Does their involvement help small coffee farmers? Yes, it does. The volume of coffee they buy and sell means more and more coffee farmers will be able to make a living wage for themselves and their families.
By the same token, although only 3.7% of the coffee that Starbucks sells is fair trade, that small figure represents a huge amount of coffee.
That said, as I think about where my loyalties lie, and where I want to give my support, it is not to these big companies.
Here’s my thinking...
First of all, they don’t need my support. Their marketing and PR divisions will wring every last drop of positive publicity from their involvement in fair trade coffee. They can take good care of themselves, and I am delighted that serving their own self-interest also results in better lives for so many small coffee farmers.
Second, their interest is financial only. They are driven by revenue projections, not by a concern over the economic and social welfare of small farmers in developing countries. Individuals within these companies will be concerned by the human issues, but the corporation itself is not.
Do I have some knee-jerk reaction against “commerce”? Not at all. I am big fan of a successful, decently run businesses. Particularly small and medium-sized businesses.
But when you get to the size where you go public, everything changes. The founders lose a great deal of control. Why? Because the act of going public puts a large chunk of shares into the hands of your investors. Now your board of directors includes more strangers than friends.
Whatever vision and passion the founders started out with, they will be faced with unrelenting pressure to put them aside if they conflict with maximizing revenues and profits each quarter.
Companies like Nestlé, Kraft and Starbucks have very little wiggle room when it comes to doing what’s right and decent, unless being right and decent happens to turn a profit.
In the world of fair trade coffee, my interest and loyalties lie more with smaller companies, like the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, just as an example. They roast great coffee, but are also genuine and transparent in their politics, and active in their help of small farmers.
It is in these smaller companies that you’ll find the grass roots of the fair trade coffee movement.
Which roasters and retailers do you think best represent the values and spirit of fair trade?
It might be interesting to develop a top ten list of small and medium-sized companies which do the most to promote and share the core values of fair trade coffee...
...The Fair Trade Coffee Top 10
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