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The Lancaster Voice
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Lancaster, PA 17608-0274
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Coordinator of LCPJ, John Schreck,
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Fair Trade Coffee in Lancaster—An Opportunity We Shouldn't Pass Up
 With the world
hunger crisis worsening week by week even a routine decision like
where to buy your coffee can have far-reaching effects. In 2001, when
a glut of huge industrialized coffee plantations caused coffee prices
to crash, the effects devastated the world's 25 million coffee farming
families in 60 countries. Small-scale farmers still cannot earn an
income sufficient to provide food, medical care, and education for
their children. When prices don't cover the cost of production, family
farms are abandoned, families are uprooted, and parents can't send
their children to school. Half a million jobs were lost in Central
America alone in 2001, and the outlook remains bleak unless the
international community—which enjoys a pricey cult of coffee with a
dizzying variety—realizes there are ways to help in this crisis, and
that you can help whether you work for a relief agency or just buy
coffee for your family or business.
One hopeful solution is Fair Trade—a
concept launched in the late 1930s that is newly popular among
socially responsible vendors and consumers. Typically in Fair Trade
agreements, developing countries producing coffee, tea, handicrafts
(baskets, textiles, jewelry, etc.), and other goods are assisted by
relief agencies and nongovernmental organizations who have the
structure and resources to help them export their goods directly to
the people buying them. Farmers, for their part, must belong to a
democratically-run cooperative that shares the profits equitably.
Fair Trade coffee may be the best-known
product marketed in this way. Oxfam and Equal Exchange are just two of
many organizations working with indigenous peoples to trade without
the middleman, thereby improving their productivity and
sustainability. Trademarks and labeling are crucial in Fair Trade
agreements; commodities bearing a trademark or brand name belonging to
the producer are sold at or above a specified price that is determined
by an international agency.
Fair Trade is not charity; it is
justice. It is not a handout but a helping hand that allows the
farmers themselves to work their land with a chance to succeed. It
guarantees them a fair price ($1.26 per pound for conventional coffee
when the market price is low, and $1.41 for certified organic; when
the market rises above the floor price it is 5 cents per pound above
the prevailing market price and 15 cents per pound above for certified
organic). Organizations like Oxfam also assist small-scale farmers in
getting affordable credit to help them make sustainable agricultural
improvements and learn about risk management and the coffee supply
chain. Small-scale coffee growers deserve a seat at the table
alongside big business, and Fair Trade is a way for them to get there.
Fair Trade Coffee Brewing in Lancaster
Coffee drinkers around Lancaster have plenty of opportunities to buy
fairly traded coffee and make a real difference in the lives of people
in developing countries. The following local companies, shops, and
roasters carry Fair Trade coffee. Square One Coffee on Duke Street in
Lancaster brews nothing but Fair Trade coffee and sells it by the
pound as well. Their Fair Trade is also served at the restaurant Wish
You Were Here on Orange Street. Bucks County Coffee Company, with
kiosks in Giant Food Stores in Centerville and Lititz, carries Fair
Trade whole bean or ground coffee and usually has a few varieties to
choose from. (They also offer well-thought-out fundraising
opportunities for organizations that want to do two good things at
once.)
Ten Thousand Villages in Ephrata, one of
the world's oldest and largest Fair Trade organizations, sells Fair
Trade coffee by the pound and serves it in their café.
Gerhart Coffee Company (397-8788), which
offers coffee service to companies and online sales, was recently
licensed by TransFair USA to sell Fair Trade coffee. Dosie Dough, on
Lemon Street in Lancaster and Broad Street in Lititz, serves Green
Mountain organic and Fair Trade coffee, as does Ric's Bread, on 24 N.
Queen St., Lancaster.
Starbucks, with locations on Columbia
Avenue, Fruitville Pike, and Park City Center, carries one Fair Trade
coffee and will French press you a cup if you ask. They sell Fair
Trade beans and will grind them upon request. But Starbucks, a giant
of the coffee industry, has a mixed record when it comes to Fair Trade
coffee. Starbucks gets credit for initiating C.A.F.E. practices
(Coffee and Farmer Equity) and buys more than 13% of the world's Fair
Trade certified coffee, based on 2006 figures. But when asked by Oxfam
to acknowledge Ethiopia's right to trademark its premium coffees,
Starbucks resisted. It took three years and a global grassroots
movement spearheaded by Oxfam involving 96,000 people to get Starbucks
to sign the agreement allowing Ethiopia to trademark Yirgacheffe,
Sidamo, and Harar coffees. Last fall Oxfam and Ethiopian farmers
celebrated the success of the campaign and Starbucks agreed to honor
its commitments to the farmers.
On the domestic front Starbucks is
getting a lot of publicity regarding charges of union-busting.
Starbucks union organizers want better benefits and more stable
working schedules. In New York the company has been charged with more
than 30 counts of unfairly suppressing organizing efforts by the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). And last fall the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accused Starbucks of unlawful anti-union
activity in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The NLRB found merit in the IWW's
claims that the company fired three pro-union employees and gave
others unfair negative performance reviews. Last year Starbucks signed
a settlement agreement with the NLRB pledging to refrain from unlawful
anti-union intimidation in Grand Rapids, but baristas claim the
company has not refrained from these actions. According to
BusinessWeek, one of the IWW Starbucks union's volunteer organizers
claims that only 42% of Starbucks employees are covered by the
company's health insurance, and that the company confirms that figure.
That's below Wal-Mart's 47%, which has been held up as a very poor
percentage of covered employees in a company that is clearly able to
do more.
Starbucks apparently can be persuaded to
improve the lives of farmers and workers in other countries. So why
does Starbucks have such a lamentable record when it comes to
improving the lives of its own workers? Something to be discussed and
worked on over a cup of Fair Trade.
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