Coffee From Cradle to Grave

1
Coffee From Cradle to Grave

• By Monica Martinez and Crystal Mount
• Race, Poverty and the Environment
• Professor Raquel R. Pinderhughes
• Urban Studies Program
• SFSU Spring 2003
• Public has the permission to use the material
  herein, but only If authors, course, university
  and professor are cited.

2
Our presentation focuses on Coffee. It is
designed to make you aware of the consequences of
your purchase of a cup of coffee. It takes you
through the cradle to grave lifecycle of coffee,
paying particular attention to the social,
environmental, and public health impacts of the
processes associated with coffee.
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• We start with a brief history of Coffee, and we
  look why it is important to know where your
  coffee comes from.
• We then look at the extraction and production
  processes, which includes where coffee is grown,
  the two types of coffee, and the environmental
  impacts of this processes.
• Next, we explain the negative impacts on workers,
  which include the health effects of pesticides,
  the workers poor living conditions, the
  additional strains on women, children, and
  seasonal laborers, and the difficulties of
  unionization.
• Later, we examine the health impacts on the
  communities surrounding the coffee plantations
  and we touch on the consumers health impacts.
• Distributions is our next section, where we cover
  the routes of coffee from the small producer or
  plantation worker to the consumer.
• Finally, we discuss the types of waste that
  comes from coffee, and what happens to it.

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Brief History of Coffee

• Origin
• Coffees origin can be traced to the 12th
  century in Ethiopia, where it is believed to have
  been first harvested (Waridel 32). Traders
  brought coffee to the Middle East, from where it
  began to spread outward in the 15th century,
  penetrating every corner of Europe over the next
  two hundred years(32). Moreover, coffee became a
  very important means of European trade as it
  spread to the Dutchs, Frenchs, and Britishs
  colonies during the 18th and 19th century(32).
  At this time, people from Africa and natives of
  the colonies were enslaved to work in the coffee
  plantations (32). During the period of
  decolonization, coffee was put forward as a
  miracle crop that would allow developing
  countries to achieve economic growth.(32)

5
Brief History Continued

• Institutionalization of Coffee
• Beginning the 1970s, institutions began promoting
  technified coffee, which replaced the traditional
  shade grown coffee.
• USAID was the principal player in Central America
  and in 1978, promoted a program called PROMECAFE,
  a Spanish acronym for Coffee Improvement
  Project (Rice 26) At its initiation PROMECAFE
  promoted the intensification of coffee along the
  lines established by the USAID and its
  consultants. In the 1980s, technification was
  defined and rationalized
• i8o9oooo
• Technification refers to the combination of
  measures,
• including scientific pruning, shading,
  application of fertilizers, insecticides and
  fungicides, planting high-yielding rust resistant
  varieties as soon as they become available, and
  increasing the number of yields per manzana 1
  manzana 0.69 hectare, so that average yields
  will increase from 7-10 quintales 1 quintal
  100 pounds dry bean to 30-35 per manzana.

6
Brief Story Continued

• Existing coffee plantings are typically old,
  lowdensity plantings which suffer from disease
  and insect problems, lack proper nutrition, are
  unpruned and heavily shaded. These conditions and
  practices greatly restrict yields and reduce
  productivity. In order to effectively utilized
  proven production practices which consistently
  yield 30 or more cwt. per manzana, it is
  necessary to completely remove the present
  plantings and introduce new varieties and a
  technical package of inputs and procedures which
  farmersthrough extension, education, and
  trainingcan readily employ. (Rice 8-9)
• These are the reasons USAID used to convince
  developing countries to switch from shade grown
  coffee to technified coffee.

7
Brief Story Continued

• Between 1978 and 1997, USAID established and
  implemented at least eight projects that either
  were aimed specifically at or converged logically
  with the coffee-technification process in Central
  America and the Caribbean. Over the course of
  some nineteen years, USAID funneled nearly 81
  million into these projects, aiming to affect
  more than 300,000 hectares of coffee land and
  half a million producers in the region (Rice 9).
• In Mexico, INMECAFE was another institution that
  promoted changes in coffee production. Over the
  past three decades Mexico has seen a 73 percent
  expansion in the area devoted to coffee, from
  356,000 hectares in 1970 to the current 615,000
  hectares. (Rice 9)

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• Why is it important to know where your coffee
  comes from?
• People think that the 2 they pay for their
  cappuccino at Starbucks is the real price of
  coffee, but in reality there are other costs in
  the coffee that impose negative social and
  environmental impacts, which are not included in
  the price.
• Coffee is the second largest US import after
  oil, and the US consumes one-fifth of all the
  worlds coffee, making it the largest consumer in
  the world (FAQ par.1)
• North Americans consume more than 4 kg (9 lb.)
  of the black drink per capita per year, which
  averages out to about two cups per day for every
  man, woman, and child (Waridel 31).
• When consumers continue to purchase coffee
  without regard to the external effects, the
  current conditions that coffee farmers are going
  through will continue to persist. The disastrous
  environmental and social effects will continue to
  wreck and ravage the earth and the people.

