Is Organic Coffee Doomed?
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04.19.07
Will organic-coffee lovers need a different kind of fix, soon? Earlier this month, Salon published a story decrying the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent tightening of organic-certification requirements. The main sticking point: These revised standards could drastically cut back on the ability of small grower co-ops to produce organic coffee.
"This ruling could wipe out the organic coffee market in the U.S.," says Kimberly Easson, director of strategic relationships for TransFair USA, which certifies fair-trade products in the United States. Worries that the USDA ruling will jack up costs for small-scale organic producers, and drive them back into conventional commodity markets, also abound.
From Salon:
Until now, however, there has been a special provision for "grower groups" that made certification practical for farmer cooperatives in the Third World, whose memberships can reach into the thousands. Because of the immense logistical demands of inspecting every farm in a large co-op, a compromise was reached: An organic inspector would randomly visit only a portion of the group's farms each year, usually 20 percent. The grower groups would then self-police the remainder through a manager who made sure they followed the rules. The following year, an inspector would return and visit another 20 percent of the farms. After five years, all farms would be inspected.But in the ruling made public this month, the National Organic Program overturned that system, saying every farm in a grower group must now be visited and inspected annually—as has been the practice in the United States—rather than only a percentage.
Rodney North of Equal Exchange tells TreeHugger that this move would decertify "tens of thousands of small-scale organic farmers around the world" currently certified through their farmer co-ops. "This would include most of the world’s Fair Trade Certified co-ops," he says. "Not only would this be a huge economic blow to these farmers and their communities, it would also be a big step backwards for the environment, and would shrink the supply of organic foods (especially coffee, tea, bananas, chocolate, and sugar) for U.S. consumers."
In response, Equal Exchange and the National Organic Coalition have put together a petition to the USDA. Note: The deadline to sign the petition is Tuesday, April 24th.
Call us pessimists, but we don't think it's in the USDA's best interest to tick off a bunch of highly caffeinated people. And if chocolate is pulled into the ring? Prepare for one whopper of a throwdown.
Three of my favorite thing- coffee, tea, and chocolate. But are any of them truly sustainable? That's a lot of fossil fuel to get the products to the U.S.
There's a hefty premium put on those organic products. Why isn't part of that premium used to help pay for the inspectors? Standards should remain high, but so should support of small farmers.
Whether a coincidence or not, this would have the effect of letting large scale producers dominate supply chains, relying on contracts with major distributors to take over the markets pioneered by small retailers.
If that happens, we'll have to use "fair trade' as a "dog whistle" surrogate for organic.
Part of the premium we pay for organic chocolate, coffee, etc. probably is going to pay the inspectors, in the sense that it covers the costs incurred by the growers in the certification process.
All is not lost. Government entities tend to let the pendulum swing a little too far in a knee-jerk reaction, then figure out something we can live with a little better.
Debbie
Greenskeeper has a good point about "shouldn't some of the price premium for organic be used to cover inspection costs?" . . .and there's a good answer. Currently consumers do usually (but not always) pay more for organic coffee, and in turn stores, distributors, coffee roasters and importers also pay more to get that organic coffee. For example, at Equal Exchange we pay farmer co-ops at least $1.56/lb for organic, Fair Trade coffeee, even though the current commodity market price for coffee is only about $1.10. (And for NON-organic Fair Trade coffee we pay at least $1.36). Just for one truckload ("container" in industry jargon, or 38,000 lbs) that 20¢ organic premium adds up to an extra $7,200. However, that 20 cent premium is only obligatory for Fair Trade coffee. Other organic coffee farmers (& cocoa farmers,etc.) might get a smaller premium - as determined by market forces.*
And indeed farmer co-ops, and their farmer members, already use that extra income - however much it is - to cover current inspection/certification costs, as well as to cover the many extra costs associated costs of organic production (extra labor, building terraces, technical assistance, bookkeeping, etc). BUT the issue here is that if EVERY single small plot had to be inspected (vs. the current requirement of 20% of all co-op member plots) the huge increase in certification costs would eat up the entire organic price premium, thereby removing the incentive to farm organically.
* Organic coffee that is NOT also fairly traded, often gets a lower premium, if any at all. That is to say if you want to maximize the reward that goes to the organic farmer, seek out products that are both organic & fairly trade. To see the details on how the Fair Trade system requires farmers to be paid higher prices for organic crops see: www.fairtrade.net and click on "standards"