Here's an article written by a local roaster. I
like the guy & think he's got his head (and his
company) in the right place. I'm trying to remove
his company's name from teh article--forgive me
if I miss a mention. If you want to know the
source, email me at pauljolly65
Navigating the Sea of Terms - A Coffee Buyers
Primer
-Mark Inman, Roastmaster
T***** M*** F****
Fair Trade, Shade-Grown, Certified-Organic.
These terms have become "buzz words" for coffee
drinkers around the world. Unfortunately, most of
the media paints a very simplistic picture of
these terms and their environmental or social
significance. As a fourteen-year veteran of the
coffee trade, specializing in Certified-Organic
and Fair Trade coffees, it disappoints me to see
the media use these terms to simply sell a "juicy
story." Granted, it would be difficult to dilute
these complicated issues down to an easily
digestible sound bite, conveniently packaged into
a marketable seal for the mindful consumer.
However, I believe the cure to the ills of the
ongoing coffee crisis lie in a change of consumer
perception rather than the support of one seal
over another. Aside from imparting the vital
importance of the current seals, I hope to convey
the artistry of specialty coffee and, more
importantly, to raise issue with the low value
consumers place on this intensely hand crafted
product.
It's All in the Details
Shade-grown and Bird-friendly
These terms are almost interchangeable and
refer to the conditions under which coffee is
grown. Traditionally, the coffee varieties of
Bourbon and Typica were grown under a canopy of
shade, which protected them from the harsh sun.
This canopy was multi-storied, closely resembled
a rustic forest, and provided habitat for a
myriad of flora and fauna. With the
industrialization of the coffee production model,
coffee farmers have become dependent on systems
using full-sun hybrid varieties with
high-chemical inputs and mechanized harvesting
methods. Gone are the days of having to harvest
coffee around all those other pesky trees, plants
and critters. With this agricultural shift came
massive deforestation, population decline of
migratory birds and other key species.
Shade-Grown coffees support these important
issues in farming today. It ensures that multiple
species have habitat, that the coffee varieties
are predominately heirloom and not hybrid and
that there is preservation of the dwindling
tropical rainforests. Sadly, Shade-Grown coffees
only address one aspect of the complex coffee
picture. The seal is criticized for its failure
to address the viability of proven organic
strategies, the use of agrochemicals, or whether
the coffee trees come from genetically modified
root stocks. Finally, the purchase of Shade-Grown
coffee does not address important socioeconomic
issues.
Fair Trade
Fair Trade addresses primarily the price
points at which coffee is sold and traded on the
world commodity market. Coffee, like oil, pork
bellies, and frozen concentrated orange juice is
traded on a market based on speculation and
futures. When frosts hit Brazil, analysts might
predict a short supply, which in turn causes a
spike in the coffee market and prices go up. When
there is oversupply in the market, as is the case
today, the prices fall. When market prices fall
below $1.00/Lb., as it has been for the last
three years, farmers face the choice of
starvation, loss of land, or urban migration
replete with the usual bleak array of living
options. Fair trade ensures a "floor" price that
allows farmers to make minimal profits in such
low markets. Fair Trade farmers receive a
guaranteed minimum of $1.26 for non-organic
coffees and $1.41 for Certified-Organic coffees.
Like Shade-Grown and Certified-Organic
coffee, Fair Trade is a work in progress and not
a panacea for the present crisis. The limitations
of the Fair Trade program is that only
cooperatives, democratically operated along
detailed guidelines laid down by Transfair USA,
can apply. However, many traditional coffee farms
are not co-ops. They can be privately owned or
run in a tribal or communal setting. Such
structures may produce premium coffee using
strict environmental guidelines, pay decent
wages, provide humane working conditions for its
workers, but it cannot earn the Fair Trade label
and premium.
Despite their claims to the contrary, the
guidelines of Transfair USA do not adequately
address issues surrounding the environment,
biodiversity, species preservation or whether or
not the coffee trees come from genetically
modified rootstocks.
Certified-Organic
Organic farming is truly more about
relationships than simply "chemical-free"
farming. The checks and balances that result from
an organic system comes from the interaction of a
wide variety of life forms. From bacteria and
rhizomes below the ground to pollinators and
flowers above the ground to a bear crapping in
the woods on the ground, organic agriculture is
more a system of relationships than a means to a
marketable seal.
Organic coffee farming ensures that
shade-friendly varieties of coffee are planted.
Chemically dependent, full-sun hybrids or
genetically modified coffee trees cannot (by law)
be used. The purchase of Certified-Organic coffee
ensures it is not grown using any of the common
pesticides, herbicides and fungicides used on
coffee, many of which are banned in the United
States. Similar to Fair Trade, Certified-Organic
coffees offer a premium to farmers (around 40
cents above the commodities market) and during
low markets, Certified-Organic farmers are able
to turn profits. Small family farmers who
participate in cooperatives produce most of
Certified-Organic coffee available to roasters.
