COFFEE & CONSCIENCE
While java drinkers in the developed world spend freely, coffee growers struggle to feed their families and school their children
BY SONIA FURSTENAU, RESULTS Canada, JULY/2003

When we sit down for a morning cup of coffee, little do most of us realize that this simple act affects the lives of people who depend on coffee not for the jolt it offers, but for their livelihoods, their health and the education of their children.

Coffee is second only to oil for its value in the global market. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 25 million small coffee producers depend entirely on coffee for their income, and 500 million people worldwide rely directly or indirectly on the coffee industry.

Seventy per-cent of the world's coffee is produced by small farmers. And what many of us don't consider as we sip our morning java is that the global coffee market is collapsing and the crisis is threatening the lives and well-being of the growers who rely on coffee beans to, sustain themselves and their families.

A number of factors contribute to the current coffee crisis. Once considered a reliable commodity, farmers in developing nations were encouraged to grow coffee beans. Over the last few years, however, production has increased significantly and lower quality beans are being traded, resulting in a considerable over-supply and a devastating drop in prices.

Over the last three years, the price of coffee has fallen almost 50 per cent, and small farmers are selling their beans at less than the production costs, leaving them unable to feed their families, send their children to school, buy essential medicines or even stay on their land.

In El Salvador, a Canadian International Development Agency intern describes a community that has been devastated by the coffee crisis.

"It's like a scene out of a World Vision commercial. Everyone looks gaunt, depressed, tired." The intern reported that many families could no longer afford the small school fees, and had withdrawn their children from school. Thirty-eight coffee cooperatives in the area had been taken over by the banks for failing to pay their loans. Residents could not afford the 12 colones ($1.05) to visit a health centre, or the 100 colones ($8.75) to visit a doctor.

These grim circumstances are found throughout the regions that depend on coffee. But while the poor and marginalized suffer as the coffee prices plummet, the corporations that buy and distribute the beans are taking advantage of the low prices, often making record profits.

Fair-trade coffee provides consumers with the choice to support coffee growers, and helps the profits to reach the farmers, rather than concentrating in the hands of the distributors. Accredited organizations, such as Canada's Trans-Fair, certify fair-trade distributors and retailers, ensuring that the beans are bought from cooperatives that use small-scale, environmentally sustain- able production methods. In addition to being democratically organized, the coffee-growing cooperatives must use their collective economic strength to set up community health, education, transportation and environment-protection projects.

Fair trade ensures that growers receive a minimum price for beans, often two to three times more than the market price. Currently, the difference between the "world price" of about 65 cents a pound and the "fair trade" price of $1.26 translates to a one- to four-cent difference in the cost per cup.

Since fairly traded coffee is generally organic, shade grown and of high quality the price difference between it and coffee of similar quality is negligible. And while most of us in Canada can easily absorb a small increase in the cost of a luxury good, the difference can dramatically affect a coffee producer's life.

For a farmer, the difference in price can mean that a daughter does not get taken out of school or that essential "medicines can be bought. At an El Salvador cooperative, a farmer pointed to two shipping containers destined for a fair-trade coffee importer. Explaining the effects of fair trade in stark terms, he said, "Without those two containers, we would be dead."

Ottawa too can help. The International Coffee Organization (ICO), a subsidiary of the United Nations, works to improve conditions for the millions of coffee producers in the world.Except for Canada and the U.S., most of the world's coffee consuming and producing nations are members of the ICO. As one of the world's top 10 coffee consuming countries, Canada should join the ICO and become part of international efforts to address the crisis.

Currently, fair trade coffee accounts for less than one per cent of Canada's coffee market, but it has been rapidly increasing over the last two years. As consumers, we can seek it out at grocery stores, and request it in cafes. Most of all, we can recognize that our choices can have immense effects on the people in the world who supply us with the luxury of a hot cup of coffee in the morning.

Sonia Furstenau is a volunteer with RESULTS Canada, an organization working to reduce world poverty.