Posted by Chris O’Brien
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is telling consumers to turn up the heat on Starbucks and pressure them to take Fair Trade more seriously.
According to OCA, many customers mistakenly assume that all Starbucks coffee is fair traded, but in fact just 6% of the company’s coffee is certified Fair Trade.
OCA is asks consumer activists to take these steps:
1) Sign OCA’s 2008 petition to Starbucks demanding that all espresso drinks be both 100% certified Organic and Fair Trade.
2) Make a free call to Starbucks’ Customer Service line and let them know how you feel. (800) 235-2883. Click here for a sample script.
3) Sound off on My Starbucks Idea, Starbucks’ public forum. We have an idea for you Starbucks, its called Fair Trade!
4) Find a non-corporate café near you using the Delocator.
Is the “all Fair Trade espresso” demand impractical or too idealistic? Not really. Dunkin’ Donuts, the world’s largest coffee and baked goods retailer, already does just that. Even McDonald’s sells all Fair Trade coffee in their New England stores and in the U.K.
So what’s up Starbucks? Why not empower farmers by supporting a minimum price per pound and buying from democratic cooperatives?
Bean Activist 
This is typical of the ill-informed activists, who have not established what Starbucks does to assist the coffee industry at source, blinkered by the perception that Fairtrade is an all encompassing solution. The average payment made by Starbucks, per pound of green coffee, is 13 cents higher than the current Fairtrade price, which I believe is $1.28. So your protests are intended to deny funds to coffee farmers, rather than achieve a consistent consolidation of green coffee prices? Even before you stop to notice that Starbucks buys more Fairtrade coffee than any other high street retailer!
Andrew,
Thanks for commenting. In response I offer the following:
1. Nowhere in this post do I or OCA claim that Fair Trade is an “all encompassing solution.” This post was not about dissecting Fair Trade. If it was, I would have gone into detail about its many shortcomings. On behalf of the State of California’s Department of General Services, I analyzed and compared eight different coffee sustainability programs, including Fair Trade certified and Starbucks’ C.A.F.E. program. Both fell far short of perfection but Fair Trade surpassed C.A.F.E. by a comfortable margin. When the analysis is finalized, I will publish it here on this blog. The biggest shortcoming of C.A.F.E. is that it is a proprietary corporate standard rather being developed by an open group of stakeholders. And in any case, according to Starbucks own 2007 CSR report, they only source 65% of their coffee from their own C.A.F.E. approved sources. So 35% of their coffee didn’t even meet their own standard for sustainability. And they wrote the standard!
2. The current FLO mandatory minimum on coffee is $1.31 per pound for conventional beans and $1.51 per pound for organic. About 75% percent of Fair Trade beans are organic. On top of that there is a 10 cent per pound required premium that goes to social investments in producer communities. In other words, most Fair Trade beans are sold for at least $1.61 per pound. Using your math, that means the Fair Trade price is 20 cents higher than what claim is the average Starbucks price to farmers. Suggesting that I want to “deny funds to farmers” by guaranteeing them a minimum price displays your apparent lack of understanding about the fundamental mechanisms involved in Fair Trade. The Fair Trade minimum prices are just that – minimums, not maximums as you suggest. Many buyers pay well above the minimum but support the Fair Trade system because it helps to provide some price stability for farmers. Price stability in turn helps farmers concentrate on improving quality.
3. I did note that Starbucks buys 6% of their coffee on Fair Trade contracts. You can niggle me for not doing extra math and pointing out that that amounts to a larger volume than any one other buyer, but so what? I know many roasters who buy 100% of their coffee on Fair Trade contracts. Again, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonalds (and even Wal-Mart – yes, Wal-Mart, the company that boasts about having Always Low Prices) buy a much higher portion of their coffee on Fair Trade contracts. In this light, Starbucks 6% seems measly. And that was the main point made in this post – Starbucks rides the publicity train on the merit of its token support of Fair Trade. And that’s why OCA is asking them to increase their commitment.
Cheers,
Chris O’
Hi Chris and Andrew –
I’d also recommend taking the time to read this excellent article written by Tom Knuds0n and published in the Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/502/story/393917.html
It describes the complexities sourcing coffee, focusing on Starbucks trading practices in Ethiopia.
As a coffee roaster/retailer and a member of Cooperative Coffees (a fair trade green bean importing co-op) I can tell you there are many factors involved in the negotiation of coffee purchasing, of which price is just one. As Chris O. points out, fair trade should really serve only as a minimum. After spending a great deal of time in coffee growing countries, I think it’s deplorable for anyone to purchase coffee below the fair trade minimum prices. It’s just not enough for farmers to live on.
One way to think of the fair trade price is like minimum wage in the United States.
Most buyers (like Cooperative Coffees) who are pushing the envelope of trade justice,
are not only paying prices far above fair trade minimums we also take into consideration things like cultural issues, transparency, women’s empowerment, access to credit, isolation of the farmers, the political situation of the region and much more when we create relationships with farmers and purchase their coffee.
