The Real Buzz About Coffee
This article was written by a guest contributor, Caroline Motzer. Read about Caroline here.
Every night, around 10 pm, my dad gets up from whatever he is doing and makes a pot of coffee for my mom (yes she drinks coffee before bed). For her, this cup closes her day and signifies it is time to rest. For my father, the ritual of scooping the grounds, measuring the water and mixing in the half&half does the same.
I started drinking coffee my sophomore year of high school. Between classes, sports practices, homework and SAT prep, I needed the extra energy to get through the day. Since then, I start each day by sluggishly going through the motions of brewing coffee. I have had many job interviews, friendly catch ups, tough conversations and work meetings all under the pretense of grabbing a cup together. Whether you drink it regularly or not, coffee is undoubtedly an integral piece in American society. As the pandemic has made apparent, we are a nation who leans upon social interaction, and I for one, greatly miss the consistent coffee dates I had before.
For many of us, coffee serves as a medium for social interactions, and helps us wake up in the morning. For some, however, coffee is how they make a living. From the barista at your local coffee shop who knows your order by heart, to the woman who spent months designing the packaging for the bags sold at grocery stores, to the father who wakes before dawn to cultivate his coffee plants in hopes that he can afford to send his children to school, coffee is at the center of their life. It does not surprise me that coffee is one of the top most globally traded agricultural commodities (Business Insider 2011) and with a title this big comes a myriad of problems.
I recently talked with Andrew Hermann, a 26-year-old Seattle native and Founder and CEO of www.betterworldbeans.com, a direct trade coffee company working toward minimizing the large supply chain gap between consumer and producer while paying coffee farmers a fair wage. I met Andrew in the summer of 2013 when we travelled to the Dominican Republic to visit and learn from a small mountainous coffee farming community named Franco Bidó. This program was organized through www.educationacrossborders.org, a non profit whose aim is to listen to the challenges of small communities in the Dominican Republic, form relationships, and partner with local leaders to co-create lasting solutions to extreme poverty. I left for that trip with the naive and selfish mindset that I would be helping those less fortunate by building houses. I returned to the US immensely humbled by the hospitality, knowledge, and wisdom illustrated by the coffee farmers of Franco Bidó. John McLaughlin, Director and Co-Founder of EAB echoes my thoughts exactly when he says, “I am awed by the skill, devotion, intelligence, and ingenuity it takes to farm coffee well, year after year; and I'm heartbroken at how undervalued their work is, because of their lack of political and economic power.” Farming coffee well is a beautifully intricate process requiring intense and detailed knowledge of the environment, the crop, and coffee economics.
Throughout my time spent in Franco Bidó I listened and learned from the 15 families that grew and sold coffee as their livelihood. Perhaps the challenge most widely voiced was the unjust global coffee supply chain and how the margins are unlivable. The traditional coffee supply chain is one entrenched in colonialism and injustice. Coffee producing countries (think global south) produce immense quantities of coffee for the typically wealthier, northern countries to consume. In 2019, Fair Trade USA noted that farmers earn less than one dollar per pound of coffee (Fair Trade America 2019). Meanwhile I head to the grocery store and pay anywhere from 10-15 dollars for one pound. Where is all this money going? Similar to most food supply chains, the traditional route of the coffee bean is a lengthy one, beginning with the farmers and ending with the consumer. In-between, however, coffee goes through a series of sales and transformations. Typically, the farmer sells their beans to an exporter, that exporter sells them to a middle man, the middle man sells them to a US broker, the broker sells them to a food distributor who then sells them to a coffee company and finally that coffee company sells them to you. This was the route in which farmers from Franco Bidó sold their coffee, and this is what they wanted most to change. Felicia, the matriarch of the community, known for her world famous hugs, voiced her dream of Franco Bidó having their own brand of coffee, one where consumers knew where their product was coming from, the farmers who produced the beans were able to receive the just compensation they deserve, and the high quality coffee of Franco Bidó could be shared with the world.
Through the relationships Andrew formed with members of Franco Bidó and Education Across Borders, he founded Better World Beans (BWB) to assist Felica and other Dominican farmers like Mario, Constantino and Julia, in easing the challenges caused by the unjust coffee supply. BWB is a direct trade company, meaning that instead of forcing farmers to sell into a lengthy supply chain, BWB directly purchases the beans, roasts them and delivers the product to consumers' doorstep. This allows for consumers to receive the freshest, highest quality coffee and for farmers to be paid livable and respectable wages. These are not Andrew’s only goals for BWB, however. He hopes that through this shift in the coffee supply chain, farmers will have resources to grow crops other than coffee thus diversifying their crops and encouraging more sustainable agricultural practices.
I recently asked Andrew about his opinions on direct trade vs. equal/fair trade, and how we can be more conscientious coffee consumers. He believes that direct trade is the best buying option because it completely cuts out the middle-man and allows farmers to earn more for their labor. Buying Fair Trade is good, better than conventional coffee, but still not ideal. Fair Trade Certifications are very expensive for growers to get, thus further reinforcing economic inequalities and the cycle of poverty. He advises to look for Direct Trade coffee, ask questions about where your coffee is coming from, who grew it, and how long it traveled to get here and ultimately, vote with your dollar. Andrew writes, “There are 23 million small scale family coffee farmers in [Latin America]; we are inextricably linked to these small villages through our morning brew”. Whether you are a coffee addict or a someone who makes it for a loved one but does not consume it yourself, the individual lives of all of the incredible people who produce our beloved hot bean water are directly impacted by our decisions.
If you are interested in supporting Andrew’s Direct Trade company or learning more about the farmers in Franco Bidó who grow BWB coffee please visit https://www.betterworldbeans.com/
To learn more about the injustices faced by small, rural communities in the DR and to support their efforts, please visit https://www.educationacrossborders.org/
References:
https://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-the-coffee-industry-2011-11
https://www.fairtradeamerica.org/news-insights/we-love-coffee-are-we-willing-to-pay-the-price/