A panel at yesterday’s “Beyond the Latte” event discusses social and ethical issues facing today’s coffee industry, including labor wages and gender disparities.
Right now, countless people across the campus are sipping their daily cup of joe, though few will give a second thought to where that coffee came from.
That’s a big problem, said panelists at Beyond the Latte: The Ripple Effect of Your Cup of Coffee. The event was held yesterday to address coffee’s global environmental and economic impact.
About 60 people attended the forum, which was sponsored by the business school’s Center for Social Value Creation and the Office of Sustainability and featured speakers who lead the coffee industry in augmenting its sustainability efforts.
Panelists encouraged consumers to take a role in the industry’s move toward more sustainable practices that better support workers and maintain healthy environmental growing conditions.
Margaret Swallow, founder of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance, said the first step in lessening the harmful effects of the coffee industry is connecting all the players in each rung of the supply chain: growing, processing, trading, roasting and brewing.
“Millions of dollars and millions of people” have a stake in transforming the industry to be more mutually beneficial, she said.
Ensuring the coffee’s quality is of utmost importance, said Martin Mayorga, founder and president of Mayorga Coffee Roasters, a company that focuses on small farmers and ethical practices.
Producing high-quality coffee requires talented workers — who then benefit from better wages — and good environmental conditions that will yield good harvests. By channeling efforts into improving the farmland, companies get excellent beans and the world gets a cleaner environment.
Audience members, about half of whom were students, were largely receptive to the goals and industry changes explained throughout both sections of the event — an informative panel discussion followed by three break-out groups about specific topics.
Although high-quality coffees don’t come cheap, students at the forum said learning that some pricey brews contribute to better economies and environments in growing countries convinced them it might be worth it.
“The way I see it, if I have the economic ability and if I can afford it, there’s no reason why I wouldn’t or shouldn’t buy that other cup of coffee,” said sophomore environmental science and policy major Caroline Gettys.
She added that she typically looks for certification labels that verify the beans were grown with ethical and sustainable practices.
Freshman environmental science and policy major Jeremy Krones said the presentation changed his opinion of Starbucks, which launched Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices in 2001. The C.A.F.E. program checks the farms Starbucks partners with in 19 countries for fair worker treatment and minimal environmental harm. In the future, he said, he will consider how his purchasing power can be used to direct the industry.
“Mainly I grew up with a stigma against Starbucks as this international, big corporation that exploits people and that is associated with coffee in general being a slave labor crop,” he said. “I’m still torn whether or not I should be drinking coffee and supporting that industry.”
Companies that adhere to fair trade practices demand ethical conditions at every level, from growers to roasters, and implement eco-conscious technologies for use in the fields through composting, solar panels and discouraging the use of harmful pesticides.
“[Coffee] is such a unique product that brings people directly into the social, economic and environmental issues. It’s so directly connected,” said Dennis Macray, Starbucks’ director of ethical sourcing. “What we really like is by simply drinking a cup of coffee you become part of the solution to greater issues.”
gulin@umdbk.com
