The Green Café
Every Bean Counts in Chiapas
by Karen Cebreros, Elan Organic Coffees

The time is now for a revolution!

A revolution in coffee: linking ecology and social justice at Chiapas' First Organic Coffee Festival. Photo courtesy of Karen Cebreros

Small farmers who produce the product from which we all make a living are themselves living in a terrible cycle of poverty. Economic and political structures perpetuate that poverty. Environmental destruction is one of the byproducts.
   Yet there is this disconnect for many of us in the coffee business. Few see the connection between this poverty and destruction on one hand, and poor coffee quality on the other. We all want the coffee to be delicious. But we must be willing to pay for it.
The revolution is coming, both at origin and within our industry.
   These ideas have been stirring in our business for a decade. They were revved up by an incredible scene at the First Organic Coffee Festival-Jovel. This historic conference was held Sept. 24-26, 2004, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, where certified-organic coffee originated.
   Representatives from 30 coffee-producing organizations gathered in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the region's historic capital. A coffee farmer's wife, Angelina Roblero Perez, was asked to inaugurate the proceedings. She talked about how she arose at 2 a.m. to prepare meals for her husband and his workers, how some workers walk six miles to the groves, only to receive low prices for this effort. "We want a price that values this work!" said this mother of 11 as she fought back tears.
   Angelina, whose husband is a member of the famous Ismam cooperative of indigenous people in Motozintla, reaffirmed what I have been seeing at origin for 15 years: Quality is more than flavor in the cup. It's the soil, water and air. It's the farmer's baby. It's everything from tree to cup.
   We must address all of it. This industry sells low-fat, sugar-free vanilla lattes for $4.50. A pound of coffee yields 50 lattes, or $225. We can afford to pay the farmer $1.50 a pound for the coffee!
   I was excited by what I saw at this conference in San Cristobal. In the patio of a 450-year-old house built by a Spanish conquistador, the indigenous farmers of Chiapas showed they are ready for a revolution. They know they're not being treated right and they're taking a stand.
   Just like the Zapatista rebels did 10 years ago when they rose up in this same town, asking for decent housing, education, health care and roads. They just want to live and do business the way we do. With dignity. It's not too much to ask.
   But now, instead of taking up guns, these farmers studied flavor wheels with master cupper Willem Boot. He held four workshops over two days, teaching a packed roomful of farmers and local business people how to professionally taste coffee.
   Miguel Ruiz Gomez, a Tzotzil farmer from the surrounding highlands, had never cupped before. "A professional cupper once came from the capital to our cooperative (Café Santa Marta of Chenalho county), but I had never done it," Miguel said. "I learned about acidity, aroma. I didn't know what it was like."
   How can we expect our small farmers to produce the finest coffee when they don't even know what acidity and aroma are? Ninety-five percent of small producers in this region have never tasted their own product. They have no idea what quality means for the North American buyer.
   "Learning to cup their own coffee will support the farmers in their efforts to develop a specialty coffee culture that's owned by them, not the miller or exporter," Willem said. "They can find the unique selling points of their coffee, which have value in the market these days."
   So, many thanks to the Coffee Quality Institute for sending Willem and David Roche (who explained what quality means), for building cupping laboratories, educating farmers and bringing their beans to buyers who will pay a price that reflects the value of the product.
   The whole point of this conference was to empower producers. Francisco Osuna, a coffee agronomist who does in-field development and technical assistance all over the world, put this event together to give producers in his home state a chance to network and reach new markets. He did it with the logistical support of the good people at Na Bolom Cultural Center, a number of volunteers - and without a penny from any government agency, which is one of the things that made this event so important. Francisco hoped 200 people would attend. Nine hundred showed up.