9
Extraction and Production

• Where is coffee grown?
• Coffee is cultivated mainly in Latin America,
  Asia, and Africa. Some of the main
  producer-countries are Brazil, Columbia,
  Indonesia, Mexico, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India,
  Uganda, and others (Waridel 51).
• We think is important not to focus on one
  particular country to tell the story about coffee
  because all of these countries have one thing in
  common. That is the intensification and
  institutionalization of coffee as a monocrop, and
  the pressures put on these countries to be part
  of the global economic market that promotes free
  trade agreements such as The North American Free
  Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

10
Gresser, Charis and Sophia Tickell. Mugged
Poverty in Your Cup. Oxfam International 20027
Where is Coffee Grown?
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Extraction and Production

• Under the excuse to integrate lesser developed
  countries into the global market economy, The
  World Bank and the IMF have encourage poor
  countries to liberalize trade and pursue
  export-led growth. (Gresser 3) The NAFTA and
  the impending CAFTA (US/Central America Free
  Trade Agreement) are the only options given to
  these countries to strengthen their economies.

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Extraction and Production

• Unfortunately, the globalization of trade and the
  pressure to get greater yields to be part of the
  global market have forced these coffee-countries
  to emphasized their agricultural economies on
  cash crops such as coffee.
• Therefore, they had to abandon their traditional
  cultivation methods to use the technological
  methods necessary for higher yields. As a result
  their economies became dependant on the coffee
  trade.

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Extraction and Production

• This means that the livelihoods of the
  communities in these countries also depend on the
  cultivation of coffee. For example
• In Mexico, coffee is still of great importance,
  especially to the 280,000 indigenous farmers
  living mostly in the poorer states of Oaxaca,
  Chiapas, Veracruz and Puebla. (Gresser 8)
• In Brazil, although coffee provides less than
  five percent of total foreign exchange earnings,
  it provides a livelihood for between 230,000 and
  300,000 farmers and employs a further three
  million people directly in the coffee industry.
  (8)
• The following graph illustrates the percentage of
  coffee exports compared to total exports in some
  of the producing countries.

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Dependency on Coffee
Gresser, Charis and Sophia Tickell. Mugged
Poverty in Your Cup. Oxfam International 20028
15
Extraction and Production

• The non-traditional methods based on the
  intensification or technification of the coffee
  crops gave rise to the differentiation between
  one type of coffee to the next. As a result, we
  now hear the names Technified-sun-grown coffee
  or Traditional-shade grown coffee as the most
  important ways to refer to type of coffee you
  drink.
• Although you may think that production methods do
  not chance the flavor of your cup of coffee, we
  will show you how Technified coffee might leave
  a different taste in your mouth after you learn
  of the hidden cost of the method used to make
  this type of coffee.

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Extraction and Production

• It is only fair to tell you that there are two
  other names by which people refer to the type of
  coffee you drink. These have to do with the type
  of plant specie cultivated with either technified
  methods or traditional methods. These are Arabica
  Coffee and Robusta Coffee. They are two of the
  more than twenty species of the coffee plant and
  they account for the vast bulk of the coffee
  drunk worldwide. (Dicum 40).
• Arabica and Robusta species differ in taste,
  caffeine content, disease resistance, and optimum
  cultivation conditions. Natural variations in
  soil, sun, moisture slope, disease, and pest
  conditions dictate which coffee is most
  effectively cultivated in each region of the
  world. (40)
• However, it is the hidden costs of the technified
  coffee that carries the greatest importance and
  the one you will want to know more about.

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Extraction and Production

• If you buy ungrounded coffee at the supermarket,
  you probably know that you are buying seeds.
  These were once enclosed in the coffee fruit, a
  drupe (a fleshy fruit surrounding a hard seed,
  like a cherry). Each cherry usually contains
  two seeds, or coffee beans, although
  occasionally only one seed develops. (Dicum 39)
• Coffee is cultivated by either small producers in
  small farms with less that five hectares of
  coffee trees, or by large landowners. (Waridel
  42)
• Cultivation begins with carefully choosing beans
  from highly productive plants. The beans are
  planted and raised in nurseries for their first
  year, after which they are transplanted outdoors
  to the plantation.
• Technification kicks in at the planting stage.

