 10 minutes, I looked at this drawing of a rather phallic bird (above left).Then I played with the Starbucks Bearista (left, made in China).

But still, I got my fair trade coffee.

Third victim: the Starbucks at Gower Gulch (right). The barista, again, repeated what they had brewing a couple times.

Me: Oh. Um, can you make a cup of fair trade coffee for me? Or is that…

Barista: Uhhh — Let me go ask my manager.

He did, while I waited. When he came back: “Sorry, we don’t have any fair trade coffee in store right now.”

Of course, while he was talking to the manager, I took a picture of one of the many bags of fair trade coffee on the store shelves (right).

Thanks, I said, and walked out. [**Update, 12/12/05: A kind barista has since informed me that my request may’ve been taken as a request for Starbucks’ old “Fair Trade Blend,” which has been replaced by Cafe Estima. But couldn’t the manager have told him that?]

2 strikes out of 3 — including not just bad customer service, but an outright lie. I was running late at this point, so had to skip the last Starbucks — the one next to Vons.

Yeah — Those emails Starbucks sent out are really changing things around here…

Filed in: starbuckschallenge coffee csr fair-trade fairtrade starbucks losangeles california

3 Comments | Email this post

It’s been crazy fun the last couple days with all the kottke.org and Lifehacker readers joining in the fun –

102 blogs participating, with 111 challenges taken in 10 countries, 21 states (welcome, Michigan and Oregon!) and Washington DC.

So no one knows anyone in Alabama or Utah?

Filed in: starbuckschallenge coffee csr fair-trade fairtrade starbucks

4 Comments | Email this post