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- 1. Is the coffee industry sustainable? COFFEE
- 2. Sustainability: meeting society’s food needs today without compromising future generations Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, Profit
- 3. The debate and its participants Why the coffee industry is not sustainable: • Social Issues • Economic Issues • Environmental Issues Certification and monitoring organizations that set coffee production standards:
- 4. Social Issues • Poverty and lack of education • Farmers are enslaved through debt peonage • Forced labor • Child labor • Gender inequality “Coffee is considered a men’s crop” (Panhuysen 2018) Temporary workers in Kenya make $12 a month! (Bitter Brew) (https://features.weather.com/thesource/) https://af.reuters.com/article/africaTech/idAFKBN13D1PP)
- 5. Economic Issues • Below livable income • Profit not evenly distributed • Rising production costs • Volatile market pricing $350 Million/year “Coffee Sustainability” Inequality in the coffee value chain (Panhuysen 2018) “Only 10% of the aggregate wealth of coffee stays in the producing countries” (Panhuysen 2018) Average price: $2.38 Average price: $3.45
- 6. Environmental Issues • Coffee farms contribute to: • Deforestation • Erosion • Diseases • Pests • Loss of biodiversity • Climate change • Migratory birds • Greenhouse gases Coffee farm in the Colombian Eje Cafetero (https://www.perfectdailygrind.com/2016/06/unstable-market-economics-global-coffee-prices/) “Agriculture drives 80% of tropical deforestation and billions of tons of greenhouse gas emission”
- 7. Why Do We Want a Sustainable Coffee Industry? “United States is the world’s single largest consuming country, buying more than 22% of world coffee imports”(Haight 2011).
- 8. Conclusion WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? GOAL: to grow “in a manner that is kind to the environment and its people” (coffeeresearch.org)
- 9. Works Cited “Bitter Brew: The Stirring Reality of Coffee.” Food Empowerment Project, foodispower.org/our-food-choices/coffee/. Brown, Victoria. “Center for a Livable Future.” Center for a Livable Future, 18 Aug. 2017, livablefutureblog.com/2017/08/coffee-part-1- environment. “Coffee Break Series No.1.” International Coffee Organization, Apr. 2020, www.ico.org/documents/cy2019-20/coffee-break-series-1e.pdf. “Coffee Statistics 2020.” E-Imports, 2020, www.e-importz.com/coffee-statistics.php. “Coffee Sustainability.” Coffee Research, 2006, www.coffeeresearch.org/politics/sustainability.htm. Doval, Calvin. “What Is Sustainable Agriculture.” Agricultural Sustainability Institute, 9 Apr. 2020, asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/ucsarep/about/ what-is-sustainable-agriculture. Fernando. “Sustainability in Coffee: What Are The Main Issues?” Perfect Daily Grind, 15 Nov. 2018, www.perfectdailygrind.com/2018/11/ sustainability-in-coffee-what-are-the-main-issues/. Haight, Colleen, and San Jose State University. “The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee (SSIR).” Stanford Social Innovation Review: Informing and Inspiring Leaders of Social Change, 2011, ssir.org/articles/entry/the_problem_with_fair_trade_coffee. Hodal, Kate. “Nestlé Admits Slave Labour Risk on Brazil Coffee Plantations.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Mar. 2016, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/mar/02/nestle-admits-slave-labour-risk-on-brazil-coffee-plantations. Panhuysen, S. and J. Pierrot. Coffee Barometer.” Hivos, 2018. https://www.hivos.org/assets/2018/06/Coffee-Barometer-2018.pdf? _sp=380116a8-6bb0-4419-89d1-9368ae45a49c.1536079178762
Editor's Notes
- Slide 1: Is the coffee industry sustainable? Hello and welcome to my presentation. I will be investigating the coffee industry to determine if it is sustainable. Before I delve into this question, I wanted to open with a brief introduction about coffee in general. Coffee is the second most valuable commodity exported by developing countries, which first originated in Ethiopia. Coffee production spread to Latin America and Asia after “Dutch spies smuggled coffee seedlings out of the Ottoman Empire in the 1600s”(Brown 2017). There are two types of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica comes from Latin America, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Robusta comes from Brazil, Vietnam, and Uganda. Coffee has a long history of colonialism and slavery and is still exploited to this day. (Bitter Brew) Is the coffee industry sustainable? The quick answer is no, but it is possible to achieve sustainability in this industry.
- Slide 2: Sustainability What does the term sustainability mean? The UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute states that “the goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet society’s food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”(Doval 2020). Sustainably is defined in terms of economic, environmental, and social health of the coffee industry, also referred to as the triple bottom line (Fernando 2018). A sustainable coffee industry would strive to produce coffee in a way that is simultaneously environmentally conscious, economically profitable with social and economic equity. These three factors are not independent of one another. Farming families are vulnerable in this volatile industry, which exemplifies how economic sustainability is linked to the social sustainability of these farming communities. I expand on this thought later in the presentation.
