http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/04/24/177757797/coffee-for-a-cause-what-do-those-feel-good-labels-deliver
Coffee For A Cause:
What Do Those Feel-Good Labels Deliver?
Coffee For A Cau http://n.pr/13kBmK http://w w w .npr.o
by Dan Charles
April 24, 2013 3:20 AM
Listen to the Story
Morning Edition
7 min 47 sec



Playlist
Download
Transcript
Correction April 24, 2013
The audio of this story, as did a previous Web version, incorrectly says that Fair Trade certification does not deal
with environmental practices on farms. In fact, Fair Trade does encourage farmers to introduce good environmental
practices, such as using less water and handling pesticides safety. Those practices, however, are not a primary focus
of Fair Trade certification.
Luis Fernando Vasquez has been a coffee farmer in the central valley of Costa Rica his entire life.
What does it take to find guilt-free coffee?
Much of our coffee comes from places where the environment is endangered and workers earn very
little — sometimes, just a few dollars for a whole day's work. Coffee farmers have helped cut down
tropical forests, and most of them use pesticides.
It doesn't take much effort, though, to find bags of coffee with labels that promise social and
environmental improvements. Among the best-known are Fairtrade or Rain Forest Alliance Certified.
I went to Costa Rica to find out what those labels mean and how well they deliver on their promises.
I visited, for example, a hillside in the country's central valley, near the town of San Ramon, where
Luis Fernando Vasquez grows coffee.
Vasquez loves showing off his farm, which also produces bananas and honey. He's lived here his
whole life and learned to grow coffee from his father. But in the past few years, he says, he's
changed the way he farms.
Luis Fernando Vasquez's coffee farm in Costa Rica. Vasquez says farmers have changed their methods in recent years.
Where they once would cut down trees, he says, "now we are coming to understand that the tree plays a role" in a healthy
coffee plant ecosystem.
"Before, a tree used to be an obstacle, and we'd just cut it down," he says. "Now, we are
coming to understand that the tree plays a role, and it can coexist with our commercial coffee
plantation."
Coffee plants that grow in the shade of trees produce fewer beans, but many people say those
beans taste better. In addition, trees help reduce soil erosion and provide a home for wildlife.
Vasquez points at the ground, which is covered by a layer of dead, decaying leaves. "We used to
pick all that up, bring it to one central point on the farm and then set it on fire," he says. "But now I
know that if I leave it there, it will actually help improve soil fertility."
There also have been changes that I can't see: He's using fewer pesticides and recycling his trash.
Vasquez is enthusiastic about these changes, but they were not originally his idea.
They're the result of a long chain of decisions reaching all to way back to American consumers
contemplating their many coffee options in the local Stop & Shop.
Several people who are part of that chain are also with me here on the farm.
Fair Trade? Rainforest Alliance? What's In A Coffee Certification
Rainforest Alliance
Learn More About The Different Coffee Certifications Below
First, there's Sergio Gurdian, who works for ECOM Trading,
the second-biggest coffee trader in the world. ECOM buys
beans from farmers and sells them to big companies like
Starbucks or Nestle.
Gurdian and his colleagues went to Vasquez and
persuaded him to change his farming practices.
Why? "I think that the world is changing right now," says
Gurdian.
To be specific, one of ECOM's big customers is changing. Nespresso, a coffee business owned by
Nestle, has decided that it wants most of its coffee to carry a particular label: Rainforest Alliance
Certified.
And Rainforest Alliance, the environmental group behind this label, has a whole set of rules for
farmers, called the Sustainable Agriculture Standard.
ECOM took on the job of getting farmers onboard. "We said, 'OK, it's time to show the producers that
sustainability is OK, and that we can offer lots of benefits, not only for them, the producers, but also
for their farms," says Gurdian.
There was also a small financial incentive. Now that Vasquez, the farmer, is Rainforest Alliance
Certified, he gets about 15 cents more for each pound of coffee.
The number of farmers like him is growing. According to Rainforest Alliance, 4.5 percent of all coffee
produced in 2012 came from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. That's a 45 percent increase over
2011.
There are other labels, of course: fair trade; organic; direct trade.
All of these labels promise slightly different things, and every promise involves some compromises.
For instance: Rainforest Alliance runs a relatively strict system, with independent auditors who
inspect farms at random. If the auditors find prohibited pesticides, or workers earning less than the
minimum wage, that farm can lose its certification. Sometimes, a whole group of neighboring farms
also can be decertified.
You may be glad to know that the program has teeth. On the other hand, those rules shut out many
of the smallest, poorest farmers.
Emilia Umaña, who also helps farmers get Rainforest Alliance certification, says the rules ask for
things that are too expensive for many small farmers to buy — like special showers for workers to
use after applying pesticides. "One of the biggest flaws in the system is that they use the same rule
book, worldwide, for every type of producer in every company," she says.
