Overwhelmed by all the fair trade coffee options out there? Consider yourself lucky, then stick to the one that warms your heart. Mark of Taylor Maid Farms suggests we might think of coffee as we do wine. Afficionados will keep buying from one winery for a LIFETIME — why not the same with fair trade coffee?
For cause-driven people, here are some inspiring options. Please let me know of others with a compelling story, and I’ll add them to the list:
For the feminist: Cafe Femenino, avaliable at Caffe Ibis, Grounds for Change, and others, and recommended by Coffee and Conservation. Certified organic and Fair Trade, and listed as shade-grown. This project’s run by women — These women receive an additional 2 cents per lb over the fair trade price. Grounds for Change donates an additional 25 cents per lb back to the women. Update, 12/19/06: Cafe Humana offers Cafe Femenino too :)
For anti-landmine activists: Dean’s Beans, which works with the Coffeelands Landmine Survivor’s Trust,helped open up a shop owned and operated by Walking Unidos, a prosthetics clinic that gives free limbs and therapy to landmine victims and the poor, free of charge. Dean’s Beans donated money to get the clinic started too. Buy their Nicaraguan coffee to support their work.
For peace across religious divides: Thanksgiving Coffee’s worked with the Mirembe Kawomera co-op in Uganda — a co-op that unites Christian, Jewish, and Muslim coffee farmers towards a common economic goal, allowing those farmers to make a living wage through their work.
For the serious environmentalist: Cameron’s Coffee in Port Perry, Ontario, is not only all fair trade and organic, but also way serious about the environment. Cameron’s use Forest Stewardship Council certified wood, uses recycled paper and eco friendly cleaners and radiant floor heating and CFL lightbulbs in its offices, gets its labels printed with veggie based inks via a waterless printing system, drives a biodiesel fueled VW Golf TDi, buys and sells solar dried coffee. Local customers can take advantage of Cameron’s reusable container program; faraway customers get their stuff delivered in a recycled bag padded with compostable coffee chaff. (tip from Anna)
How ’bout this one for the hard core environmensters: fair-trade-organic-solar-biodiesel FSC coffee - say that 10 times fast.
Comment by Anna — July 12, 2006 @ 10:19 am
a new challenge for the blog-find the coffee with the most causes/certifications…
“cause-specific” coffees are wonderful and were a major driver for the growth of sustainable coffees in the US market. but while brand loyalty in the wine business is built on snobbery, cause loyalty in coffee is build on the strength of one’s ideals…
as for Mark’s perspective on coffee-perhaps being situated in the heart of the wine country is starting to blur his vision…yes, there is such a thing as brand and product loyalty in the coffee business, but the differences with the wine biz are many and profound. and i don’t think we want coffee to go the route that wine has in this country. considering how few people in the US drink wine and how many people drink coffee, drawing parrellels between the two is dangerous.
the specialty wine market is woefully stagnant. there has been a proliferation of boutique wineries with very little distinction between products-and they saturate a market followed by a very small number of consumers. we don’t want specialty coffee to have 0-growth niche markets that only pander to the affluent. coffee is also a perishable product that is grown in climates much more susceptible to drastic weather events than wine. because of this, people need to be open to trying new regions, new blends, and yes, even new certifications. strong brand loyalty can be a bad thing sometimes…
we should look not to the wine business in the US, but in Europe. there, wine is a traditional beverage that is drunk by a very large percentage of the population. wine is an everyday thing there-like coffee here-(but your average cheap bottle of cheap wine in Europe is much better than your average cheap can of coffee here.) the specialty coffee industry needs to grow and take over the coffee industry as a whole-not so everyone is forced to pay $15 for a 12 oz. bag of beans-but rather everyone has an opportunity to buy affordable sustainable coffee.
let the afficianados have their $30/lb Cup of Excellence micro lots, but what we need to see is good, sustainably grown, fair-trade coffee in every kitchen, breakroom, and cafe in the US…and that’s a model that many people don’t like-democratization of a product goes contrary to the idea of an afficianado’s market. fine. $150 bottles of Caymus Special Select Cab Sauv don’t put food on the table for the majority of California’s winery & farm workers. $7 bottles of Blackstone Merlot do…($9 bottles of organic Blackstone Merlot would be even better :-)
Comment by i'll have a decaf non-fat organic-shad-grown-anti-landmine-fair-trade-femminino mocha please? — July 12, 2006 @ 11:13 am
Thought you’d be interested in a report I came across. I was sitting
next to a guy on the T in Boston and he was reading what looked to be
an interesting report on coffee. I made a note of a phrase
“devastation of coffee communities” and googled it when I got home.
Here’s the link: http://www.maketradefair.com/assets/english/mugged.pdf
Has some interesting stuff if…
Comment by Denver — July 12, 2006 @ 1:57 pm
Hey Denver — Oxfam’s Mugged report was prolly one of the first pieces that intro’d me to the coffee crisis! It’s a great report, yes? :)
Anna — Will add Cameron’s Coffee to the list :)
i’ll have… — The analogy Mark made prolly does work best for people who drink wine regularly, such as myself :) I love to try new coffees — just as many wine afficionados love to try new wine. But wine and coffee lovers often have their faves too — yes?
Comment by Siel — July 15, 2006 @ 6:11 pm