A lot of North Americans cannot start their day without their cups of coffee. Around 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed around the world every day. That’s a lot of caffeine !!! However, I never thought of how those coffee beans ended up where they are today.
After watching the documentary ‘Black Gold’, I found out that coffee plantations have been the source of livelihoods for generations of people living in tropical regions like Ethiopia and Columbia. This film mainly focuses on the Ethiopian coffee cultivators.
This documentary introduced to me the ills of unfair trade especially regarding the trade of coffee. In Ethiopia, a kilogram of the land’s best Harar coffee beans fetches the farmers only $0.23. A 12 ozs bag of the same coffee beans in priced at around $11. That is a huge difference. I am ready to purchase these exotic coffee beans at this price for their quality; however, it is unfortunate to know that only 2% of the cost is rewarded to the hard working planters.
After the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1984, the only regulator of the supply of coffee around the world, the price of coffee has hit an all time low. Due to this unfair development, many workers do not have jobs. With very little income from this industry, the farmers cannot afford basic necessities like clean water, food and education for their children. Many of these laborers are not guaranteed basic labor rights.
As consumers in developed nations, we have the power to bring justice to the poor laborers in the developing countries. By purchasing commodities available through fair trade methods, we are able to provide to these farmers what they deserve: a just reward for their labor. The consumer can only change if he or she is fully aware of the injustices taking place across the globe. The people of these nations are made dependent on foreign trade and more often than not, these governments of these nations are relieved of their responsibilities to provide a sound infrastructure to create jobs for the people. It is essential to make these governments self sustainable, not through fulfilling material needs but through promoting their inherent skills.
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