The COEs have just arrived. Eeee!
Archive for August, 2009
The Ethics of Coffee
August 24, 2009One of the things I’ve learned since starting in my new position as purchaser for the roastery is that, well, the coffee world is a funny place.
Coffee often comes to us from some of the poorest regions on earth. Sometimes (perhaps as a result of poverty, perhaps a cause of it) the systems that I have to go through to get coffee are deeply corrupt. Sometimes I wonder how much money gets to the farmers. Often I wonder if anyone knows. Likewise, sometimes I’m faced with ethical dilemmas that aren’t just the regular, every day, ‘is this farmer going to get paid for this crop?’ variety. Take, for example, the ethical issues surrounding the purchase of Zimbabwean coffee.
Zimbabwe is, of course, a nation in serious trouble. Zimbabweans need money. They need foreign money, moreover, because inflation is rampant and their own dollar is so unstable it’s almost valueless. Well, the Zimbabwe harvest is in. I’ve been offered a very nice, slightly gamey Zimbabwean coffee. But if I buy it, where does my money go? Does it end up in the pockets of the corrupt officials steering the country toward destruction, or is it going to the hands of the farmer and the mouths of his or her children? And how did the farmer get the land they’re farming, anyway? Did they get it through expropriation? And how do I feel about the ethics of that huge program of Zimbabwean land expropriation?
Maybe I should lay off. After all, Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans, and this Canadian girl shouldn’t try to enforce her imperialist self on the Zimbabwean sovereign state. Trouble is, I’m trading with Zimbabwe, and I have to be able to sleep at night, which means I need to purchase coffee in accordance with my values, however imperfect they may be, and however imperialist that makes me.
So this ethics-and-coffee thing is troublesome. The easiest thing to do is not buy Zimbabwean coffee. Unfortunately, even that non-action has political ramifications. You might not necessarily think about the family in Guatemala who have seen a cut of your morning 2.25$, but the fact is, someone, somewhere produced the crop and got paid for it. Someone, somewhere, makes a living off that. So if I don’t buy this coffee, and you don’t buy this coffee, then someone somewhere is not getting paid. Not making a living. Not feeding themselves, or the kids.
And if I do buy the coffee, how much money is actually going to get to the farmer? How much gets paid out in bribes or taxes or any number of other little expenditures particularly necessary when dealing with a corrupt and disintegrating government? Does the farmer see even a tenth part of the money for their crop? Worse, does the good that tenth-part will do for the farmer negate what amounts to complicity with a corrupt system?
I’m having a hard time deciding how best to deal with coffees like this. Some coffees are easy. The Panama? Bought the whole crop, the lion’s share of the money goes to the farmer, but coffees like this… they’re a different matter all together.
The ethics of coffee are murky and complex. It’s a side of this business that I wasn’t really prepared for.
Edit: More on Zimbabwean coffee in particular here, here and here.
The News
August 18, 2009The new store in Oak Bay is coming along. Keep an eye out for coffee-making activity in that area on the weekend.
The barista competition is still open to competitor registration. It’s hard to believe, but no, you’re not too late to sign up. But you if you want to get in on the action, you need to hustle. Here’s the info, stolen right from the facebook group:
| Host: |
Reg Barber
|
| Type: | |
| Network: |
Global
|
| Start Time: |
Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 9:00am
|
| End Time: |
Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 6:00pm
|
| Location: |
The Leonardo Davinci Centre
|
| Street: |
195 Bay Street
|
| City/Town: |
Victoria, BC
|
| Phone: |
2505441778
|
| Email: |
Our COEs, the Brazil lot 11, and the El Salvador lot 30, after much woe and hardship and not a few false starts, have actually shipped. High fives all round!
And last, a new coffee varietal has been unveiled in Kenya. What it’s going to taste like, I don’t know. But as someone who hasn’t been able to get her hands on the Kenyan coffee that she’s wanted for some time, well, I agree. There needs to be more coffee grown in Kenya.
Caffeine and Calories
August 17, 2009
Via @jimseven and mkandelz. The big, readable version is here.
