Black Gold: A Coffee Film That Has Starbucks Scared
by Siel, Los Angeles on 11. 9.06
Treehuggers have probably heard about fair trade coffee, but many aren't familiar with it – and even more don't quite know what fair trade means, or why it's necessary. Despite the fact that a coffee crisis has been financially devastating coffee growers around the world, even as western corporations make a lot of money from coffee sales, the problem still doesn't get much coverage in the mainstream media.
Luckily, Black Gold's hit the theaters. This documentary puts the paradoxes of coffee trade under a glaring, illuminating light. The film juxtaposes how the coffee drinkers of the western world gladly pay $3-$5 for our high-priced espresso drinks, fattening the bottom lines of our corporations — while the crushingly poor farmers producing those yummy espresso beans barely make ends meet.
The hero of the film is Tadesse Meskela, an Ethiopean man who travels all over the world, trying to get the farmers he represents a better price for their coffee. We see him at trade shows, trying to find new buyers by giving out samples. We see him at the Ethiopian coffee auction, pointing out which big corporations are represented by who. And we see him talking to, getting opinions from, and participating in the decision-making for coffee co-ops in Ethiopia.
As you can imagine, Black Gold has Starbucks – which tries to sell itself as a conscientious company – very scared. After all, some of the starving Ethiopians shown in Black Gold are people who rely on the coffee trade – and live in the very region that Starbucks buys coffee from. Marc Francis and Nick Francis, the filmmakers, say that once the film hit Sundance, Starbucks people attended every screening in full damage control mode. Soon afterwards, Starbucks flew Tadesse out to Seattle for a showy weekend conference, during which Starbucks promised to up its purchases of African coffee.
If you're as old as some of us are, you'll remember seeing images of starving Ethiopians in the news in 1984. What's shocking is that this happened again in 2003. In fact, Nick Francis, one of the filmmakers, said things seemed worse this time around in some ways. Back in 1984, coffee farmers had been somewhat better off, and were able to lend some help their fellow citizens. But in 2003, some of the coffee farmers themselves were starving.
Black Gold doesn't provide any clean or clear solutions – Those are up to the viewer to find. And the film won't answer all the questions you might have about fair trade or world trade or many of the other questions you may have. Instead, the film points to some of the underlying problems that are creating the coffee crisis: unfair farm subsidies of western countries, skewed negotiations at the WTO, the aid provided to African countries in lieu of fair trade.
If you're a coffee drinker, this film's a must-see. And if after watching it, you want to get more involved with Black Gold and fair trade, check out this list of actions you can take.
The film juxtaposes how the coffee drinkers of the western world gladly pay $3-$5 for our high-priced espresso drinks, fattening the bottom lines of our corporations — while the crushingly poor farmers producing those yummy espresso beans barely make ends meet.
How is this not true for about everything else we buy?
Ooh, sounds like every coffee drinker should see this one. I hope it'll be screened here!
The film juxtaposes how the coffee drinkers of the western world gladly pay $3-$5 for our high-priced espresso drinks, fattening the bottom lines of our corporations — while the crushingly poor farmers producing those yummy espresso beans barely make ends meet.
I'm only waiting for prices to get so low on those poor farmers that I can afford to buy an African farmer of my very own. ;)
In all seriousness, jI was just having this conversation with my wife this morning; trying to explain why I'm no longer buy Startbucks coffee and am looking for a local fair-trade roaster in Baltimore. (Any suggestions?) She's so hooker on her habit, she's not stopping to think about the industry behind her morning buzz.
I'm hoping that I can find coffee that's superior to Starbizzy's in taste and quality as well as price so I can get her to come around.
While the entire "fair trade" idea holds a certain cachete among fashionable elites, it is not without it's detractors:
http://www.worldwrite.org.uk/bitter/index.htm
Clearly the big coffee buyers should be paying "fair price" or market value, in full, but to suggest that Starbucks should somehow be responsible for supporting a village, city or country because it buys coffee from a seller is, well, communist? At best. I think Starbucks SHOULD help the community it does business with, but it should not HAVE to do so.
Yes indeed an eye opener for everyone, the crisis with African farmers doesn't end here, they DESERVE fair priced buy outs... it's only right. And that goes for EVERYTHING else too manufactured or bought from outside countries.
If you think Starbucks is bad, you should see what the folks over @ Unilever consider good corporate citizenry. Frankly it makes Starbucks look like the patron saint of coffee growers. I mean how many "food companies" are accused of human rights violations.
$7 dollar cappucinos are not far away!
Take a look at this clip form an independent comedy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcLbFayvsrw
I'm confused. Is starbucks forcing them to sell their coffee to them at lower prices? Or are they just not making what they would like at market prices?
Not to interrupt all this wonderful corporation bashing, but why would these people sell their beans to starbuks if they could sell it to someone else at a higher rate? Seems like "fair" trade to me.
