Anyway — I always enjoy being called naughty, and would love to chat — about coffee, critique vs. cooperation, the cult of personality, etc. Will try to load your site again tomorrow –

As far as the Fair Trade model goes, I have always believed that fair trade is a movement, an evolving process, not a simple formula or a strict set of rules that folks can get around or use for their own marketing purposes. Our model is a bit off the norm. We only buy from FLO certified coops and pay at least the fair trade minumum. More significantly, we have a six cent per pound profit sharing program with ALL of the farmers we work with, design and fund people-centered development projects in the coffee villages (totally at the request and co-designed with the growers), provide legal advocacy and community development against Big Oil, intellectual property protection, and whatever else is bugging the farmers (which varies dramatically from country to country). We sponsor grower visits (like bringing Esperanza up from Peru to meet Hillary Clinton and address 3500 NY teachers) and next week we are hosting Tadesse’s 15 year old daughter for two weeks (her first plane flight ever-from Ethiopia). We are arranging full scholarships at US schools for two Papua New Guinea coffee farmer’s kids next Sept, blah blah blah. The point is that to us, fair trade is a deep ethical commitment that permeates every aspect of our relationship with the farmers, not just a price point, a marketing gimmick or a one-stop handwashing for our obligations to third world communities who supply us with a good livelihood up here.

Anyway, this is a great column and I am enjoying the freespeak immensely. I can also take a few punches with moderate grace. Thanks.

As you know, if a coffee blend has ANY non fair trade coffee in it, that blend can’t be certified as fair trade — yet the roaster has to pay extra fees for the fair trade coffee. This means there’s a financial disincentive to roasters to consider making a fair trade coffee a part of one of their premium blends.

I’m of the opinion that this is something we need to discuss further in the fair trade activist community, and possibly push to change.

One complaint I hear by “average Jo’s” about Fair Trade is that although they may agree with the movement’s ideals, they simply are unwilling or unable to pay the premium for FT coffee. These are often people with families on very tight budgets. In one of the comments, there was a criticism of MNC’s who buy only small proportions of FT coffee and sell it at lower prices by mixing it with non-FT coffee. Although this offends FT purists, is it not a possible way to make FT coffee more affordable? Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s a compromise at least, is it not? Maybe it would be more satisfying if the roaster could indicated what percentage of the coffee was Fair Trade? (you know, they have 100% Columbian labels – why not say “20% Fair Trade”? That would be more honest than hinting that all the coffee was FT, while still allowing budget shoppers to feel slightly better about their purchase)

Okay — I just wrote a long long comment, then decided it would be better to use it for an actual post. A new post on this coming up, really soon.

The companies which have split from TFUSA would generally benefit from such certification and SBX will not be able to get the label. Such a label would also reflect the committment of the company as a whole towards sustainable practices.

BTW the Just Coffee link in your post is not correct I think. It just brings up a list of search results. Did you mean to include http://www.justcoffee.net/ OR http://www.justcoffee.org ?

Speaking for Larry’s Beans, we left the Trans Fair fold in order to raise the bar for the industry at large, not just to separate ourselves. 

We want to create competition for transparency and commitment. Thus, we would be DELIGHTED to see companies like Starbucks and Nestle’s go 100% Fair Trade. We’re confident of our ability to source, roast and blend awesome coffee. In our ideal world, every company is 100% Fair Trade and Organic and we compete on quality, style, and appeal.

Bring it on.

Larry Larson
el CEO, Larry’s Beans, INC

Thanks for the mention on your blog!

I agree that “divisive tactics” should be saved as a last resort. My contention is that, at least for those of us who left (and those who are now thinking of leaving, you know who you are! ;), we reached the last resort with TFUSA.

Those of us who left TFUSA did so after over a year of talks with them. In the end, their response was basically: “Thanks for the feedback. Now sit back and shut up cause we are driving this boat”. Paul’s quote in the CSM says it best and does so irrefutably — to TFUSA money trumps mission period.

Now, I know that you know that our leaving was not based on pouting for having to compete with the TNCs, your panel in Denver and its fall-out make that clear. Although, I have to say that in a way it was a factor. If TF had given us an even playing field we would not have been able to complain about this particular piece.

The SBUXs and even the Green Mountains of the world have used the TF label in ways that violate their contracts and that confuse consumers as to what their commitment levels are. They also buy huge amounts of cheaper and non-FT coffee and can sell their “fairly traded” coffee at cost or below while subsidizing with profits made from cheap coffee. That is not very fair trade-like (or nice for that matter) and THAT is what our problem is with competing with those companies in the way we have been asked to.

I don’t have a huge problem with Green Mountain (GM) and I recognize that they have upped the ante on their FT purchases in a way that should make SBUX red-faced with shame. That said, they have used the TF label in their ads as if they were a FT company and have not received (to my knowledge) even a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, after Dean took out his ads challenging Newman’s Org/GM and when Equal Exchange publicly challenged P&G in the same way, they both got nasty letters from TFUSA about violating their licensing agreements by attacking other licensees. This selective enforcement of contracts is yet another reason why we all left soon after.

Okay, lastly I will say that although I do not agree with what ANYONE does 100% of the time, I would back up Dean any day of the week. Anyone who knows him knows his dedication to FT and to farmers and that he is anything but a fat-cat CEO scheming to rake in the big dough. To be a 100% fair trade roaster pretty much neccesitates that you will never make a mint in the coffee industry by virtue of your thin little margins. To do so would be plain wrong as the producers we depend on will never be rich either.

Lastly, lastly, thanks Siel for all of your work, research, questioning, and muck-raking. You are asking the hard questions that need to be asked of all players in this thing.

I swear to god I will slow down on the “War and Peace”-length responses for a while and roast some freaking coffee.

-Matt