Is that “Bean to Cup” … or “Bean AND Cup”?
Posted by TheShot on 14 Oct 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Fair Trade
Particularly since the late 1980s, the plight of the coffee farmer has not been a pleasant one. Public awareness of this major problem gave rise to mitigation strategies such as Fair Trade and Direct Trade. A couple months ago, you may have seen the press releases for Traceable Coffee.org — a project of Pachamama, a global cooperative of coffee farmers, that enables consumers to trace their purchased coffee to the farmer, to hear their stories, and to offer them additional financial support in the form of a virtual tip jar.
In their own words, “TraceableCoffee.org brings consumers face-to-face with coffee farmers and lets them tip their farmer for a job well done.” While the cause is noble and the intentions are good, TraceableCoffee.org symbolizes another gross oversimplification of bean-to-cup philosophy and how the coffee industry actually works.
Of origin nations and consuming nations
Much like the Tyranny of the Barista effect, which oversimplifies the coffee supply chain in consuming nations by identifying almost exclusively with the barista, there is a sort of corollary in coffee producing nations that identifies almost exclusively with the farmer. So instead of bean-to-cup, what we end up with is bean-and-cup — or an obsessive focus at both ends of the supply chain but a complete blindness to everything that goes on between the two.
On the one hand, this blindness might not seem any more harmful than creating a family tree with only yourself and Adam & Eve on it. But there are potentially harmful effects. A documentary like Black Gold laments that a farmer receives only $0.03 on a $3 cup of coffee, and the implication is that all the other contributors of coffee’s supply chain — from coffee pickers, sorters, washers, truck drivers, dockworkers, etc. — are merely parasites out to starve the noble farmer. “Let’s bypass the evil, greedy middlemen,” the Fair Trade cry implies.
Of course, a major percentage of the cost of a cup of coffee comes from the consuming country after the green beans arrive in shipping containers. But before we demonize all these shippers, dockworkers, truck drivers, buyers, roasters, and baristas, we must acknowledge the enormous cost-of-living gap between origin and consumer countries and how that affects labor costs. In fact, the very existence of this gap is a major reason why we even import coffee to begin with. Longshoremen in Guatemala and America may have vastly different costs of living and the salaries to match — even if their quality of living isn’t all that different.
With just a 1% share of the retail price on a cup of coffee, coffee farmers clearly don’t get a fair shake. But the story of the global coffee trade is much, much more than just farmers and baristas. Even if we don’t expect to see virtual tip jars for Colombian truck drivers anytime soon.
3 Comments »
Great post.
One point: Don’t you sorta mean “seed to cup?”
In all accuracy, you’re probably more correct with “seed to cup”. Just that “bean to cup” has become the de facto phrase in the coffee vernacular.
You make a great point here. Coffee marketing is often over-simplified. It is almost impossible to define “fairness”, so to call it “Fair Trade” is really just marketing (albeit for a good cause). The photos of happy farmers at Starbucks is perhaps misleading, but it seems to work for them. What does that say about the consumer?
I think “Direct Trade” is more misleading this sense, because it is only “direct” between the roaster and the farmer (if even that). Technically, I am pretty certain, direct trade is what happens when the consumer buys from the producer, like at a farmers market. There are at least 2 American companies between my farmer and the “direct trade” coffee I purchased at a cafe yesterday for $3.50.
“Traceable Coffee” seems cleaner and easier to defend, especially if the system if owned and maintained by coffee farmers who are just trying to make their lives a little better. In the case of TraceableCoffee.org, I think this a great. They don’t claim to be “direct” nor do they claim to be “fair”. They just often consumers a way to trace the coffee back to the people that produced it.
If I’m looking to support farmers, then I will go to sites and businesses that are owned my farmers, not marketers with an oversupplied story about fair and direct trade.