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editor note: Coffee is a commodity traded at the NYSE. The price is set there and buyers use it, but that price is incredibly low.
"While the entire "fair trade" idea holds a certain cachete among fashionable elites, it is not without it's detractors:
http://www.worldwrite.org.uk/bitter/index.htm
"
I viewed the video on this website posted by Milton and I appreciated some of the criticims of fair trade. For example, fair trade is concerned with paying a higher price for coffee but not as concerned with encouraging modernization with machines that would in fact make the farmers job easier as pointed out by Alex Singleton of the Adam Smith Institute. The movie states that a specific amount of coffee farmed in Central America takes 500 people to produce while in Brazil takes 5 people and machines. They do not mention where they get the numbers from but this is an interesting point that I would like to look into and learn more about.
The current world market price for coffee is 40-60 cents per pound and it fluctuates while Equal Exhange reports that fair trade price is a non fluctuating 1.26/lb for conventional and 1.41/lb for organic. The movie also states that Fair trade prices keep farmers in the market that would otherwise leave for other jobs (they do not specify what and view the farmers staying as depressing growth and modernization). It is known however , that coffee farmers in Africa whom are not making enough money often quit producing coffee and start farming the hallucinogenic drug khat which is much easier to grow and brings in significantly more money but also brings with it social ills.
Although this movie gives criticisms of fair trade, I can hardly find fault with some of the fair trade aims including paying a non fluctuating DOUBLE the price that the traditional market pays and being more concerned with community development. Maybe Fair Trade is not the only solution to the economic problems of the third world, but it certainly brings more needed money into the hands of the farmers now than traditional coffee does.
Go ahead and walk into any Starbucks and ask them what they do for the farmers and their local community. You may be surprised with what you hear. I know that it is cool to bash "the man", but the fact is (and has always been) that Starbucks isn't really that bad of a company. They bring fresher water, better education and ways of living to the farmers that are involved with their coffee. Are their drinks really that expensive? Been to a bar lately? I think I paid for a beer what it costs for a six pack!
With all of the help that they do and money they provide, it would only make sense for that cappuccino to be $7. Not only that, but Starbucks creates jobs. Not only do they stay at least a quarter to fifty cents above minimum wage, but they provide stock, full medical benefits and 401 k retirement. Some people just need to face facts: Sometimes "the man" isn't so mean.
ok, look. It's supply and demand.
There are more coffee suppliers now and the price has dropped. I strongly suggest the farmers diversify into as many other crops as they can, that probably means education. This would have two effects, it'd reduce the supply of coffee and bolster the price, it'd also insulate them from the effect of a drastic drop in the price of any one crop.
While the goal of fair trade is laudable, the true effect is the same as governmental price fixing. Read up on the economics of price fixing:
http://jim.com/econ/chap16p1.html
Fairtrade is almost certainly making the situation worse.
Colin, the problem is not supply and demand, the problem is that all the money goes to the corporations that are between the buyers and the coffee growers.
If coffee in the supermarket was costing 5 cents a kilo or whatever, then you could say it's the market price and supply & demand. But coffee is still expensive in the west, it's just that the money never gets to the people who produce it. They've been told "here's the price we'll pay you, take it or leave it" and they can't afford to leave it. That's exploitation of poor people who don't have leverage (except organizing fair trade, coops, etc), nothing else.
"Go ahead and walk into any Starbucks and ask them what they do for the farmers and their local community. You may be surprised with what you hear. I know that it is cool to bash "the man", but the fact is (and has always been) that Starbucks isn't really that bad of a company."
If they really do a lot, then good for them.
But lets be careful not to fall for greenwashing. If you exploit people and don't pay them a fair amount for their work, doing a small good thing in return doesn't nullify that. What we need is a real workable arrangement, not PR.
It doesn't even make coffee much more expensive, it just cuts some corps out of the loop (and they don't do much in the first place -- nothing that can't be done by people affiliated directly with the farmers, anyway).
There is diversity in the Fair Trade market. Many roasters are offering a comprehensive approach to improving the lives of coffee farmers and their cooperatives. This means going beyond just paying a "fair price", but also building relationships that are based on equal standing between the importer and the producer. A good example is Higher Grounds Trading Co. out of Northern Michigan.
HGT consistently pays above even Fair trade prices, but also develops personal relationships with the producer cooperatives it buys from. They encourage, as well as offer educational and mechanical tools with the goal of improving the cooperatives bean quality. With increased quality, the producers will have a better opportunity to receive higher prices. Higher Grounds, and many of its partners, also do community work in the consumer region that focuses on education the consumer and also giving the consumer opportunities to participate.
Black Gold is an example of such an opportunity. Last year, Higher Grounds hosted Tadesse Meskela to speak in Traverse City, Michigan and now they are promoting the film with a fundraiser aimed and helping the Oromia school project seen in the film. The film will be screened in Traverse City, Michigan in the Milliken Auditorium on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College on Tuesday evening, December 5th. Higher Grounds Trading Co. will be matching up to $3000 in donations raised that night for the benefit of Ethiopian children. You can view more information about the event at their partner organization:www.glbconference.org or go to their Web site at www.highergroundstrading.com. At those sites you can also donate a donation card to make your contribution.
