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Contents this page were published in the May/June, 1997 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1997 WFP Collective, Inc.
In 1978 the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) spent over $80 million studying how to improve coffee production. They persuaded many coffee growers to raze forests and create plantations that, through intensive applications of pesticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers, could make sun-grown coffea arabica more productive than ever before. Just as AID underestimated the devastation these chemicals would have on the environment, recent newspaper accounts tend to skim over the plantations' impact on local human populations, focusing instead on the disappearance of migratory birds from our backyard feeders.
However the message gets across, Seattle residents and corporations have many opportunities to improve the habitats of coffee-producing areas. In January, 1996, Puget Consumers Co-op (PCC) made only organic beans available in their bulk foods section - a policy long maintained by Central Co-op, Rainbow Grocery, and other natural foods outlets. Seattle's Best Coffee has a small line of certified organic beans and makes a point of seeking out growers who use organic and shade-grown methods, and Kalani Organica, a Seattle company established five years ago, provides only certified organic coffee and teas to stores, espresso stands, and restaurants.
"If every single person were to say, 'I'm only going to drink organic coffee,' it would change the world," says Margaret Reed, operator of the Dolce espresso carts and the forthcoming Red and Black Books coffee bar on 15th Ave. E.
Reed chose Kalani in a blind tasting of available organic brands. For her, as for Kalani owner Karen Gorder, the decision is more philosophical than financial. A decision to drink organic coffee also lacks the direct health benefit enjoyed by those who decide to eat organic vegetables, as roasting purges beans of toxins. Citing DDT, paraquat, and benomyl as some of the sprays used on coffee, Kalani's fact sheet asserts coffee is the third most highly sprayed crop (cotton and tobacco rank 1 and 2). Gorder's beans come from small shade-grown farms and co-ops in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, New Guinea, and Sumatra that have been certified organic by independent testing agencies. About 1/6 of the world's coffee is organically grown and almost all of the organically grown crop is also shade-grown.
Gorder packs her beans in biodegradable paper rather than plastic vacu-bags. To keep the coffee fresh, she roasts small quantities week by week. Prices are often competitive with non-organically grown coffee, as higher distribution costs the organic providers face may be offset by lower production costs. After all, the organic farms don't buy the chemicals the big plantations need to fertilize and protect the crop.
Then there's the issue of quality. Plants grown without manufactured chemicals under shade trees at high elevations have lower yields than sun-grown chemically treated plants. As a rule, lower yields create more flavorful produce. Before AID's intervention boosted short-term productivity of coffea arabica, sun plantations mostly grew low-level coffea robusta to supply instant coffee bins. For roasters committed to using organic, shade-grown beans, the co-ops and smaller farms offer potentially better produce than anyone could buy.
For Starbucks, however, the limits imposed by choosing organic and/or shade grown beans prohibit getting quality in the quantities they need. Starbucks wasn't the first roaster to offer high quality coffee varietals and blends, but the growth of their business over the last twenty years has in effect created the specialty coffee industry. They have also set standards of taste many organic coffees have yet to meet. Brands from Seattle's Best to Kalani owe a measure of their success to the world's leading specialty coffee company - not just for Starbucks' expansion of the market but also for its avoidance of the organic, shade-grown niche.
"I have a certain amount of respect for Starbucks, but people should hold the big guys accountable because they're in a position to do something about [the environment]," says Margaret Reed, who worked at the first Starbucks store over twenty years ago.
Starbucks has supported conservation and development in coffee growing countries and provided for workers' welfare in various ways, but they don't sell organic coffees.
"We don't want to confuse our customers," company spokesperson Jeanne McKay explained (Seattle Times 1/30/97).
A month later Starbucks announced a project to increase the incomes of small coffee producers in Guatemala, where they'll join forces with Appropriate Technology International, a private not-for-profit organization created by Congress in 1976 and receiving funds from AID, among others.
"The program will emphasize environmentally sound producing and processing methods, including shade-grown and possibly organic coffee," according to Starbucks vice president Dave Olsen.
Of course, if they ever do insist on buying only from organic, shade-grown sources, the Starbucks empire could ruin operations like Kalani and Dolce.
"I would be a total hypocrite if I were to say I don't want Starbucks to go organic because that would ruin my business," says Reed.
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