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Extraction and Production

• Technified-Sun-Grown Coffee
• It is also called shadeless or near-shadeless
  technified coffee because large amounts of an
  overstory of valuable non-coffee trees that
  provides shade in traditional coffee farms are
  clear-cut to plant the seedlings.
• It is extracted by means of intense monocropping,
  chemicals (fertilizers, herbicides,
  insecticides), and plantation workers.
• It consists of rows that are spaced farther apart
  than traditional-shade-coffee with higher density
  of coffee plants. Coffee plant density increases
  up to ten fold." (Rice, sec. 2)
• Once the seedlings are planted, it needs to be
  carefully maintained to protect against diseases
  and pests. (Dicum 45)

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Extraction and Production

• Once the coffee plant is mature, which takes one
  to three years after planting, it produces
  2,000 coffee cherries per year or about 4,000
  coffee beans- the equivalent of one pound of
  roasted coffee. (Dicum 40)
• Mechanization is used during the picking stage.
  Most picking is accomplished with the help of
  mechanical harvesters, monstrous machines that
  comb through the coffee plants, denudating them
  of all their loose cherries, but leaving the
  plants otherwise intact.
• The result of such a rough massive scale
  mechanization is and inferior productwhich
  allows profit through volume. (Dicum 51)

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Extraction and Production

• Farm workers on such farms must undertake regular
  application of fertilizers, insecticides,
  fungicides, nematocides, and herbicides
  (sometimes with known carcinogenic chemicals)
  perform standardized pruning help work the
  machines and perform the post harvest
  proccessing. (Dicum 47)
• Whether by rows or by blocks, coffee shrubs are
  pruned via a stumping back method, in which the
  truck of each plant is cut at about 35-40
  centimeters above ground level. The remaining
  stumps then sprout new shoots, which are examined
  and thinned the following year to encourage new
  growth. (Rice and Roberts sec. 2)
• The tools that are used to prune the whole
  blocks or rows of technified coffee are small
  handsaws or hand held gasoline-powered weed
  cutters fitted with a heavy-duty rotatory saw
  blade (sec. 2)

21
Extraction and Production

• The standardized treatment emerges in stark
  relief as one watches the workers walk down the
  rows of coffee, toppling all bushes just below
  knee height above the ground. (Rice sec. 2)
• This scientific pruning leads to shorter coffee
  plants, only 5-8 meters in height compared to
  traditional shade coffee. (sec. 2).
• As a result ,the careful attention that trees
  need does not occur in technified coffee farms.
  Unlike traditional shade coffee, which receives
  individual attention, technified coffee receives
  pruning at the level of whole block or whole
  rows of coffee.

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Extraction and Production

• The next step in this stage is also mechanized.
  The pulp of the coffee cherries have to be
  removed, and fine skin which covers each bean
  must be removed with expensive machinery.
  (Waridel 50)
• The pulp is thrown out to the river as waste.

www.originscoffee.com/faq.html
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Extraction and Production

• In the final process before exportation, the
  fine skin which covers the bean must be removed
  with expensive machinery. The beans are then
  graded according to their shape, colour, and
  density. Sophisticated machinery is also used
  in this process. (Waridel 50)

www.origenscoffee.com/sbs_coffeepicker.jpg
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Environmental Impacts

• Technified coffee production causes a large
  number of species extinction.
• Technified coffee farms have fewer bird species
  than traditional shade coffee--ninety percent
  fewer species. (Rice and Roberts ch.4)
• Sun-grown coffee is a threat for birds because as
  more shade-grown coffee is converted to sun-grown
  coffee, more birds will loose their habitat.
• Other essential diverse species that sun-grown
  coffee lacks are beetles, ants, wasps, and
  spiders. Moreover, bats, which are important seed
  dispersers and pollinators of many tree species,
  can not be found in technified coffee farms (ch.
  4) B

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Environmental Impacts

• When we lose the species by taking away their
  habitat, we are not only exterminating the
  biodiversity of the planet, but we are also
  weakening Earths natural resource base which
  supports all species including humans.
• Technified coffee has worse soil quality than
  traditional coffee.
• The reduction of tree cover, natural predators,
  and organic materials leads to higher rates of
  nutrient-leaching, and higher erosion. When you
  cut down a forest shade coffee, rain flows over
  the top of the soil, causing erosion and
  saltation that winds up in the river. (Wexler,
  par 16)

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Environmental Impacts

• The clear cutting of the overstory of trees to
  plant technified coffee adds to the global
  warming problem that we face all over the world.
• Trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide and
  balance the heat exchange between the atmosphere
  and the planet.
• Researchers say that the value of such
  sequestration services provided by shade grown
  coffee is between 8 and 40 per acre. (Wexler,
  par. 15)