- Slide 3: The debate and participants Now that we have a good understanding of what sustainable means, it is time to determine if this term applies to the coffee industry. My research indicates that it is not sustainable. It is not sustainable for reasons encompassing social, economical, and environmental issues. There is not just one party who is responsible for creating a sustainable coffee industry. Starting at the origin of coffee production, farmers have a responsibility to adopt farming methods that minimizes their carbon and water footprint on the environment. The middlemen are responsible for trading this commodity at a fair price and regulating production standards such as labor laws and farming methods. At the individual level, consumers are responsible for subscribing to ethical coffee companies and their contribution to landfill waste such as plastic and paper cups from coffee establishments or at home single serve K-cups.
- Slide 4: Social Issues The coffee industry is not a fair playing ground for farmers in developing countries. Poverty is a sustainability stress factor. These countries and their people are at a disadvantage because there is poor education. They are not trained on sustainable farming methods or smart business. This poor education problem is further exacerbated when children are taken away from school to work on the farm. This cycle will continue unless something gets changed. Another social issue is that some plantations have enslaved workers through debt peonage. This means that they are forced to work to repay debts. Families can get stuck at these plantations for generations. They get paid less than minimum wage and don’t receive any overtime or employee benefits. In 2016, Nestle admits to purchasing coffee from plantations with forced labor and cannot “fully guarantee that it has completely removed forced labor practices or human rights abuses” from their supply chain” (Bitter Brew). This forced labor was observed on plantations in Brazil, which is the largest exporter of coffee in the world. The Brazilian government has rescued workers from forced labor on these plantations (Hodal 2016). Coffee farming is usually a family affair in order to yield a livable income. Parents will involve their children in the industry; child labor is unfortunately quiet common in coffee farming. In Brazil, the child labor rates were 37% higher and school enrollment’s 3% lower than average in regions where coffee is produced. There are regulations against child labor, but they are not enforced due to economic pressure. The Guardian released a story titled “Children as young as eight picked coffee beans on farms supplying Starbucks” on March 1, 2020. They reported that there were children under the age of 13 who were working on farms in Guatemala. They worked 8-hour shifts, 6 days a week and paid as low as 31 cents per hour. Child labor has obvious detrimental affects on their education as well as the education provided in these areas. Lastly, there is a big gender inequality issue in the coffee industry. The Rainforest Alliance reports that “female farmers produced less than male counterpart because they have far less access to resources” (Fernando 2018). In Kenya, temporary workers, usually women and children, are hired during the harvesting season and only make about $12 a month. Moreover, “coffee is considered a men’s crop”, so women remain an invisible work force in this industry (Panhuysen 2018). The coffee industry is reinforcing gender inequality by maintaining patriarchal principles, but with a fair playing field “women could increase their farm yield by 20-30%” (Fernando 2018).
- Slide 5: Economic Issues The most alarming statistic I found through this research process was that only 10% of the profit gets back to the producers. Coffee was once a profitable job for farmers, but this no longer holds true and has become an industry that doesn’t even yield a livable wage for farmers who only make $1 to $3 per day. It costs Starbucks about 30 cents to make a cup of coffee, yet the price of coffee is eight to eleven times that. There is a significant profit margin for coffee shops and coffee distributors, money that farmers will never see. (Coffee Statistics 2020) The volatility of the coffee industry causes the price of coffee to be very unstable. Coffee price, like most commodities, changes every minute like stock. The C-price is determined by a demand-supply principle. These unstable prices have a direct impact on access to education, housing, food, and healthcare. The demand for coffee is continually increasing, so there is economic pressure placed on farms to keep up with the demand. As a consequence, companies focus on short-term profitability when approaching farming methods. This is detrimental to the environment and not sustainable long-term. These farming methods will be discussed more in depth in environmental issues. Families living in poverty are less likely to be concerned with sustainability efforts. One reason is that they don’t have the education to farm effectively. Although low-intensity farming, shade tress, and organic farming techniques are better for the environment, they have little economic benefit compared to more aggressive and destructive methods of farming. I included a graphic representation of how much the coffee industry makes compared to how much it would cost to implement sustainability tactics. The costs of these sustainability measures are a fraction of this industry’s earnings, yet “almost zero percent of profits are re-invested in increasing sustainability of the production side of the coffee value chain”( Panhuysen 2018). The smallholder farmers do not have the incentive or means to adopt sustainable farming. The budget of $350 million is feasible for these corporations and something that should be done. The coffee industry will crash if the system doesn’t get more sustainable.