Fair trade is simply a spring board to build an even more equitable trading system with producers. With annual profits in the hundreds of millions, I think Starbucks certainly has room to improve their sourcing policies.
Just a note on Fair Trade, while I am an advocate I do not entirely buy into the anti-Starbucks mentality. While I advocate and encourage Starbucks to invest more into “just” buying one must realise they presently buy into more than 10% of the global output of Fair Trade, significantly more than all it’s North America competitors combined. This realising that most of all N.A coffee is still bought by Proctor and Gambe, Kraft etc. who hardly support any just buying.
[…] Starbucks Fair Trade Campaign Organic Consumers Association : Starbucks http://www.beanactivist.wordpress.com Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
How to trade, how to trading…
[…]Starbucks: Fair Trade or “Tradewash”? « Bean Activist[…]…
reno seo…
[…]Starbucks: Fair Trade or “Tradewash”? « Bean Activist[…]…
red yeast rice benefits…
[…]Starbucks: Fair Trade or “Tradewash”? « Bean Activist[…]…
Testskey.com is a premium source of IT certification exam course material at affordable prices…
[…]Starbucks: Fair Trade or “Tradewash”? « Bean Activist[…]…
At this time it appears like Expression Engine is the preferred blogging platform available right now.
(from what I’ve read) Is that what you are using on your blog?
[…] Fair Trade. Starbucks has a Fair Trade policy, but it’s not across the board and it’s not an official certification from what I can tell. They’ve improved, buying […]
[…] When I began to ask the company why we only had one fair trade certified coffee in the U.S. market (Italian Roast) the response was that the C.A.F.E. Practices model actually was superior too the fair trade standards. Starbucks is quick to point out on the same web page that it is the number one purchaser of fair trade certified coffee in the world. In fact, Starbucks writes that they increased their purchases of fair trade certified coffee from 19 million pounds in 2008 to 39 million pounds in 2009. Responsibly Sourced Coffee I found some websites that support this belief, such as Coffeehabitat.com. I also found criticism at Bean Activist. […]
Thanks on your marvelous posting! I seriously
enjoyed reading it, you will be a great author.I will always bookmark your blog and
will often come back down the road. I want to encourage one to continue your great job, have
a nice afternoon!
I all the time emailed this weblog post page to all my associates, for the reason that if like to read it next my friends will
too.
First off I want to say superb blog! I had a quick
question in which I’d like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing. I’ve had difficulty clearing my mind in getting my ideas out there.
I truly do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are wasted just trying to figure out how to begin.
Any recommendations or hints? Thank you!
Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your website?
My blog is in the exact same niche as yours and my visitors would definitely benefit from a lot of the information you present here.
Please let me know if this alright with you. Thanks!
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was wondering what all is needed to get setup? I’m assuming having
a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very web savvy so I’m not 100% certain. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much
about this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a
bit, but other than that, this is excellent blog.
A great read. I’ll definitely be back.
Very soon this site will be famous among all blogging people, due to it’s nice articles
I don’t even know the way I ended up here, however I believed this post used to be good. I do not know who you’re but definitely you are going to a famous blogger in case you are not
already. Cheers!
It’s remarkable to visit this site and reading the views of all friends concerning this post, while I am also zealous of getting knowledge.
[…] committed as they appear to be. Starbucks does serve Fair Trade coffee in its stores, but in the US the percentage of certified coffee served hovers around 6%–much lower than most customers assume. And while Hershey chocolate aims to go Fair Trade by […]
nanowrimo.org
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
激安ワンピース
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
経由
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
strictlymatch.com
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
含める
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
givingbirthwithconfidence.org
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
リファレンス
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
wiki.ultimaker.com
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
Now after a lot of years of work his interest is pointed
with the vitreous and retina. The world of sports is really moving at a very good as well as a fast pace.
However, this is usually met with resistance off
their children because rails break the overall design in the bed.
Oops, just just a little fact not mentioned’which would have made a large difference as we’d just assumed it absolutely was one size fits all.
However, this is usually met with resistance off their children because rails break
the overall design in the bed. Oops, just just a little fact not mentioned’which would have made a large difference
as we’d just assumed it absolutely was one size fits all.
Hi there, yup this post is really pleasant and I have learned lot of things from it regarding blogging.
thanks.
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your website.
It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create
your theme? Excellent work!
I’m not sure exactly why but this weblog is loading very slow for me.
Is anyone else having this issue or is it a problem on my end?
I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
samsung chromebook specs
black hat white hat seo
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
free sims downloads full version
Starbucks: Fair Trade or Tradewash? | Bean Activist
I have noticed you don’t monetize your blog, don’t waste your traffic,
you can earn additional cash every month. You can use the best adsense
alternative for any type of website (they approve all websites), for more details simply search
in gooogle: boorfe’s tips monetize your website
This card game is preferred by many because
it is founded on a person’s luck along with his talent.
whoah this blog is wonderful i love reading your posts. Keep up the great work! You know, a lot of people are hunting around for this info, you could help them greatly.