Coffee Coffee Coffee
As many people reading this know, I worked in the coffee business for a very long time. There are those far and wide that have been put to sleep to my rants about good espresso vs. great espresso. Though I still judge a coffee house by how high-pitched the sound of the steaming milk is when I walk in, that is not the topic for today. Today I want to begin a discussion about navigating the labels. You know what I’m talking about….USDA Organic, Fair Trade, Bird Friendly, Shade Grown, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified….and that’s just the ones you have probably heard of. There are more in the pipeline…waiting patiently in the wings for you to get bored or over-saturated with the current offerings…so they can tell you what to buy. I work in this business, and I have no idea how any of these organizations expect consumers to understand why one is better than the other, and/or what they all mean. For the next few posts, I will cover each of the labels individually (’cause you will get SO bored if I try to make your read it all at once).
Before I jump into what the difference is between all of these, I want to begin by saying that they are all useful, all well-intentioned, and are all helping to solve a problem that has truly global implications. Though I have done significant work with UTZ, I do try not hold any biases, and only want to tell you what I know from the inside of a VERY complex industry.
To understand the solutions (that are available right now), first you need a picture of the problem. Coffee is the second most highly traded commodity in the world, second only to oil. When I talk about ‘farmers’ or ‘producers’ I am talking about literally millions of people in more than thirty countries, that speak hundreds of different languages, and deal with an ever growing and dangerously diverse set of political, environmental, and socio-economical problems that are unique to every single region. Almost all of these growers live in total poverty. It is estimated that more than fifty sets of hands will touch every single bean from its origin to your cup. It is one of the most difficult crops to grow, in some of the harshest and most remote corners of the planet, and is shipped all over the world where it is then roasted by master craftspeople who train for years for the privelege, and yet, we pay an average of just $0.08 per cup. When was the last time you drank a $0.08 glass of wine? For that matter when was the last time you could but $0.08 worth of soda? And soda is pretty much just suger and water mixed in a big bucket by a machine. The one thing I am hardline on is that good coffee should cost more. Bad coffee is a whole seperate issue.
Ok, so back to the labels. The first program I am covering is Fair Trade:
This label means that a farm has paid several thousand dollars to become certified, and that they have agreed to adhere to certain standards for environmental, social, and fiscal standards set forth by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization. The basis of FT’s program is that when a consumer sees the FT label, they know that the maker of the product was paid a fair wage. A key point on this is that that price is SET BY FAIR TRADE. It is NOT contingent on quality, consistency, pesticide use, or environmental considerations. Their system is designed to stop the coffee market from crashing again, as it did in the 90′s, when Vietman flooded the market with low quality coffee, and the price for all grades (quality levels) dropped to catastrophically low levels, destroying the livlihoods of farmers worldwide. Think of it as an insurance policy for the industry. If prices were to drop, those that are FT Certified would not be subject to the drop because they would have purchase agreements with exporters and roasters that would require the set price be paid, not matter what the market does.
A few other good things to know about FT:
1. Farmers must be a member of a democratically-run growing co-op. Farmers must be between four and eleven acres in size, thus excluding very small holders, as well as huge farms that cause much more environmental damage.
2. It is also important to note that the premium price paid by the consumer for FT coffee goes to the co-op, NOT THE FARMER. The co-op then takes their administration fee and distributes the rest to farmers. There is no system in place to monitor how the money is spent.
3. Fair Trade and Organic ARE NOT LINKED IN ANY WAY. If you want Organic, Fair Trade coffee, you must look for both labels.
4. Fair Trade only requires that 50% of the contents in their coffee bags is actually certified. Makes you wonder what the other 50% is, doesn’t it?
Tune in tomorrow for explanations of Organic and Rainforest Alliance! Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions on this topic. I am leaving a lot out, and am happy to fill in the blanks for anyone who would like more detailed info. Or….check out this other blog….this guy said it all really well (and really thoroughly).
Compact Flourescent Bulb Disposal
So….now you want to know what to do with those bulbs, huh? Well, according to the Energy Star website:
Sounds complicated. I am SO buying candles tomorrow.