- Slide 6: Environmental Issues I previously mentioned that smallholder farmers and corporate farmers alike are opting for aggressive, short-term profit solutions to compete with the rising coffee demand and production costs. I will highlight keys reasons why monoculture farms are not only bad for the environment, but also bad for economic sustainability. Coffee grows naturally in the understory of topical forests. There are many benefits to this kind of farming such as erosion prevention, providing shelter for vulnerable native species, and protecting the biodiversity. Shaded plants also require less water, a shortage in most developing countries. It takes 37 gallons of water to grow enough beans for one cup of coffee! The water is not usually disposed properly, contaminating the waterways and causing diseases and death to plants and animals. The Water Footprint Network reports average water footprint of a cup of coffee is 140 liters. Sun-grown coffee is taking over shade-grown crops because they have higher yields. Consequentially, this farming depletes the soils nutrients, forcing farmers to replant every 12-15 years compared to shade-grown plants, which last for more than 30 years. Sun-grown requires more fertilizers and fungicides, which pollute the soil and water system. Processing coffee beans creates waste from the skin and pulp, which could serve as compost, but usually improperly discarded in waterways. (Bitter Brew) The full sun farms are responsible for deforestation, erosion, and elimination of biodiversity. Intensive sun-grown farms also invite pollination and pest problems, increasing reliance on pesticides, which contributes to ecological degradation “Agriculture is responsible for 80% of tropical deforestation”(Fernando 2018). That is a terrifying statistic, definitely not good for the ongoing, ever pressing conflict with climate change. Climate change causes unpredictable climates like droughts ad flooding and the rising temperatures forces farmers to grow at higher altitudes with more limited space. Consumers have also negatively impacted the environment directly by consuming coffees out of plastic and paper cups and using single serve K-cups. 1 in 3 American households has a Keurig machine or comparable single serve coffee machine. K-cups are extremely wasteful and harmful to the environment. They can be disassembled and parts of it are recyclable, but it will still produce some waste.
- Slide 7: Why Do We Want a Sustainable Coffee Industry? Prior to my research on this topic, I was not fully aware that the coffee industry was in a dire need of reform. This isn’t a frequently talked about subject because coffee is so ingrained into the American culture that it is not consciously acknowledged. Furthermore, I doubt many of us would want to ponder about the ethical and sustainable conflicts brewing in the coffee industry during our morning coffee run. Coffee is so ingrained into this culture so much so that the “United States is the world’s single largest consuming country, buying more than 22% of world coffee imports” (Haight 2011). So why is this an issue we need to approach right now? The International Coffee Organization (ICO) in 2016 “confirms that coffee farmers have been operating at a loss between 2006-2016” (Panhuysen 2018). The ICO also reported that “coffee prices have experienced a continued downward trend since 2016” (Coffee Break Series No. 1 2020). It is well understood the interconnectedness of social, economical, and environmental factors, but policy has failed at remedying the issues. It is a pressing matter as climate change is exponentially detrimental to this planet. COVID-19 pandemic has had catastrophic impact on society and economics. The demand and supply for coffee has decreased since the inception of this pandemic. With the closing of all non-essential businesses, people haven’t been purchasing coffee as much. Moreover, people will start opting for low-quality, cheaper coffee as a consequence of the suffering economic conditions. The virus may affect the workers on the farms decreasing production. (Coffee Break Series No. 1 2020): A portion of the public is at least aware about the different coffee labels such as “organic” or “Fair Trade”, but nothing deeper than that. I was in this category. I had the impression of what Fair Trade and other similar certificates objectives were. In fact, Fair Trade has played a significant role in marketing these ethical issues to the public. “50 percent of American households are aware of Fair Trade coffee” which is up from 9 percent in 2005 (Haight 2011).
- Slide 8: What should be done? There is no simple way to turn the coffee industry into a sustainable system, but there are things we can do now, a small step toward sustainability. The simplest definition of sustainable coffee farming is to grow “in a manner that is kind to the environment and its people” (Coffee Sustainability 2006). They can also filter contaminated water through the earth and utilize it in the irrigation system. I think the biggest thing to immediately start doing is creating transparency throughout the multilevel factions of the industry. Farmers are isolated from the majority of the business nuances of the coffee industry, which keeps them blind and vulnerable to how the business works. There is an overwhelming disadvantage suffered by farmers who lack education and training in sustainable and equitable business practices. Due to the lack of education, farmers don’t know how to claim the fair share of profit. The Coffee Barometer advocates for re-distribution of where the money goes, which requires a lot of transparency and excellent record keeping of the middlemen. Smallholder farmers who cannot afford sustainability expenses can at the very least recycle coffee husks to use a heating fuel instead of chopping down eucalyptus trees. The Food Empowerment Project suggests viewing coffee as a luxury again, helping to reduce coffee consumption and waste. They also provide a list of shade-plant companies, which are kinder to the environment. When buying coffee, consider the origin and farming method, sustainable ways to prepare it. Transparency is vital steep to achieving price stabilization, an important factor for social and economic sustainability. Thank you for listening to my presentation!