For as long as I remember, I enjoyed coffee. With an Italian mother and a Finnish father, it was possibly inevitable that I would end up working in coffee (Italians being the forefathers of espresso and Finn's being the highest coffee consuming nation per capita, and the heritage of Nordic roast profiles).
Coffee is magical, so many of us get up every morning and start our day with a cup of coffee in some form. It is engrained in cultures all over the world and responsible for bringing so many people together. It is always a joy to see people experience specialty coffee for the first time, realising coffee doesn't taste like coffee. The different flavours and characteristics in a great brew are remarkable to say the least. If you haven't had a chance to experience these for yourself, step out of your comfort zone, find a friendly and approachable specialty cafe, talk to a barista and let them make you something truly special (preferably black coffee). Thank me for that tip later.
For those whom are already in love with specialty coffee, and have already experienced this wonder, you know how important it is that we can keep coffee moving into the future. Unfortunately coffee right here and now is not a sustainable product. It saddens me to say the coffee industry, in all sectors has a long way to go before we can be considered sustainable. Cafes, using single use cups and lids. Roasters, and their use of transport, packaging, energy consumption and their choice of what green beans they use. Coffee merchants, with the amount they travel, transportation, supporting unsustainable farms and poor labour prices. Producers, their choice of farming techniques, conditions for workers and impacts on the environment. Lastly the consumer, our choice of what we buy, who we support and the messages we send to the rest of the supply chain.
People often think that they can have no impact on such a big problem. I understand, how standing at the very end of a long and complicated value chain, with many stakeholders, it can seem like there is no way to help. I write today's blog to educate and remind us all (including myself), that we are infact the only ones whom can really make a change to this problem.
The Future of coffee and making it sustainable, is, as mentioned, a complex problem. The more you dig into it the more you realise everyone in the value chain is held to mercy by someone else. It is not as simple as the farmers should pay their workers more, they simply don't get paid enough for their coffee to do so. Farmers sometimes sell their coffee for less than it cost to produce. The merchants are just a middle man and as long as roasters are looking for the cheapest possible price, they are forced to keep prices down too. (There is definitely some merchants that are more ethical than others, however even the best ones struggle to find buyers paying enough for green coffee, allowing the merchant to pay enough to the farmers and in turn the workers). Roasters are a complex mix, some have the best intentions, use specialty, ethical, traceable coffee and want to serve quality coffee, in a sustainable manner, educating the consumer and helping the farmer. Other roasters are large scale companies trading in commodity coffee, profit focused and doing detremantal impact on both sides of the market. I truly distest companies like this, but that's a rant for another day.
I write the previous, grimm paragraph for one reason, to highlight just how complex the problem is, and trust me I have not even covered the tip of the iceberg there. This blog would go on for years trying to highlight all the issues, many of which myself and others have no answer, yet, on how to fix. Like many big problems that exist, to get anywhere, we must break it down to smaller problems and start to make change somewhere. Hopefully lots of small action, in time, amount to large changes in the future.
You may ask, with all this doom and gloom mentioned above, how can we make a difference? I mentioned above, that us as end line consumers, may be the only ones with the power to start to make change. We need to be prepared to pay a fair price for coffee, this money can't just stop at the cafes roasters or merchants. In exchange for us paying more for our cup of coffee, we must demand more from the cafe, roaster, merchants and in some cases the farmers. Transperancy, we need to see where this money goes. Medium to large roasters should be dealing direct with farms and building long term relationships with these producers, buying whole harvests where possible at a fair price and helping them to improve their farming techniques and investing money over a long term in improving the farms, their equipment, knowledge and conditions for the workers. Smaller roasters, that don't have the means to buy direct from farms, need to deal with ethical and transperant green bean merchants, providing similar support as above to producers.
The above is possible, if us as consumers of specialty coffee, spread education and awareness of these issues. If we learn to ask the right questions and demonstrate that these are important factors used to choose whom us, as consumers support. Next time you are buying coffee from a roaster or buying a coffee in a cafe, ask the question where did this coffee come from? Not just the origin or the region, but who farmed it? Who processed it? What price did the farmer recieve? Does the project or co-op invest money back into the community and the farms? Does the farm practice regenerative farming? Or is it something they are at least trying to work towards? If they can't answer these types of questions and indicate that they also care about these issues, don't support them! Leave and take your business elsewhere. Yes this means we may have to pay a little more for a cup of coffee or a bag of beans, so we should! Coffee is a luxury to us lucky enough to live on this side of the world, we should not demand it at such a low price allowing others to suffer around the world, so we can save a dollar. Did you know a lot of producing countries have very little coffee culture of their own, this is because they are left at best, with the dregs of the harvest, the junk no one else wants. A lot of producers never even taste their own product, such a disconnect, with a product they produce, how can we ever expect them to improve their quality and continue this hard work if they don't even have the means to experience the fruits of their labour.
I will leave you with my last couple thoughts on what can only be described as a tragic and complex issue.
The average age of coffee producers in many origins is over 60 years old. Younger generations are seeing producing coffee as hard, unsustainable and unrewarding in the current way. Farms are being abandoned all over the world because producers can't make a living in coffee anymore, rising costs of fertilizers, transport and scarce labour coupled by climate change. If we can start making a difference on our end and ensuring our choices are filtering down to what matters there is hope for this wonderful industry to thrive in the future, but we must take action now and not just at a superficial level. We need to care, we need to show roasters and cafes that we care and will not put up with glossy marketing techniques. Change in this situation really does start with the consumer paying the right price and only rewarding the right businesses. This is how we make a difference.
I mentioned above that I could go on forever about this topic. It is truly far more complex than what I was able to cover here today, I spend countless hours every week researching these issues and listening to industry leaders and experts podcasts. Truthfully no one has an answer to most of these issues, one thing that most agree on, we need to start moving in the right direction, education and awareness is a big step in this. I usually don't pester people to share my blog with others, yet if this hit home in some way for you, I ask you to share it with at least one other person. Together we do make a difference.
A saying that has always stayed with me, rounds this topic out perfectly. We may think sometimes we are insignificant to change, but if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Be part of the solution!
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