Buying coffee: a question of ethics?

Fair Trade coffee
Economic development is a double-edged sword. On one hand, greater wealth leads to greater consumption, and to a heavier drain on resources. A poor peasant won't be able to afford disposable diapers for her six children, so she'll wash cloth. But, on the other hand, statistics show that greater economic development leads to smaller families. A smaller number of consumers, all enjoying better health care, creature comforts, and education, is a more humane approach to conservation than sustained poverty is.

Currently, most coffee is grown, picked, and processed by subsistence-level workers in bleak conditions. In the 1980s, when coffee experienced a burst of popularity worldwide, Third World governments encouraged their peasantry to invest their lives in coffee production. Many farmers in the poorest parts of Central America, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia were lured into the industry by the promise of a better life. But when overexpansion led to a glut of coffee beans in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they ended up deep in debt, burdened with products that cost them more to produce than they could earn by selling them. The rush to production had also eroded their land and deforested their countryside. They were worse off than they were before coffee came into their lives.

Fair Trade organizations stepped into this devolving situation with a sensible solution: If growers would agree to raise better-quality beans in an environmentally sensitive way, then the organizations would help them start cooperatives, guarantee them a higher set price for the product, and market it to wealthy connoisseurs in developed countries. Branded Fair Trade coffee would provide those consumers with a premium product that was produced in a more environmentally responsible way than the lesser product they'd previously chosen. Win-win. One company dealing only in Fair Trade coffee is Mountain View Coffee Roasters (www.mountainviewcoffee.com).

Product and sourcing information about Fair Trade products in the United States is listed at www.transfairusa.org, and names of firms and individuals registered with Fair Trade certifying agencies worldwide are at www.ifat.org. A list of companies whose products are all Fair Trade–certified is at www.globalexchange.org. A wider listing of companies that deal in goods that are produced using Fair Trade principles can be found at www.fairtradefederation.com, though not all are certified.

One issue the Fair Trade movement takes very seriously is child labor. Many of the commodities with which Fair Trade organizations are involved, like coffee, cocoa/chocolate, bananas, and sugar, are often produced through the use of exploitative child labor practices. In the worst cases, this child labor is modern-day slavery. A consumer's decision to purchase a Fair Trade–certified product assures that that purchase price does not support a producer who employs those egregious practices.

Latin American nations are far and away the largest participants in Fair Trade programs. Guatemala leads the way in Fair Trade coffee production, followed by Costa Rica, Mexico, and Colombia. All of Asia produces 15 percent of Fair Trade coffee, and Africa 10 percent. Vietnam, whose farmers plunged into the coffee business with substantial World Bank and government support, has been among the worst stewards of the land, shortsightedly clearing huge swaths of jungle for high-yield, low-quality coffee that quickly saps the land of nutrients. Fair Trade represents a 58 percent increase in wages, but only a 1 percent increase in product price to retailers, according to an October 2001 PricewaterhouseCoopers report. The consumer pays about $1 per pound more.

Shade-grown coffee
Shade-grown coffee represents the smallest segment of the sustainable coffee market, and the one most susceptible to corruption. With so many assertions and claims being touted by producers, roasters, and retailers about sustainability, the need for accountable certifying agencies is great. A study commissioned by The Nature Conservancy, in cooperation with The Summit Foundation and several other concerned groups, found that widespread use of the terms "shade-grown" and "bird-friendly" by firms with only a few trees or trees of all the same species on their farms was watering down the meaning of those terms. This is a problem, even with the existence of two recognized international certifications, Rainforest Alliance's "Eco-OK" for shade grown, and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center's "Bird-Friendly" seal.

Page 2 of 2

Visit the website of TransFair Canada to find out about buying Fair Trade products through Canadian retailers.

Excerpted from The Ethical Gourmet by Jay Weinstein. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.