If you're specifically interested in helping small farmers, maybe you should look for fair trade coffee.
Its whole focus is small coffee producers. Traditionally, all fair trade coffee has come from
cooperatives of small producers.
Christian Mora is the general manager of AFAORCA, a fair trade coffee cooperative in Costa Rica.
Christian Mora is general manager of one of these co-ops, called AFAORCA, in Costa Rica. It has
just 24 members.
To get fair trade certification, he says, you have to show a fair trade organization that your
cooperative keeps an honest set of books, that it operates democratically, and that it treats workers
fairly.
"They come in and interview people who work in the coffee fields, and they make sure that salaries
are fair, and that labor rights are respected, according to the law," he says.
Once certified, the cooperative gets 20 cents extra for every pound of fair trade coffee that it sells.
The cooperative then decides how to spend that "social premium." It could pass the money on to its
members, or do something else with it, such as improve a local school.
But there are compromises with fair trade, too. It doesn't focus primarily on environmental practices
on the farms, and some buyers complain that fair trade coffee isn't always good-quality coffee.
At the moment, in fact, the fair trade movement is going through a bitter split. One group, Fair Trade
USA, wants to expand the label so it can include coffee from individual farmers — even big estates.
Mora isn't happy about this expanded definition of fair trade. "It could be a problem, because the
goal of the label gets lost, and it becomes more of a marketing tool for big businesses, and just
makes it easier for them to sell their product," he says.
This tension — between trying to be a real alternative to the mainstream and joining the mainstream
— comes up all the time in these certification schemes.
The toughest environmental certification is probably one called Smithsonian Bird Friendly coffee.
This coffee is grown organically, with no manufactured fertilizer or pesticides, in fields that also
contain 10 different kinds of shade trees. Only a few farmers, though, are willing to grow coffee this
way.
Angelina Zuñiga Godinez and Fanny Cordero Mora grow coffee for Coopetarrazu, one of Costa Rica's largest coffee
cooperatives. These bags of coffee are labeled with the towns where they are grown
On the other end of the spectrum, Starbucks runs a really big program called C.A.F.E. Practices
(Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices). Like Rainforest Alliance certification, this scheme includes
both environmental and social standards, but the Starbucks audits aren't really tests that a farmer
can flunk. They're more like counseling sessions. If farmers are doing something wrong, Starbucks
will tell them how to improve, but it still buys their coffee.
Yet for all their differences and compromises, coffee producers in Costa Rica say these certification
systems, collectively, have had a real impact.
Carlos Rivera Chavarria, general manager of one of the country's largest cooperatives,
Coopetarrazu, says certifications all helped farmers to hear what consumers wanted, much more
directly than ever before.
These programs allowed his producers to "rediscover quality coffee," he says.
Coopetarrazu sells coffee under the fair trade label. In addition, some of its farmers are Rainforest
Alliance Certified, and the co-op sells a lot of coffee to Starbucks.
Now the co-op is experimenting with "direct trade." It's selling small lots of coffee from particular
villages to roasters who can pass along the story of that coffee, and that village, to consumers who
want to know even more about the sources of their coffee.
What's In A Certification?
Organic
Regulates growing methods, prohibiting GMO seeds and synthetic substances
Forty countries carry organic coffee farms, with the first certified in 1967
Averages a $0.255/lb increase in market price for coffee producers
298 million pounds organic coffee grown in 2010
USDA.gov
Fair Trade International
Seeks to increase welfare for small farmers and communities
Guarantees a minimum market price plus 10- to 20-cent premium per
pound
Premium is paid to cooperatives to either distribute to farmers or use for
community development projects
790 million pounds grown in 2010
Fairtrade.net
Rainforest Alliance
Emphasizes sustainability in social, environmental, economic and
ethical areas
Developed in early 1990s
Recently gained the support of major buyers including McDonalds and
Nespresso
Expanded from 197 million pounds grown in 2007 to 827 million pounds
in 2012
Rainforest Alliance
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center 'Bird Friendly'
Promotes biodiversity through the planting of trees for habitat and
shade cover
Requires organic certification and the use of specific trees
Certification can lead to a 5- to 10-cent premium over organic coffee
prices
One of the smallest certification programs, with approximately 10.4
million pounds of coffee sold in 2011
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
Starbucks Coffee And Farmer Equity 'CAFE'
Verification criteria developed over past 14 years with Conservation
International
Evaluates workers' rights, benefits, environmental protection and
sustainability
Starbucks aims for 100 percent-certified coffee supply by 2015
In 2012, 90 percent of supply — approximately 491 million pounds — was from CAFEverified farms
Starbucks