"She's so hooker on her habit, she's not stopping to think about the industry behind her morning buzz.
I'm hoping that I can find coffee that's superior to Starbizzy's in taste and quality as well as price so I can get her to come around."
Hooker? Freudian slip?
Just buy a $20 coffee grinder, find the cheapest whole beans you can find (no, not Starbucks brand) and brew it yourself. For flavors, use Coffee-Mate.
Readers may be interested in a range of resources which have been written to raise awareness about the coffee trade in Africa, and which provide materials to help people do their own awareness-raising.
COFFEE, FAIRTRADE AND RWANDA (BOOKLET) tells the story of the Abahuzamugambi Fairtrade coffee co-operative in Rwanda. As well as explaining simply the global trading conditions which necessitate Fairtrade, it provides ideas for activities to raise awareness, explains how coffee is produced, and tells you a little about its history. It's an accessible and interesting read, is available in English, French and Kinyarwanda, and can be downloaded free at http://www.vso.org.uk/thecoffeeproject/booklet.htm .
COFFEE, FAIRTRADE AND RWANDA (PRESENTATION) has similar goals to the booklet, in an engaging and informative PowerPoint presentation. There are two versions – one is to read yourself, the other to enable you to give presentations on the subject if you feel suitably inspired – notes are provided to help you. They're downloadable for free at http://www.vso.org.uk/thecoffeeproject/presentations.htm. If you don't have PowerPoint on your computer you can download a read-only version (PowerPoint Viewer) on the same page. I've trialled the material with a variety of audiences in the UK, and found it to be very well–received.
I'd be really interested to hear about anyone's experiences using this material, so that I can improve it where necessary.
Consumers don't "gladly pay" that much for coffee products. They would love to pay less if they could. That's a silly statement. We all have choices, if you don't want to shop at Starbucks, get your coffee from somewhere else. Same with Walmart, McDonalds, etc.
For those of you who are interested in the issue of Fair trade, there is a powerful documentary out called “Black Gold,” that documents the lives of Ethiopian coffee farmers and clearly demonstrates why all of us should be asking for Fair Trade coffee. The film was recently released in the theater but is now available to the public on DVD via California Newsreel. You can read more about the documentary or pick up a copy of it here at http://newsreel.org/
Many people believe that the cost of coffee is the primary cost of their daily shot of black gold... that is where they are sadly mistaken.
The average cup of coffee has 7 grams roasted beans, which is 9 grams of green bean. Therefore the cost of coffee in your cup is less than 1% of the total cost, even after adding on the cost of shipping and roasting....
by drinking a starbucks or for that matter any other brand of coffee, you pay for the brand, the ambience, the whole "experience", and even pay more for the additives like the milk and sugar and the damn cup you use.
fair trade coffee is a great idea, however currenly demand for it is only 10% of the supply, and even with fair trade the farmer only receives a small premium over what he would otherwise get and this does not even bridge the gulf between the price you pay and price the farmer gets!
I am a coffee roaster for Starbucks. I believe SBUX buys more Fair Trade coffee than any other corporate coffee roaster on the planet. Does SBUX buy 100% Fair Trade coffee? No.....,but you probably wouldn't want to pay twice as much for your morning cup either.SBUX makes a concious effort to try and help coffee farmers. It's just good practice. Coffee farmers are just like a lot of other people. Their kids grow up and want to do something else for a living. I need coffee farmers to feed my family and pay my bills. It would be a really bad problem if all the farmers kids just grew up and left the farm.Why does Starbucks get beat down for just trying to run a business? I don't see them as bad people or a bad corporation. No one at SBUX asked me to write here. They probably prefered we didn't say anything on the web at all. They are good to me at work and good to my friends at the plant. They have been honest in every thing they have ever told me.They pay a little above average,but nothing flashy. I drive an old car and live in a small townhouse. I live pretty much like every body else.They do give a little more in time off because Howard Shultz believes in spending time with your family.They really aren't bad people to work for and they don't try to brainwash us like some people say on the web.We get a free pound of coffee each week. I dearly love coffee and I always drink Starbucks,but I almost always drank it before I came to work for them too. You would not believe how much coffee they toss each week because they want absolutely the best product we can produce.It bothers me sometimes when people say bad things about the coffee. We put our hearts in to every bag we ship.There are Master Roasters that produce some fantastic coffee out there. They make small batches of super premium products. They love their work and their coffee too. I hope some day to be a Super Roaster with my own PROBAT and shop on the corner,but for now I wouldn't want to be doing any thing else or working for anyone else ,but Starbucks. Thank you for your patronage. I have one daughter trying to get her nursing degree in college. She thanks you too.
thank you .