Coffee

I love coffee. I drink alot of coffee. Everyday at school, I drink coffee. At home, I drink coffee. I will probably die with coffee teeth. Thank God for whitening toothpaste.
And with all that love for my coffee, the reality is, that with each regular cup of starbucks coffee, I am helping to kill someone. With each mug of Folgers, someone goes without dinner.

It seems kind of drastic to put it that way doesn't it. But its true. There are many different issues that are causing this, but the big consensus is that big companies are not paying a fair price for the coffee, causing the growers to lose money. You have to understand that the growers are not some huge company either. They are usually family owned. Each coffee bean has to be picked by hand (so that they know that each bean is perfectly ripe for my morning coffee). The end result of the interaction between the big coffee companies and the little coffee growers, is destitution and death. Because coffee importers and distributors don't have a heart, and don't think we will pay the extra 10-45 cents to save someones life.

I don't know about you, but 1.45 for my usual 1.35 coffee, isn't that big of a deal. But on the whole.. when you add up every cup that goes into that pound of coffee, that that additional 10 cents, you are helping someone get dinner tonight.

There are more issues around the coffee crisis, and for all you coffee drinkers out there, read into it, and drink as much fair trade coffee as you can. For those of you that go to Kwantlen.. the KSA lounge ONLY serves fair trade. Go to the little coffee shops, not Starfucks, and get yourself a cup of coffee, hold the guilt.

Go to Global Exchange to educate yourself. And please, feed someone tonight.

---> My letter to Folgers

You know what Mr. Rich Folgers guy? I buy your coffee. Yeah, thats right. I'm helping you to kill people. But thats going to stop. You know the big cans you sell at Costco? Well my family, we go through 3 a week. So, thats approximately 1000 dollars that you will no longer see as revenue. Sure, thats nothing when your making as much as you are, but thats alot to the poor farmers that are you destroying. So I think I'll buy it from them.

As a business student, I hope I never end up in a company that values itself over the community. And that's what you are saying by continuing to buy the coffee at a non-fair price. Imagine, if you will, the number of people who would buy your Folgers can if it said "Fair-Trade Coffee" on it, and your profit margin went down a smidge. Or, you could always sell it for a wee bit more.

You may think that this isn't big news now, but everyone in my University who drinks coffee, knows about fair trade. And guess what? We are your next mass consumers. And we don't like you.

So Mr. Folgers, why don't you become an upstanding member of society, and start paying your dues like a real man? Buy Fair Trade.