Coffee Buzz (Option One): How Coffee Affects the Lives of Those That Grow It

                                    http://www.chefseattle.com/articles/black-gold/4.html

 

In the documentary film “Black Gold”, several coffee farmers are shown as well as an individual that is a higher official that fights to get farmers more money for his country's coffee farmers. The background information for the film is that coffee farmers in Ethiopia are making next to nothing for their coffee (but yet coffee sells for $2.90 a cup and the "middle men" reap the rewards when the farmers do the hard, backbreaking work). Since these farmers live in a third world country there are no subsidies to assist these farmers with their small incomes. Their only income is that dictated by the buyer of their coffee (they have no choice but to accept the price presented to them or sell nothing at all).  One of the personal stories that caught my attention was the tale of a generation farmer (his father was a coffee farmer, etc.). He had been selling coffee his whole life and was living in, what looked like, extreme poverty. He had 15 people living people with him that he was trying to support. The coffee is selling for less and less in Ethiopia each year, so this farmer’s situation is doing the same. By the end of the film, they show him destroying his coffee fields so that he may plant another crop called chat. Chat is an addictive narcotic that is popular in Africa and sells fast (for a lot more money than coffee). He explains that he doesn’t want it to be this way, but he has to or he and his family will die. He has no other choice. This reflects the injustice of the exchange because he has to compromise his morals just to survive. He also has to compromise his fields because he will make no income at all while transitioning the fields from coffee to chat. Coffee consumers would obviously overlook this because this personal story doesn’t really affect them. In the consumers mind, they just see that one more coffee farmer has left the business.

                Another personal story that caught my attention was that of the child at the feeding oasis. There was a major famine in the area and a feeding station was set up. A child came in that was very clearly malnourished, but she was turned away because “she was moderately malnourished but severely malnourished”. They did not mention how far her family had travelled to get there, but I’m sure it was no easy trek. So this child will probably die. They also did not mention if any of her family was in the coffee business, but it was mentioned that several families there were. It was so awful to see the starving children being turned away and their poor families can do nothing. The families are making hardly any money from the coffee trade. The families have to make the tough decision of feeding their child and feeding themselves so that they can work and bring in their little income. The injustice with the trading association is that there are representatives that travel and tell other coffee capitals that they are experiencing famine, poverty, etc. and that if the farmers were given more wages (a small increase would change their lives) then a lot of the issues in the region would dissolve, but still not much is done. Coffee consumers would overlook the famine issues because famine is rampant in a lot of third world countries.  The coffee consumer would ration that this happens in a lot of areas whether the wages of coffee are the cause or another crop, it would happen anyway.

            This brings up a viewpoint from Wilk’s “Home Cooking in the Global Village”. He sort of argues that we should want to know where our food comes from because of the effects it may have on the people that grow/make it. The people that grow and make the products often do not get to use them because they are too expensive. He also mentions how some cultures are lost due to heavy industrialization/ globalization.  We should care because often abused, battered, and severely underpaid workers are preparing our grub. Sick animals may also be harvested and served on your plate. He also mentions several other reasons, but these reasons correlate to the coffee farmers in Ethiopia. It should pull out our compassion for the workers now that we know their circumstances. In conclusion, there is a severe injustice being served with your cup of coffee and they come in the forms of malnourished children and poverty stricken coffee farmers and their families.

 

References

Grant Chen, Conclusion - Black Gold a Call to Fair Trade, 2008 (http://www.chefseattle.com/ articles/black-gold/4.html) (Image)