No really, the point is, doing the right thing is complicated. We can’t just throw things ‘away’ anymore.
There is no more ‘away’.
‘Away’ is now a garbage atoll off the coast of Hawaii that is now DOUBLE the size of Texas. DOUBLE THE SIZE OF TEXAS! It is the largest landfill in the world, only it’s not a landfill, it is the place where several thousand species of marine life used to reside. Maybe we can move there when the beaches of Hawaii are under water. Birds in the area are falling out of the sky, and when they are autopsied, scientists are finding their bellies filled with the shadows and shells of our society; plastic lighters, bottle caps that still read, “You’ve won a FREE Mountain Dew!” I’m sure that brings great comfort to the current owner.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
We can no longer throw things
away. There is no more away.
The Clean Slate
Everyone always asks me why I haven’t started blogging.
“You have so much good stuff to share,” they say.
“Why don’t you put it out there?”
“You know things that other people don’t”
You get the idea. The answer is simple. I know enough to know how much I don’t know. But, I do know a little bit about a lot, and I know a lot of the players that do have the answers, and until recently, I failed to see the value in that awareness.
I am beginning this exchange with the intention of being a conduit between those that have questions about sustainability, and those that have answers.
Because this is the first post, I want to begin by saying that I am giving anyone reading this permission to release what I call ‘Green Guilt’. We are starting fresh together. A clean slate. You no longer have to feel bad about buying a bottle of water at lunch, forgetting to turn the lights off, or running the faucet while you brush your teeth. Let it go. Today is a new day, and I am giving you permission to be flawed, confused, overwhelmed, and probably a little terrified by how big this problem is and how small and ineffective we all feel to make a difference. We are all confused. We are all scared and we would all rather stick our heads in the sand and just hope for the best. But what we are missing is the fact that we have been doing exactly that for far too long. For far too long, we have been putting all of our faith in systems, rather than people, to make a difference and make change happen. This is why Green is not about light bulbs or plastic bottles or carbon offsets or organic tomatoes. All of these thing are band aids on a much larger, but much simpler problem. As a people, we have lost our ability to inquire and make informed and personal decisions. We crave simple, clean solutions that help us sleep better at night. We listen when Oprah tells us to change our light bulbs, but we don’t ask, “What am I supposed to do with the mercury in the light bulb when it burns out?” We don’t ask because we are a right now society. We seem to think that in seven or eight years, when the bulb burns out, that Oprah will be there to tell us what to do with it so that it doesn’t end up in a landfill, where it is crushed, the mercury is released, where it seeps into the water deep below the surface where it then travels to our rivers, gets eaten by a little fish, which gets eaten by a big fish, which then gets eaten by nice, well meaning people who just wanted to get a good sushi dinner before they drove their hybrid to their solar powered house, where they conceive a child who ends up being autistic. They blame the vaccinations, but really it was that well-meaning person who changed all their light bulbs, just like Oprah said, but never bother to ask, “How do I get rid of these safely?”
My goal with every word I write is to help people understand the need for questions in every corner of our lives. We must ask if the products we buy will harm us; if the water we drink is safe; if cutting back on gas will really save us. Beyond that, we must also ask if the products we use harmed those that made them, and if their is a better way. In my opinion, the single most destructive force in driving us to the brink is the fact that we take our lives, our loved ones, our possessions, and our planet for granted. As a result, we have detached our collective selves from the natural world. Fundamentally, we are not separate. We are a pulsing, thriving force for change and growth on this planet, and we are not evil. We are complacent, and we are scared. We must again become a culture of pioneers, of trailblazers, of inquiring minds.
In the simplest of terms, sustainability is defined as living our lives in such a way that we do not compromise future generations’ ability to do the same.
We must do better, and to do better we all need to understand what the problems really are, what the current solutions look like, and how we can integrate all of that into our lives and our businesses.
If every adult died tomorrow, would our children know what to do with all those light bulbs?