All the conferences were standing-room-only.
Dr. Robert Rice spoke on the Bird Friendly® shade-management program of the Smithsonian Institution's Migratory Bird Center, a certification that is growing in demand internationally. He said that ecosystems everywhere are in decline, but showed how sustainable agriculture practices are good for people, for native animals and for coffee quality.
   Sebastian Charchalac of the development program Ecologic presented financing options and discussed how access to credit is the biggest hurdle for small farmers.
   Rick Peyser, vice-president of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and public relations manager for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, discussed what roasters are looking for in their producing partners.
   "The demand for organic coffee is growing 25 percent per year," Peyser told them. "Buyers want organic coffee from Chiapas, but they can't find it." He urged producers to form a statewide organization that would be a clearinghouse for information about availability and flavor profiles of the state's coffee, and that also would raise the state's visibility. At the end of the event, growers did take steps toward forming such an organization, but they still have much work to do.
   I told producers that Peru has surpassed Chiapas as the world's biggest producer of organic coffee. I strongly suggested they campaign to link the name "Chiapas" with "quality organic coffee" in the minds of consumers. They need to market their brand the way Colombia has marketed Juan Valdez and Guatemala has marketed its different producing regions.
   But they need to act like coffee people! Small farmers can't stage their revolution until they consistently meet shipping dates, stay on top of quality control, and deliver-year after year-the quality their buyers expect.
   Listening to all of these people -and thank you all for speaking in Spanish!-I felt the spirit of the Zapatista leader, Subcomandante Marcos, who said his troops were struggling for human dignity, struggling to have a better life.

This snapshot of life in Chiapas reflects struggles everywhere at origin. What are we going to do about it? I see three courses of action.

• We need to get coffee away from a commodity-market system of pricing. Specialty is already moving in that direction, but we need to pull the whole industry along with us.
     The commodity system as it currently operates creates prices that don't reflect the real cost of producing the product and maintaining the people, communities and ecosystems that produced it.
     What the commodity system does reflect is the willingness of producers to go hungry, skimp on education, forego health care, work in subhuman conditions and destroy their environment. It reflects a kind of blackmail that obliges farmers to sell their product at below-cost prices for the privilege of selling it at all.
  
• Get a game plan that lets you make a change while making a living. Buying certified coffees is one alternative to the commodity market. Depending on how you combine them, certifications can improve people's lives, the environment and the quality of their product.
   But existing certifications aren't the only way. Many companies have their own sourcing policy, including Allegro Coffee Co. and Coffee Bean International. It doesn't really matter how you do it, as long as you take a holistic approach that builds a sustainable farm and community capable of producing quality beans.
   That's because sustainability in the coffee groves creates sustainability in your supply chain and sustainability for your business.
    There's no time for battling over turf or who has the most-right agenda. Everybody's got to want to save the planet. We have to get everybody into the sustainability boat, and we've all got to be paddling in the same direction.

• Teach cupping to everyone, everywhere. We have to teach people what quality means, especially our small farmers. No more talking.    When you have that great cup of Kenyan in the morning, what does it inspire you to do next? It doesn't matter how small the change is. Start there and keep moving.
     If you don't have a sourcing policy, create one. If you have one, deepen your involvement. If you're already buying certified coffees, commit to buying a greater proportion. Educate your suppliers and customers. Coffee touches nearly as many people as water, so never miss a chance to get the message across, even printing it on your to-go cups.
  

   We in specialty coffee have this responsibility. When business visionary Paul Hawken was keynote speaker at the SCAA conference in San Francisco, he said specialty coffee is the hope for other industries looking for models of sustainability.
   And because we are business people, we have the means to save the planet.
   In his head-spinning book The Ecology of Commerce, Hawken wrote:
   "Business is the only mechanism on the planet today powerful enough to produce the changes necessary to reverse global environmental and social degradation. Doing that will depend in large part on the willingness of customers to change what they buy, how they buy, and from whom they buy their products and services."
   Let's rock, roll, roast and revolt!

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Karen Cebreros is president of Elan Organic Coffees. Comments on this article may be sent to comments@freshcup.com.