I've watch chunks of the three-hour TV documentary series Black Coffee on TVO over the last few weeks and it makes me want to campaign for coffee snobbery. The show explains how the international coffee trade is the second largest commodity market after oil but how it is driven by movement of the worst quality. Now I know and you know about fair trade coffee and how buying from small producers more directly gives them a decent chance of a decent wage.
What I did not know was about how the best coffee is not grown on land stripped of all its forest but under the shade of a canopy. So if you buy coffee from those producers, it is simply the best, it is a purchase of quality for reasonable cost and it saves the rainforest in that small producers only need to plant the old trees to improve quality. The trees attract the wildlife back creating tourism, the trees provide natural fertilizer reducing pesticide and provide another cash crop in time through sustainable low impact lumber production.
We buy wine and and bread and beer and juice and cheese to have the best our wallet can afford. If we did the same with coffee beans, we might solve an economic problem as well...and not to be a do-gooder but to be a snob. Here is the website for Just Us Coffee, the small fair trade roasters in Nova Scotia we used to mail order from. It's a start to your life as a big fat snob for good.
Comments
Flea - December 20, 2005 9:32 AM
Snobbery is often a force for good. I remember my Maoist ex-girlfriend taking me to task for the price I paid for my Donna Karan suit. "Isn't that overconsumption?", she asked, rhetorically. "Actually," I replied, "this may be the one garment I have ever purchased where the women who made it are actually being paid a fair wage on every stitch."
Not that my argument carried the day. There are all too many progressives for whom the appearance of propriety rather than an engagement with introductory economics is all that needs to be upheld. So, excellent snob choice with the coffee then.
Cyn - December 20, 2005 9:35 AM
Timothy's World Coffee in Charlottetown brews and sells fair trade as well.
It costs a wee bit more than the shat they serve at Tim Hortons. But, being a coffee snob, I will pay more if it means a real cup of coffee.
Alan - December 20, 2005 9:50 AM
I am wearing Doc Martins I bought in Edinburgh in 1986. Quality can also be cheap in the long run. If I ever bought a suit I would be sure it was Flea-tastic.
cm - December 20, 2005 9:55 AM
I don't drink coffee myself, but I did buy fair trade for the gentleman I was seeing over the summer. It's still in the freezer for anyone who wants it. I taped the documentary, but haven't watched it yet.
optimus - December 20, 2005 10:21 AM
Fair trade roasts are available locally from Coffee & Co. as well as from The Sleepless Goat. The latter's roasts are shade grown and 'bird friendly' as well.
Don - December 20, 2005 11:06 AM
Buy Canadian coffee! Stand up for Canada!
Alan - December 20, 2005 11:15 AM
Torbrano! There are no Canadian coffee plantations...unless those secret rumours about New Bunswick are correct. <i>CONFESS, TORBRANO, CONFESS!</i>
Don - December 20, 2005 11:57 AM
Ummmm - does that mean Tim Horton's isn't using Canadian coffee? I knew those American Wendy's guys would destroy our institutions.
...
Actually, I'm not that pessimistic - I believe every Tim's has local grow-ops producing their fine beans.
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/homegrowing.htm
Gordo - December 20, 2005 1:55 PM
Multatuli Coffee in Kingston Township carries a number of organic and fairly traded coffee: http://www.multatuli.ca/index.html
Alan - December 20, 2005 2:03 PM
Excellent knowledge, Gordo and optimus.
GR - December 20, 2005 4:53 PM
Green Mtn Coffee Roasters have many fair trade, organic coffees, some of which they have partnered with Newman's Own to market. This is the good stuff we drink at home every day. It was a big surprise last summer to hear that McDonalds of New England and some of northern NY were going to start brewing fair trade Newmans Green Mtn organic coffee. I don't go to the golden arches, and it is a fantastic step for them. However, why do I imagine that it isn't the same perfectly and STRONGLY brewed stuff I have at home?
P.S. the state of VT gives cups of the stuff away FREE at their highway rest stops, and it is strong and does taste good. Maybe this is only certain busy weeks, but you gotta love Vermont.
P.P.S. My home state of New Hampshire has enormous liquor stores at highway rest stops. What does that say about us?????
Alan - December 20, 2005 6:10 PM
We bring back Green Mountain Coffee when we are over.
SayNay? - December 21, 2005 6:35 PM
You're right Al, this was an excellent program on TVO, with some startling statistics. Did I hear this right: that Starbucks is the fourth largest coffee company in the world, by revenue, but only purchases about 2% of the annual world crop? But I also got the impression that Starbucks, while supporting CARE, could, in the filmmakers' opinon, do more to "trickle" down the profits to the labourers and small growers.
Alan - December 21, 2005 8:41 PM
I think Starbucks only agreed to sell fair trade after protest.