Fair Trade News

Published March 8, 2006

Movie makes viewers think twice about coffee

By MELINDA HEMMELGARN
Published Wednesday, March 8, 2006

How would you describe your first cup of coffee each morning? Highly essential, routinely pleasant, intimately enjoyable or sheer ecstasy?

Coffee is the second-most valuable traded commodity in the world, behind oil. Globally, we consume about 2 billion cups of coffee every day, and coffee lovers agree: It begins our day, and without it, we’d be miserable.

However, the producers of the movie "Black Gold" promise that once you see their film, your coffee will never taste the same. They’re right.

"Black Gold" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. But it screened for the second time in downtown Columbia at the True/False Film Festival last month, thanks to Paul Sturtz and David Wilson, self-proclaimed festival "co-conspirators." They brought co-director Nick Francis to town, too, all the way from the United Kingdom.

Francis explained that he and his brother chose to tell the story of Ethiopian coffee farmers because Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. According to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, or IATP, an ancient Ethiopian goat herder noticed his goats dancing with a rare display of physical energy after munching bright-red berries off shrubs on the forest floor.

Today, coffee accounts for 67 percent of Ethiopia’s export revenue. However, Francis says the plight of coffee farmers could have been told from any coffee-growing region in Asia, Africa or South America.

Regardless of country, coffee farmers face hunger and poverty as the result of unjust world trade policies. So despite the fact that a latte at our favorite cafe costs close to $3, farmers make less than 50 cents per day.

The impoverished coffee farmers Francis interviewed have no idea how much we pay for a cup of coffee. But they do recognize that charity is not the answer. They understand that trade is more important than aid because the latter fosters begging.

Coffee farmers don’t ask for much. They’d like nutritious food, clean clothes and the opportunity for their children to go to school. That’s it. But in an effort to escape famine and death and maintain independence, many coffee farmers have resorted to growing more profitable narcotic crops.

"Black Gold" follows coffee’s complex journey from poor farmers in Ethiopia to elitist baristas in the European Union and the United States, ultimately reminding us of the great chasm between our mouths and the sources of our food.

As we watch commodity traders in New York and London setting coffee prices amidst harsh images of hungry Ethiopian children at therapeutic feeding centers, we see how coffee touches us all.

"Black Gold" gives us hope in the work of Tadesse Meskela, a representative of a coffee growers cooperative dedicated to seeking fair prices for farmers. But Francis doesn’t expect our governments to support Meskela’s work.

"The food aid industry supports jobs in the U.S., and farmers can’t compete with free food," Francis says. But "consumers can make a difference."

"Coffee is entrenched in our culture," Francis says. It’s up to us make smarter choices and vote with our dollars. In other words, ask local businesses and grocers for "fair trade" coffee.

IATP explains that fair trade coffee has the potential for powerful positive economic and environmental change. It helps "guarantee that no one human becomes obscenely rich by making another human disgracefully poor."

According to TransFair USA, a certifier of fair trade products, the "Fair Trade Certified" label guarantees that farmers and workers receive fair prices for their products.

That helps farmers feed their families and send their children to school.

TransFair’s Nicole Chettero says fair trade "is all about creating a worldwide farmers market - where consumers can feel an intimate connection to the person that grew their food" … and "that all four stakeholders were honored - the producer, the consumer, industry and the Earth," thereby establishing "a sustainable model of international trade."

Fair trade is well-grounded. Learn more online: www.transfairusa.org, www.peacecoffee.com/fairtrade.htm and www.blackgoldmovie.com.

Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D., is a clinical dietitian and Food and Society Policy Fellow. She lives in Columbia.