Today we visited one of the most beautiful farms I’ve seen so far. It was the farm of Rodrigo Solis. His father, Don Jaime, started farming on this land in 1951, when coffee was transported by ox cart to be sold (a trip that now takes two hours, then took about a week).
Don Rodrigo told us that he follows his father’s farming practices on this farm, which is blessed with rich, organic soil. He told us, though, that Starbucks’ purchasing standards have taken the market “to a higher level” by creating a safer market. He also told us that his farm is not certified as organic, but that they use the fewest amount of chemicals on their farm as possible. CAFÉ Practices, he said, have taught them how to increase their yield while decreasing their use of chemicals.
He told us that before a farm starts to receive the premiums that certified organic coffee earns, they must be completely organic for three years. During this time, their yield typically decreases plus they are not getting the premium. He also said that it often takes ten years before an organic farm begins to yield the levels of crop it did before the switch to 100% organic practices. So I could understand how not every farmer could afford to become organic.
Don Rodrigo said that, when looking at sustainable coffee, a buyer should look at all the certifications that are available (such as Fair Trade Certified, Bird Friendly, Shade Grown, etc.). While their farm has not become certified as organic, they have taken some other amazing measures. For example, in a recent year, the Solis family cut down 1500 coffee plants on their farm for a project that was intended for water preservation and the restoration of a bird habitat.
We went to the Solis’ house for another delicious lunch. They ate with us outside on their front patio. As we have come to expect from the Ticos, the Solises were so wonderful and warm, and seemed delighted to have us at their home. Their kids came out to welcome us, including a very sweet moment when their 8-year-old daughter came home from school. She walked around and kissed every single one of us on the cheek. I swear there was not a dry eye…it was so sweet.
This afternoon, back at the lab, we watched a movie called Buyer Be Fair. The movie showed how many small villages near places like Oaxaca, Mexico—despite being rich in natural resources—are like ghost towns because of having been destroyed during the coffee crisis near the turn of the millennium. The narrator (NPR’s Scott Simon) said that the two biggest factors that contributed to this were: 1) the deluge of cheap robusta coffee on the world market from Vietnam and Brazil, and the resulting drastic dip in coffee prices (this was also discussed in the Coffee book by Dicum and Luttinger) and 2) the prevalence of middlemen (called coyotes) who offer farmers much-needed cash in the middle of harvest in exchange for an exclusive purchase after harvest at an agreed-upon price; of course, the coyote ends up with most of the profit. (I also know from other research that the lack of technology on small-scale farms means that farmers don’t know the world market price for coffee and are at the mercy of the less-than-trustworthy coyotes for this information.)
In the movie, Beatriz Avalos, from Universidad del Mar, also said that sometimes farmers destroy their coffee farms in an effort to grow and sell other crops. She said if that continues, these areas will see total destruction of their forests, with irreversible damage to biodiversity, soil quality, soil erosion, and water sources. However, she said, farmers desperate for income to support themselves and their families, often see no choice. They feel they have nothing to lose.
Another interesting comment was from Barbara Bramble of the National Wildlife Federation. She said that looking at coffee certification was crucial for American buyers--and impactful. She said, for example, that buying coffee that is certified as bird-friendly has a direct impact on migratory and wildlife birds thousands of miles away.
The next part of the movie spoke mostly about wood that is certified as sustainable. Like coffee, wood is one of the world’s biggest selling agricultural products. They spoke at length specifically about the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
The FSC focuses on economic, environmental, and social issues. It requires that logging that happens under their certification must provide opportunities for indigenous people to use the forest; it must be economically viable; it must be environmentally sustainable; and systems must be in place to respect workers’ rights.
They had some interesting and positive information about Home Depot (which responded to immense customer protest, including a somewhat humorous story about a group that got the code to the PA systems in all the Home Depot stores and told customers that the wood they were buying was destroying ancient forests) and Ikea, which uses a huge amount of sustainable wood in certain lines of their prouducts. They also talked about certifications in all aspects of wood purchases, including FSC-certified paper, guitars, etc.
I highly recommend watching this movie and checking out the website, www.buyerbefair.org. There’s obviously much, much more information to be learned.
Some of my favorite quotes from the movie (obviously paraphrased since I was taking notes during the movie):
- Fair Trade is not charity—it’s about justice and power.
- I sell Fair Trade Certified coffee in my café [Caffe Ladro in Seattle] because I can’t feel OK making my living off of someone else’s plight.
- We decided to sell Fair Trade products in our stores [Wild Oats] because it satisfies all the stakeholders, not just the stockholders.
- Fair Trade is not just a market, it’s a movement.
- Fair Trade is an amazingly uncontroversial topic.
- It’s the companies’ jobs to make responsible choices for consumers. It’s the companies’ responsibility to make good choices about what they are going to sell.
- Consumers need to vote with their wallets to support Fair Trade.
- The Fair Trade “family” is coming together in a global movement. We need everybody to join the movement.
After the movie, we had some extensive discussion about the movie and what we have been observing from working on the farms and talking to the farmers.
Sebastian reminded us that certifications such as Fair Trade and Organic—while important to consider—are also very difficult and expensive processes, often out of reach for very small scale coffee growers. He also told us that, in addition to up-front costs and decreased yields, farmers must pay for annual verification. He said these verifications sometimes require the ability to speak English and sometimes extensive travel, also out of reach for some remote and small-scale farmers.
An example of a catch-22 farmers find themselves in: shade trees protect bird habitats, but increase fungal diseases, which are very difficult to battle without chemical fungicides, Sebastian said. He said that farmers need to take responsibility for creating change, for finding out why their farms are experiencing certain difficulties. And he said that the successes they are seeing locally are helping because farmers hear from each other and follow each other’s successes.
Natalia talked too about the importance of learning about where your coffee comes from and paying special attention to certification. I loved how she put it: “We need to try to find ways to shorten the distance between the producers and the consumers.”
Sebastian’s girlfriend was a guest at this discussion, and she does a lot of work with responsible food production. She encouraged us to take what we learned from this trip to Costa Rica and apply it to all our buying choices—including making sure our meat and milk are organic, hormone-free, cruelty-free, etc.
Sebastian ended the discussion by saying that corporations are not separate from their customers; they rely on them.
In other words, just like we impact policy change at the voting booth, we vote for corporate change with our buying decisons and our voices.
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