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Equal Exchange is a
worker-owned cooperative dedicated to Fair Trade with grower-owned,
small-scale cooperatives in the developing world, mostly in Latin
America. Equal Exchange was among the first to bring the Fair Trade
movement to the U.S. coffee trade, and has been a leader in expanding
the movement. Before Fair Trade coffee was widely available in
stores, Equal Exchange was making it available through churches,
synagogues, and other channels. This allowed the company to grow
rapidly, so that it is now a substantial importer and roaster.
Equal Exchange continues to be a source not only of coffee, but of
information about coffee cooperatives. I am very fortunate that EE is
located near my home and campus, which has been a big help in my
educational efforts.
 All Equal Exchange coffee is fair-trade coffee, but the
reverse is not true. A number of other fine companies now provide
fair-trade coffee. In fact, encouraging other coffee importer to trade
fairly was a major reason for starting the company. If you want
fair-trade coffee ad see the Equal Exchange brand, you know you have
found it. But it is better just to look for the fair-trade label from
Transfair, which applies to coffee (and other products) from many
companies. Most of the companies listed on this page offer fair-trade
coffee.
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 If I am
up early on a Sunday morning, I enjoy listening to Living on Earth
, a radio program that tells an amazing array of stories about the
environment and human connections. In October 2007, the show
featured
Dean
Cycon a humanitarian, a
successful business
person, and a terrific story teller. His book Javetrekker
is required reading for students
in my coffee classes. In fact, every time I speak with the owner of a
fair-trade coffee shop, I suggest
that the book would make a great sale item for the shop, because it
explains the need for fair trade better than anything else I've read.
 Dean is
also
the
founder of Dean's
Beans -- a
Massachusetts-based roaster that is a pioneer in fair
trade coffee and
a strong supporter of public
libraries! Not only is Dean
the model of respectful relationships
with the farmers, but he helps libraries -- including Bridgewater
Public -- to create private-label coffee
for fundraising.
Check out Dean's YouTube
channel for stories that bring the viewer directly to the farmers!
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In Grounds
for
Agreement, his comprehensive analysis of the coffee commodity
chain, sociologist John
Talbot describes the process of forward integration:
Forward inegration is a strategy of
extending one's control from a given point on the commodity chain to
processing stages located further along the chain, toward the final
consumption end.
To the extent that
fair-trade cooperatives can capture such stages -- such as washing,
transporting, and drying -- they can increase the share of profits that
accrue to the producers themselves. The Pachamama Coffee Co-op
is a collaboration of coffee cooperatives in five countries (including
one I have visited in Nicaragua) that pushes this model farther than I
have seen elsewhere. In addition to the transportation and processing
facilities that member cooperatives own in the producing countries,
they have jointly invested in roasting and retail capacity at the
consumer end in the United States, thus controlling the entire supply
chain.
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We are fortunate to live
in a region with so many leaders in the ethical treatment of coffee
farmers and the coffeelands. This commitment sometimes takes very
different forms. For example, Jim's Organic Coffee in
Wareham emphasizes high quality and organic growing, but does not
follow the cooperative-based, fair-trade model. The web site
explains how the company sees this as working for the benefit of
farming communities.
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COFFEE DRIVEN PEOPLE --
PEOPLE
DRIVEN COFFEE
I learned about
Counter Culture Coffee from one of the farmers we visited in
Matagalpa. I turn to this company
(or Java Vino - see below) when I am giving a major presentation,
because I know that its "San
Ramon"
is a blend of coffees come from the immediate vicinity of my
field-based
course. I can really taste the difference! Some of the managers are
among
the foremost baristas in the United States, and they have a strong
commitment
to quality and fairness in the entire supply chain, from the field to
the
local coffee shop. In fact, they produced a
video of a barista competition that brought a tear to my eye!
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Until late 2007, all I knew about
Guatemalan
coffee I learned from the
documentary
I mention above, which describes the struggle of coffee growers during
and
following Guatemala's long civil war. Recently, however, I have started
to
make a number of connections with Guatemala, and I will be going there
for
some
research in the summer of 2008. When I go, I hope to meet some of the
people in the region who have been working with Green Mountain Coffee
Roasters.
Heifer
Hope
Blend, a coffee from my
friends at Green Mountain that includes coffee from
the
Cooperativa La Voz que Clama en el Desierto (The Voice that Calls Out
in
the Desert Cooperative). The coffee is fair trade, so the farmers
get
a fair price. It is organic, so the customer gets a healthier cup and
the
soil in Guatemala is not contaminated. And it is a Heifer partnership,
so
GMCR donates part of the proceeds to Heifer's global projects to combat
hunger.