The purchase of Certified Organic coffee creates
the ability for small farms to compete against
larger coffee interests. In many third world
countries, the division of wealth is wide (a few
wealthy, many poor and almost no middle class),
therefore purchasing Certified-Organic, similar
to the Fair Trade system, helps to close the gap.
The fly in this system's ointment is that
some farmers can come up short with
Certified-Organic depending on geographic
location. For example, despite similarities in
growing practices and overall crop quality, a
farmer in Costa Rica or Sumatra could be
receiving premiums far above the organic Fair
Trade floor price. On the other hand, if you are
a farmer in Mexico, Peru or Bolivia, you might
see prices at or a little below the non-organic
Fair Trade minimum. This is where both supply and
demand play a role in determining the price for
the same amount of work.
Multi-Certification
Double and triple certified coffees are a
combination of the above certifications.
Multi-Certified coffees close the loopholes that
make individual certifications weak. For all the
reasons stated above, the current recommended
purchase for maximum benefits are
Certified-Organic, Fair Trade coffees.
Changing Our Perception Of Coffee
Media exposure has raised the global
consumer's awareness of the growing crisis in the
world coffee market. What do these low prices
mean to you, what does it mean to the
environment, what does this mean to the people
who grow the world's premium coffee beans?
Be it Starbucks, Peets or Green Mountain,
most specialty coffee companies purchase within
the top echelon of quality coffee-namely from the
top 10 percent. Ultra-premium coffee companies
such as T**************, B*************** and
I*********** are purchasing within the top 3
percent. The consumer has been getting the deal
of a lifetime for the past 20 years! Consumers
have been able to taste the finest coffee
available for less than 25 cents a serving;
that's right, you are able to go to a supermarket
or cafe, purchase the most superlative coffee the
world has to offer, go home and brew yourself a
cup for .25 cents. What quality of wine,
chocolate, cognac or cigar do you believe you
would get for .25 cents a serving, how about .40?
And why is that? Specialty coffee is one of
the finest hand crafted products in the world.
Like wine, there are "old vine" or heirloom
varieties of coffee. Such trees need special
attention, making mechanization close to
impossible, and offer different tastes and aromas
depending on which region or elevation that
variety is grown. Coffee requires 10 times the
hand attention of wine production, 5 times more
than chocolate and cigar production. In fact 36
humans touch your pound of coffee before you
grind and brew it.
The coffee crisis is not so much about a
global glut on coffee (most of this coffee you
would never consume) as much as it is about the
public's perception of specialty coffee.
Americans were raised on bottomless cups of
insipid brown water that cost around 3 cents per
serving. We awoke to the sweet sound of the
breaking vacuum seal of 2lb. cans of Foldgers or
Maxwell House that our parents purchased for
2.99. Coffee was the stuff of breakfast that you
used to wash down toast. It was not "gourmet" by
any stretch of the imagination and it was
certainly not the type of beverage you would have
waited in long cafe or drive-thru lines.
But times have changed, more Americans are
waxing poetic about their Java estate, Nicaragua
Segovia, or Ethiopian Yirgachefee. More Americans
are drinking espresso-based beverages than in any
other point in our country's history. In their
minds, coffee consumers are beginning to
understand the complexities of coffee, yet in
their wallets they still carry the memory of the
price of a 2lb can of Maxwell house. Supermarkets
have jumped on the "coffee boom" bandwagon of
selling specialty coffee, now being responsible
for 74% of all specialty coffee sold, yet they
still will not allow coffee companies to offer
products for over 10 dollars a pound. Why? Does
their wine department set a price cap on a bottle
of wine?
In reality, specialty coffee should be
selling to the consumer for over $20.00/Lb. This
increase (only changing the price per cup from
..25 cents to .40 cents for home use) would
eliminate the chain of poverty and destitution
that plagues so many farmers worldwide. It would
allow farmers to actually earn a living being a
farmer (interesting concept) rather than being
the charity cases they are made to be. If we
invest more in the quality of their products, in
return, the consumer receives a more
environmentally and socially just cup.
Fair Trade, Shade-Grown and
Certified-Organic are simply verifications for
consumers that minimum-controls are in place to
ensure balanced agriculture and social elements.
Labels are not the complete answer to the plight
of the farmer, you are. If you, the consumer are
unwilling to pay more for coffee, then farmers
worldwide will abandon the notion of specialty
coffee, turn to a mechanized system where coffee
will be grown on flat, monoculture fields in full
sun to meet your acceptable price point. That
future is up to you.
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