A Nicaraguan coffee farmer and a local roaster teamed up last Thursday to discuss their efforts in supplying Common Grounds coffee in a way that is responsible and fair to the global community. Jamie Miller talked mainly about the challenges of coffee farming in Central America. Troy Lucas (of Lucas Roasting Co.) explained his role as a “conscientious middleman” in the coffee industry.

“There is a lot of money in the coffee industry,” Lucas began. “How can we change that industry so that the money that starts here gets back to the farmers? That’s the question we are trying to answer.”

Backed by a plethora of facts, Lucas and Miller painted a picture of a coffee industry unseen by most consumers, one in which social injustice is commonplace.

Much of the money earned in the lucrative trade remains at the top of the social pyramid. Subsistence farmers in Central and South America receive a very small percentage of the pay-off, earning between $1 and $2 per pound of coffee. Many coffee farmers do not have a large enough income to support themselves, let alone consider environmental issues.

In addition, the increasing lack of predictability in the seasons in Central America has led to widespread problems with coffee cultivation. “The rainy season isn’t the rainy season anymore,” lamented Miller.

“Our coffee is no longer getting the time needed to flower and mature.” Droughts and floods especially hurt farmers, since coffee plants have a maturation period of five years until flowering.

Lucas Roasting’s mission statement is, “to educate coffee consumers on conditions in the world’s coffee growing regions while producing incredible coffee.”

As part of a campus-wide dedication to sustainability, Common Grounds began purchasing coffee from Lucas Roasting Company several years ago.

Thursday marks the first time since that agreement that Lucas has given a presentation to the EMU community.

“I’m here to plant seeds of transformation,” Lucas said. “Educating the consumers in the industry is the first step.”

In this regard, EMU is well on its way to sowing the seeds of knowledge. Lucas and Miller were hosted by three student organizations: Peace Fellowship, EarthKeepers, and the SustainableĚýFood Initiative (SFI).

Tyler Eshleman, community coordinator of SFI, played an instrumental role in inviting the speakers and organizing the event. Because of his leadership position, Eshleman interacts with many Harrisonburg community members.

In addition, Eshleman’s family has purchased coffee from Lucas Roasting since its inception. When asked about their relationship, Eshleman laughed and said, “Lucas is very concerned about social justice issues. That’s one of the reasons we get along so well.”

In the spirit of Troy Lucas’s mission statement, Eshleman plans to continue cultivating the seeds of sustainability here at EMU through SFI. Eshleman hopes all coffee connoisseurs will join him in this endeavor.

– Harrison Horst, Staff Writer

Fair trade may not be the panacea for coffee farmers that its proponents want it to be, according to , PhD, professor at ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř, and his former student, Emily J. King.

Based on research they conducted from September 2010 to April 2011, Gingrich and King found that that the fair trade system for marketing coffee – under which farmers receive a minimum price for their product regardless of the market price – provides limited benefits to a tiny minority of farmers worldwide, despite the premium that consumers pay for that coffee.

“Consumers spend between $2 and $10 extra on fair trade for every dollar that reaches participating farmers,” wrote the authors in their abstract of “,” published in the 2012 issue of The Journal of Cooperatives.

“By comparison, projects that aim to improve coffee farmers’ production, processing, and marketing skills show the potential to provide benefits at a lower cost and also reach a broader clientele.”

Fair trade best when coffee prices low

Gingrich and King say when coffee prices are low, fair trade does benefit participating farmers, offering each producer as much as $100 per year on the average. But when market prices for coffee are relatively high, the annual benefits from fair trade fall to an average of $35 per participating farmer.

“Those in the fair trade system are doing fairly well,” Gingrich said in an interview with an EMU reporter.Ěý “But, in order to join a fair trade cooperative, farmers usually have to be land owners, which means that fair trade cooperatives are out of reach for the most economically disadvantaged and marginalized farmers in developing countries.”

Fewer than 2 percent of the world’s coffee farmers sell any of their coffee under fair trade terms. Despite the small number of fair trade producers, the quantity of fair trade coffee on the market exceeds demand, noted Gingrich and King in their article.

For the foregoing reasons, the authors question whether “fair trade provides an attractive new paradigm for the global coffee market.”

Proponents of fair trade argue that the true benefits of fair trade “extend beyond higher prices for coffee farmers,” benefits that Gingrich and King acknowledge. “Fair trade farmers receive access to credit and technical information,” they say, as well as social benefits, such as increased women’s leadership and community development programs provided through the cooperatives.

Development projects may reach more producers

Nevertheless, in their article they tentatively concluded that “fair trade may not be the most cost-effective method of benefiting coffee producers.” They suggested that general development projects, such as quality improvements focused on productivity, may be able to reach more of the most disadvantaged producers, including those who do not own the land they farm or who are not cooperative members for other reasons.

“Part of writing the article was a call for more research,” said King in an interview. “As fair trade continues to grow, you gain more insight into how the movement can reach its full potential.”

King, a 2012 graduate of EMU, now works in Illinois at a store affiliated with , a nationwide retailer of fair trade products. In the absence of clarity on better ways to increase financial benefits for coffee producers, King says she remains a staunch supporter of the fair trade system.

As an undergraduate, King was mentored by Gingrich in the independent study project that led to the article published in The Journal of Cooperatives. In addition to doing first-hand research, she got college credit for her work. “I had always been interested in fair trade,” she said. “In researching it, I brought together my major in peacebuilding and development with my minor in economics.”Ěý

“Does Fair Trade Fulfill the Claims of its Proponents? Measuring the Global Impact of Fair Trade on Participating Coffee Farmers” is accessible at