That is what people call win-win-win!
Green Mountain Coffee is an imporant roaster for all of New England,
making good coffee available throughout the region. Fair trade is not a
majority of its business, but it is an important and growing part,
aided, oddly enough, by a large contract to provide fair-trade, organic
coffee to McDonald's under the Newman's Own brand.
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 During
my
first
visit to Matagalpa, we had a
dinner at Selva Negra, a hotel
in the middle of a coffee farm, and had a wonderful conversation with
Mausi Kühl, one of the owners. Then I realized that we kept
driving past Selva Negra on our way to other places. The second year,
we spent a night there, and were able to see Mausi again and her
husband Eddy, who has literally written the book on the history of
coffee in Nicaragua. Both of the Kühls come from German families
that were among the first to bring coffee to Nicaragua. During both
visits, I learned about the sustainable practices of the farm,
including renewable energy production and organic food for the
restaurant and the farm employees. The children of the farm employees
go to school and the farm makes college scholarships available.
During our second visit I met the Kühl's daughter Heddy, who sells
the coffee through her Java Vino shop in Atlanta. The next time I am
visiting relatives in Atlanta, I will be there. Meanwhile, I sometimes
order beans (green or roasted) from her to serve when I am giving
lectures on coffee, so that my audience can have a taste -- literally
-- of what we experienced in Matagalpa.
Coffee from an estate of this size with a single owner cannot be
considered fair-trade.
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 In Mark Pendergrast's book, Uncommon
Grounds, an entire section is devoted to Paul Katzeff, the founder
of Thanksgiving Coffee Company. Mark calls that section "God's Gift to
Coffee." I had the great privilege of meeting Mr. Katzeff during my
first trip to Nicaragua. We visited SolCafe,
a
worker-owned
processing plant in Matagalpa, where we were scheduled
to observe a coffee cupping. It so happened that Paul Katzeff and three
of his employees had just arrived as part of a buying trip, so we
watched actual buyers doing the cupping to evaluate potential purchases.
Between slurps of coffee and comments about its flavor and aroma, Mr.
Katzeff recounted his involvement in the efforts to thwart the Reagan
Administration's illegal efforts to overthrow the Nicaraguan
government, and how this related to the early days of exporting
fair-trade coffee.
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A great thing about my life these days is that people - including my
wonderful wife -- bring me interesting coffees. A great thing about the
coffee business in general is that it has room for all kinds of
interesting coffee companies. When my wife and daughter were traveling
in Vermont recently, they found the
Tres
Mariposas (Three Butterflies) variety of Café
Alta
Gracia, a fair-trade, shade-grown coffee from
the Dominican Republic. The coffee is grown at Finca Alta Gracia, a
60-acre
farm in the Dominican Republic on the slopes of Pico Duarte, the
highest (3087 meters) mountain in the Caribbean.
I like the connections being made with organic, fair-trade, shade-grown
coffee. Vermont Coffee
Roasters in Middlebury roasts the coffee and nearby Dakin Farms sells
it. A foundation in the Dominican Republic promotes literacy, the brand
name celebrates the religious heritage of the region, and the packaging
features the work of an important Dominican artist. One of the owners,
author Julia Alvarez has written a delightful book, A
Cafecito
Story. (Spanish and bilingual editions are sometimes also
available.) She is also the author of the very important work of
historic fiction, In
the
Time of the Butterflies, which is the One Book - One Community
read for fall 2010 in the town of Bridgewater, and a film starring Salma
Hayek. This book describes the brutality of the Trujillo
regime in the Dominican Republic, and along with the Pulitzer-winning Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,
it
is required reading for my geography of Latin America students.
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George
Howell
is
a coffee
pioneer known for his blends, his light roasts, and his brewing
expertise. When he sold his Coffee Connection to Starbucks, he had to
leave the business for a few years, but he is back with Terroir Coffee, in Acton,
Massachusetts. Now he focuses on single-origin coffees, roasted and
prepared with care, and treated like fine wines (hence the new name).
Corby Kummer has written "The Magic
Brewing Machine" about Howell's introduction of a new coffee
machine and his new company. "A Magical Cup"
a
video
conversation between author and roaster.
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Usually if I have nothing good to say,
I say nothing at all. But the biggest coffee chain in our region has
pushed me beyond politeness. Visit my Coffee
Hell page to learn why I think this fast-growing and ubiquitous
company is not only bad for coffee farmers, but also bad for the United
States.
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Pamela
Hayes-Bohanan
has
a nice page about our small role in coffee
marketing history,
in research conducted by a conventional company whose coffee we can no
longer drink!
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