Most students will find it difficult to imagine a world without coffee, or where coffee is unaffordable on a student budget. In the Netherlands for example, the average person drinks more than two and a half cups per day. However, some already predict a shortage of 3.5 million bags in the next coffee season and a price increase of 25% by 2050. Coffee scarcity therefore looms in our future.
Scarcity occurs because of social and environmental problems. Severe droughts and floods caused by changing weather patterns prevent the coffee bean from growing. In some areas, coffee beans shrivel up before harvest, while in others landslides swallow up entire farms. Pests and disease surge at higher temperatures and drive farmers further up the mountains, where they destroy protected areas. Higher temperatures also mean many current farms will no longer be hospitable for coffee plants. The Arabica bean, the most popular and aromatic, will be the most affected, with the land available for growing Arabica set to drop by half.
Aside from the environmental problems, current coffee production also brings social problems. Many plantations employ workers in slave-like conditions, paying very little, if anything at all. Instability in international coffee prices can lead to sudden changes in farmers´ incomes, forcing many into poverty. The communities of many coffee farmers are therefore also poor, with low socio-economic opportunities for the children of coffee farmers. As such, many younger farmers either migrate to the city in search of better jobs or switch to more stable crops, a problem that further decreases the coffee supply.
In order to save coffee production, social as well as environmental issues need to be addressed, both of which Fair Trade tackles. To insure against price instability, Fair Trade ensures a stable, minimum income for coffee farmers, regardless of the market price. Fair Trade also gives these farmers an additional amount that is used for socio-economic improvements. Furthermore, farmers have to form small, democratic associations as well as set environmental standards and restrictions such as forbidding the use of pesticides. Minimum wage is also guaranteed to farm workers.
This is the reason Gecco sells and tries to promote Fair Trade products every Tuesday. We are not saying that Fair Trade is without its problems, nor are we under the illusion that it works effectively all the time. As Fair Trade itself admits, there is still a lot of room for improvement. We therefore pick and promote Fair Trade, not because we believe it´s some utopian solution that will bring an end to poverty and environmental issues, but instead because, as opposed to coffee from some other sources, it ensures a minimum set of environmental and social standards. Gecco wants to help ensure that the coffee we sell is both sustainable and is made in a manner that treats workers fairly – if the coffee crisis is to be avoided, social and environmental issues can´t be ignored.
By Camilo Straatsma
GECCO – Universalis Sustainability Committee
The Bell 