Coffee leaves big eco foot print

By Mark Costigan
 
America runs on coffee
 
It wakes us up in the morning and picks us up in the afternoon. I love it, you love it — we all love it. Some of us (including myself) consider drinking coffee one of the best parts of our day. In fact, Americans love the precious bean so much that we make up the largest part of the java market. Dunkin’ Donuts coffee was even clever enough to make one of its ad slogans “America runs on Dunkin.”
 
But Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t offer a single organic blend. Just how far will we be running?
Coffee drinkers are often very passionate about where they buy it, but how many of us really take the time to research the environmental and social politics behind a cup of coffee?
 
Most coffee consumers drink it every day, and it’s important to know how it was grown, if it was fairly traded, and who you’re supporting with each purchase. After all, coffee is the most precious commodity in the world next to oil, and your coffee choices can be an easy way to reduce your environmental footprint.
 
Coffee is an exception to the “local food” movement, because climatic restrictions make it almost impossible to grow in the U.S. The majority of U.S. coffee imports hail from South America, where it travels hundreds of miles to reach our borders, burning fuel the entire way. Non-organic South American coffee may also be subject to up to 40 various preservatives.
 
Coffee from South America also has another questionable side effect. The majority of it isn’t shade-grown, which provides for a superior grade coffee and is easier on the land. If coffee is cheaply grown with pesticides and chemicals, they seep into the local water supply when it rains.
 
However, shade-growing coffee amid fruit trees provides greater ecological diversity, ensures new lands need not be clear-cut and gives small farmers a better means to sustain themselves, as well as their environment.
 
One coffee plant may only provide one pound of beans a year, but on a sustainable, small farm with fruit trees, it provides a living for a farmer, and a fighting chance for South America’s fragile ecosystems.
 
As the largest international java chain, Starbucks Coffee (which I personally despise) should be lauded for their efforts to buy shade-grown and organic coffee. They have three new blends that you can choose from.
 
But keep in mind, you need to ask for organic blends when you’re in front of their crowded counters, and it might cost you a few extra minutes of brewing time. The same goes for their “fair-trade” blends.
 
 “Fair-trade is a way to ensure the farmer makes a living wage off his coffee,” co-owner of Wandering Goat Michael Nixon said. “As far as fair-trade and organic coffee goes, Starbucks is doing pretty well. They could be doing a lot worse. Where they should be held accountable, however, is in their business practices.”
 
I came across an article in satirical newspaper, The Onion, one day. The headline read, “Local Starbucks Opens up New Location in Restroom.”
 
Often Starbucks will open up five or six locations within a small area of only two square miles. A few years ago, they had to close down about 900 stores because of their over-aggressive business tactics. This is straight up cannibalizing the coffee market.
 
Many places do it as a business tactic; they just don’t let it run haywire. I sat down with a former barista and University junior to discuss this predatory approach. She wished to remain anonymous because of corporate policy.
 
“When they closed those 900 stores, they tried to relocate employees, but there wasn’t much hope. Most of them just lost their jobs,” she said.
 
Maybe if Starbucks hadn’t opened up six identical stores within such small areas, new local businesses would have opened that could have offered jobs with some security. Instead, those former employees became part of more than 15 million unemployed Americans searching for jobs.
 
On the subject of Starbucks employees, the former barista spoke of a few other injustices.
“The benefits are very good. Starbucks spends a lot of money telling America that. But what people don’t hear about are barista’s wages and working conditions. When you work for a corporation, you’re not held to a human standard. You’re held to the standard of a machine.”
 
So what’s a machine standard?
 
Mandatory 45-minute closings with job-threatening penalties if violated, $7.75 per hour wages in expensive downtown Manhattan while CEO Howard Schultz rakes in $18 million annually, and no discounts or deals on Starbucks food — to name a few.
 
Compared to other corporations, Starbucks is fairly socially responsible. But if you buy local, organic and fairly traded coffee, you support a free-market where workers have job-security and decent working conditions. Even more importantly, you make an investment in your community and the environment.
 
At Café Roma you support local artwork. At the Wandering Goat you support infrastructure projects in war-stricken El Salvador. And with every cup of joe From Cafe Mam, you’re 100 percent insured that it’s organic and fair-trade.
 
Coffee drinkers have an opportunity to make a positive social and environmental impact every day. Are you drinking a choice you can live with?
More: mcostigan@dailyemerald.com
 
http://www.dailyemerald.com/opinion/coffee-leaves-big-eco-foot-print-1.1344095