Thursday, March 30, 2006


Fair Trade Coffee and My Dirty Little Secret
It’s about a quarter to eight on a Thursday morning and I am sitting alone in
Temple, a coffee house about a block from where I work. I’ve been to this place only a couple times before and though the location, atmosphere, and coffee is good, I have no really pressing reason to patronize this place for my daily sacrament of java. The fact is there are two other places I can get my coffee that are next door to my office and another that is directly on the way to work – no detour required.

Ambience is not that important since I usually get the coffee to go, but this place is very comfortable – it used to be a bookstore about 15 years ago and hasn’t lost the feeling one gets in an old bookstore -- like you don’t want to leave. I can’t help but feel a little envious though – there’s always a large group of friends or coworkers occupying two or three pulled-together tables nearly every morning, talking about work or play – I’m always alone with nothing to keep me company but this tablet or whatever magazine or book I may have in my bag at the time.

There’s another reason I patronize this specific coffee house: they sell only fair trade coffee. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to buy exclusively from farmer’s markets, co-ops, and boycott products that are owned by companies that have been bought out by belligerent corporations; I don’t have the energy to keep that up. The fact is many nights of the week you’ll find me at the local Starbucks ordering lattes for my family. There – I said it, I feel a lot better now. No longer will I have to wonder if one of my old radical left-wing college buddies will recognize me when I am ordering a Frappuccino.

Since the Seattle-based chain started planting stores in locations near my house I’ve been choosing Starbucks nearly three out of every four times I get coffee in the evenings. Some of the guys at work complain that Starbucks is running independent coffee houses, like this one I’m sitting in, out of business. Though I like individuality and uniqueness of places like Temple, I also enjoy the uniformity, convenience, not to mention the wide selection of espresso drinks Starbucks offers.

Behind the warm tones, selves of shiny travel mugs, and tasteful jazz, folk, and rock music CD racks of the corporate coffee houses of North America lies the dirty back-end of the coffee business most middle-class Americans would rather not know about: the Free-Trade Zones. For that matter they probably wouldn’t want to know that the problem is pervasive – covering hundreds of goods and services North Americans buy everyday. The shirt on your back could have very well been made in some Guatemalan sweat shop. Most of us know about the Kathy Lee Gifford incident and, at times, feel a little self-righteous pointing our finger at the annoying “celebrity” and Wal-Mart icon, but it is pretty hard for just about anyone in North America to escape supporting, in one way or another, the institution of Free-Trade Zones.

The alternative to free trade – at least as far as coffee, tea, and chocolate goes – is fair trade, where producers receive a fair price for their product and work under safer conditions. Also, buyers and producers trade under direct long-term relationships – there’s no middle men to cut into the producers’ profit.

Fair trade coffees are not that easy to find and cost about two dollars more a bag. The fact is fair-trade coffee only represents one to two percent of the specialty coffee market. So if brands like Cloudforest, Peace, and Thanksgiving coffees don’t ring a bell you’re not alone. After a lot of bad press, Starbucks finally came out with a line of fair trade coffees.

Starbucks’ free trade coffees have identical packaging to the fair trade coffees, but without the Fair-Trade Certification seal; in other words: you have to look beyond the text about how Starbucks is giving back to the growers yada, yada, yada and find the seal to get the fair trade coffee. Also, as of this post, the few fair trade coffees they have are in whole-bean form only and good luck trying to get a latte or macchiato using fair trade coffee.

This fair trade verses free trade business hasn’t soured my appetite for Starbucks – only sobered me on the politics of coffee and just about everything else I buy, for that matter. In fact, since I discovered this little coffee house on the way to work I have discovered that nearly half of the independent coffee houses I visit either at work or during off hours use fair trade coffees.

It’s another Thursday morning and I am sitting alone, as usual; this time where the old book store’s windowed display case used to be. I feel better now that I drink fair trade coffee and almost want to stand up, like a model, beckoning pedestrians to come in and try this fair trade coffee. The humiliation I would surely feel would be my penance for my post-meridian excursions into corporate coffee country.

3 comments:

Lawson Copy Write said...

Your on my Hit List...
Now I know that could be construed negatively, as I do run "the Official Blog of the CIA," but rest assured I do not mean Hit in that way, but rather "hit" as in an Elvis Presley LP that I like to put on when I am lounging around the house with my daughter and wife.
I am always appreciative of anyone who can admit, "I have been a liberal longer than a Christian," and who can see through the superficial layer of many of today's most vocal and flamboyant Christians that associate a belief in a Divine Entity as equal to a belief that all believers must hold dear the actions of the "Christian" leaders.

I myself was raised a Christian, in fact brainwashed, quite literally, into the religion until my late teens when I sought out self-discovery, which eventually lead to my abandonment of the religion as an organized operation, often too steeped in financial success while neglecting its original mission of unification and helping one another.

However, I have always had an appreciation for "Things greater than what we see, hear and touch," the mystical and Divine, and so, am willing to accept many religious followers, whom I believe to be unified in a pursuit to Know Beyond Themselves. It is a natural calling, a universal voice from the forest, so to speak, a voice every man and woman must confront at some point in their lives on their own.

And from my own experience, the voice is not nearly so frightening as most Jerry Falwells of the world would have people to believe. If only there were more like C.S. Lewis, Mortimer Adler, Francis Schaeffer, and Thomas Merton.

Best of luck. And cheers!

Jockomo said...

Thanks for the comment – I get so few. It is very sad that you were “brainwashed” into Christianity – I think that would turn anyone off. My parents, I’m sorry to say are not Christians so I didn’t go through any kind of Christian education as a child, though my wife and many others I know grew up in loving, patient Christian homes and continued in the faith after becoming adults. My wife, a logical, scientific thinker, led me to Christ. Though I may be more of an emotional person than she is it was mainly through logic that I came to put my faith in Jesus Christ.

I have always been wary of the nebulous “Greater Power” that some people speak of. This kind of belief opens the door for self-styled religious leaders and a kind of make-your-own-rules religion. Personally, I don’t even like the word religion that much because it implies rigid man-made rules. What does the Bible say, that’s what I follow.

I too, am not a fan of ministers like Jerry Falwell – yes Reverend, there’s a problem with the “Teletubbies,” but it’s not a sexual orientation issue (Check out this article in The American Prospect Online). I also find Pat Robertson’s suggestions for U.S. military actions against non-capitalist countries to be anything but Christian.

I’ll check out your author list. I’ve already read C.S. Lewis’ wonderful “Mere Christianity” and will some day soon read “The Screwtape Letters.” Have you ever read Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, or John Milton?

Buzz said...

Nice post Jockomo. I love that little joint as well, but I haven't worked it into my morning routine. Where I get coffee, they still charge me 70 cents a cup, so I aint screwin' around with nothing else!

Funny, you made me think of a coffee company that fits your bill in many ways. I believe it's called "Heavenly Blend." You should probably check them out because:

A) It's fair trade
B) They're Christian
C) They're local

http://www.itsmorethanfairtrade.com/

So don't say I never did nothin' for ya!