Speak Up

Last week I did something I have never done before. . .I decided to speak up.

Those of you who know me best know that I'm passionate about fair trade ('passionate' may not be strong enough a word!).  Being from a smaller community, sometimes you have to settle for less because fair trade is not always available.  In Winkler, we have a local coffee shop (a hot spot of sorts) called Jonny's Java.  They don't have fair trade coffee - instead they have direct trade.  One basic difference is that direct trade does not require the certification that fair trade does.  Both deal on a more direct basis with farmers and co-operatives, ensuring that farmers get paid more (and they actually get paid more through direct trade versus fair trade).  The issue that I have with direct trade (specially the coffee beans that Jonny's is dealing with), is that they want perfect beans - literally.  With fair trade, the farmer can count on being paid because of the contract they sign (which ensures they are paid above commodity, as coffee is a major player on the stock exchange).  Farmers cannot rely on getting paid through direct trade because their coffee beans may not be of the quality that direct traders are looking for and they simply won't buy the beans.  Fair trade is about maintaining the relationship and so the farmers can rely on the contracts signed, even if it's a bad year (which we understand in the farming land of southern Manitoba).

That's the background.

One of the owners from Jonny's came to school to share about direct trade with our Amnesty group.  I sat back and took some notes and asked a few questions.  One thing that came up in the discussion was the fair trade farmers lose out when the commodity price is higher than the fair trade price - this was not my understanding and so I did a little research on my own after the presentation.  I had a graph in my mind and dug into all my fair trade material, only to find out it was a graph about cocoa, even though the explanation included coffee.  But I thought if I really wanted to prove my point, I should get information specifically about coffee, so on went my search.  I knew that Level Ground (the coffee suppliers for Ten Thousand Villages) had a great website and that they are very transparent, so I went to check it out and found the graph I was looking for!

Here's the thing I never do. . .

The next time I went into Jonny's (which happens a lot), I brought along the graph and stated that I wanted to make sure that both of us had the right information since we're passing it along to other people.  The owner listened and said he would check into it, which I was happy with.  If fair trade farmers lose out when the commodity price rises above the fair trade price (which does not happen very often at all), then I would say that the fair trade process, in regards to coffee, needs to be examined and that's where my next questions would be directed, if necessary.  As a side note - I don't drink coffee.  To me, this is not about coffee - it's about farmers who deserve to get paid fairly for the time and energy that they put into their crop, especially given that coffee is such a luxury, not a necessity (though some coffee-drinkers may disagree with me on that point!).

The reason that I have posted the name of "Jonny's Java" is because I know that direct trade, though not perfect in my mind, is a good alternative to conventional coffee trading.  More than that, I support their efforts and I appreciate the fact that, when I went into Jonny's the next time, I was told that the owner had the wrong information and that I indeed was correct!  And if felt good at the end, not that I could gloat, but that I had done the right thing by simply speaking up.