It used to be that you could walk into any coffee shop in town, slap a quarter down on the Formica counter and get a generic cuppa Joe. Those days have certainly disappeared.

            Other than the obvious fact that a cup of coffee now can cost you ten-times as much as it did 30 years ago, unless you are in a Tim Horton’s where a coffee is still just a coffee, you will have to make decisions, decisions, and more decisions before you can enjoy that brew. Decaffeinated or regular, and if decaffeinated, should you go the extra expense of getting the Swiss water-process decaffeinated. Organic? And from what country: Sumatra, Kenya or Nicaragua. You may want to base that choice on the current political structures of these countries. And now, you have a choice of bird-friendly, shade grown or fairly traded. It’s no wonder that coffee gives me heartburn.

            When I first ran across the term “Fair Trade”, I thought it had something to do with NAFTA. We had been requested by a government client to use only Fair Trade coffee for a large catering job we were doing. When we checked with our suppliers, we were assured that the coffee we were using was Fair Trade. I don’t think we went any further than getting a verbal assurance and I now have my doubts; we may have been duped! Or, quite possibly, our salesperson really didn’t know the meaning himself and didn’t want to appear stupid.

            I shouldn’t feel embarrassed because I was oblivious to this nomenclature at that time; it has only be in the past few years that both the United States and Canada have formed their own branches of the International non-profit Fair Trade Labelling Organization (FLO) which certifies and promotes Fair Trade products. The FLO began in the Netherlands in the 1980’s, as a response to a crisis in coffee-producing countries of the world caused by deregulation in the coffee industry. This was largely due to decisions made in the United States to support techno-cultivation of coffee in Vietnam. The vast majority of small, independent coffee growers, largely from Latin American countries, could not compete fairly with the less-expensive and often lower quality coffee coming out of the huge commercial plantations. The small growers could not even cover the cost of growing the coffee and found theirselves unable to make a living on their farms. Their children were pulled out of school to work and many gave up their farms entirely.

            The mass commercial producers can grow coffee cheaply and in large quantities because they deforest the land and then use chemicals to promote growth. Independent, small farmers have traditionally grown their beans in the shade of trees, thereby conserving valuable rainforests and homes for migratory birds. They use organic methods of growing or at the very least do not use masses of chemicals. They are also more likely to be a family business and not use forced labour.

             Fair Trade organizations such as Transfair Canada and Transfair USA coordinate the sale of beans directly from cooperatives made up of small farmers, to the importers, cutting out several layers of middlemen. They ensure that the farmers receive better than market pricing for their product, and profit goes directly back into the cooperative. The Fair Trade organizations also actively develop a market for this coffee by raising consumer awareness of its benefits and convincing wholesalers and retailers to carry it. In order for his coffee to be certified “Fair Trade”, the farmer must first join a democratic community cooperative, he must farm in an environmentally friendly way, and he cannot use forced labour or abuse child labour. In return, aside from receiving a fair market price for his beans, the farmer is assured that he will always have a buyer for his crop. He will also have access to affordable credit to help expand and improve his farming operation and he will receive education in organic and sustainable agriculture. Profits will be put back into the community for improved health care and education for the children.

            There are other products now included in the Fair Trade program: teas, cocoa and tropical fruits. The distinctive black-and-white Fair Trade logo must be on any product claiming to be certified Fair Trade.

Like most Canadians, I want things to be resolved efficiently and neatly. No loose ends. But, there are more than two sides to a coin, and my very good friend, Chris, who has been working in Africa for Save the Children for nine years, let me know that this “solution” isn’t the end, but just the beginning. She was here in Calgary last weekend for a visit.

            Chris has been working directly with the hundreds of children displaced by wars in West Africa, many sold into slavery and many of these working on cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast. These cocoa growers are one of the targets of the Fair Trade organizations. Chris points out that sometimes the best intentions of humanitarian groups may actually cause more damage than good. She warned that although we would love to see all cocoa plantations shut down in West Africa because they are using child labour, the reality is that if the farms are shut down, the plight of many of these children may be actually worse than it already is. It seems hard to believe, but Chris has seen it all in her years in Africa. So, extreme care must always be taken before racing off to free the world and set everything to rights. That being said, while Fair Trade may not be the answer to all of the world’s woes, it is certainly a step in the right direction and should help all of us become more aware of humanitarian and environmental crises that exist. 

And all I wanted was a cup of coffee. Now, if I could just figure out how “tall” came to mean “small” in coffee-speak, I might be able to relax.