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Environmental Impacts

• The large amounts of chemicals used in technified
  coffee contaminate our environment and they do
  not obey national or international boundaries.
  Damages include
• Contamination of waterways and water tables
  (aquifers)
• Damage to soil microorganisms.
• Eutrophication (overgrowth of algae in river,
  which depletes the oxygen in the water.)
• Creates air pollution.
• Creates pesticide-resistant weeds and insects.
• Contributes to the destruction of the ozone
  layer. (Waridel 49)

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Health of the Community and Pesticides

• A report on pesticides in Kenya, Pesticide use
  and Management in Kenya by the World Wide Fund
  for Nature
• found that significant amounts of pesticides
  are used on coffee estates, and sprayers are
  regularly exposed (Partow par.2).
• The report showed that men predominantly do the
  spraying. However, coffee harvesting activities
  are almost exclusively the domain of female
  laborers and their children, and the picking
  period overlaps with pesticide application
  periods Therefore, they are frequently exposed
  when they are required to in recently sprayed
  areas (Partow par.3).
• Workers sprayed from six to eleven hours a day
  (Partow par.3)
• There are no lunch breaks or other rest
  pausesand the monthly wage was roughly
  US11-14, placing pesticide farmworkers in the
  lowest income group in Kenya Partow par.3)

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• There was no soap, drinking water or field
  sanitation facilities available for the workers
  during the spraying operations (Partow, par.4).
• The only water available was in drums that were
  intended for mixing pesticide concentrate and
  therefore most of the workers just waited until
  they got home to wash (Partow, par.4).
• Workers mixed chemical concentrates using bare
  hands and stirred with a tree branch or stick
  (Partow, par.5).
• Pesticide solutions were poured without use of
  funnels, making spillage and splashes
  unavoidable (Partow, par.5).
• Applicators sprayed both with and against the
  wind as spray tractors were driven up and down
  the rows in succession to save time and fuel
  (Partow, par.5).
• Protective gear was provided for only some of the
  workers.
• 59 of workers observed had overalls or aprons.
• 36 had boots.
• 53 were bare foot.
• 11 wore open toe slippers.

30

• Of those who had overalls, laundering was either
  weekly (in 68 of cases) or at two to three week
  intervals, forcing workers to use
  pesticide-soaked clothing for long periods.
  Protective clothing often was deteriorated, and
  rarely replaced (Partow, par.6).
• None of the workers had received formal training
  in mixing, loading or application of pesticides
  (Partow, par.7).
• 58 did not know the name of the chemical they
  were applying nor were they familiar with first
  aid procedures (Partow, par.7).
• The chemicals they were exposed to are extremely
  harmful. They were fungicides (such as captafol
  and chlorothalonil), insecticides (azinphos
  methyl, diazinon and omethoate) and herbicides
  (glyphosate and paraquat) (Partow, par.7).

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• For Costa Rica, if all the chemicals were used in
  the semi-technified and technified areas and no
  chemicals were used on the traditional coffee,
  then approximately 83,000 metric tons of
  formula correct amount of dosage fertilizer
  and 17,000 metric tons of urea are applied to
  coffee lands each year (Rice sec.2).
• Nematocides, one of the most toxic of
  agrochemcials, exceed 1,700 metric tons per year,
  and some 120,000 liters of the herbicide paraquat
  settle onto coffee lands of Costa Rica each
  year (Rice sec.2).

32

• Methods of applying toxins
• Open cab tractors.
• hose pipes attached with a spray lance.
• knapsack spraying.
• Equipment was generally in poor condition, with
  leaks occurring regularly (Partow, par.7).
• Workers Health Affects From The Toxins
• Many described their dizziness as feeling drunk
  or a spinning sensation (Partow, par.8).
• Eye irritations included complaints of burning
  inside and seeing darkness (Partow, par.8).
• 84 had skin irritation.
• 71 had breathing difficulties.
• 58 had stomach problems.
• 20 had nausea.

33

• Womens main health problems
• skin irritations
• dizziness
• nausea
• vomiting (Partow, par, 10).
• Many pickers were adamant that pesticides were
  the cause of such ailments, noting that these
  symptoms did not arise when they were processing
  coffee or weeding manually (Partow, par.8).
• The majority of the farmers knew the pesticides
  caused their health problems but their fear of no
  job was more important than the illnesses. One
  laborer said, If the pesticides dont kill us,
  then hunger will (Partow, par.10).

34

• To give an idea of what these pesticides can do
  to a human, we are going to describe paraquat,
  which is used in technified coffee.
• Paraquat is an extremely poisonous but effective
  herbicide.
• Paraquats acute toxicity is extreme 3-5 g
  (approximately 3-5 ml, or less than a teaspoon)
  is the approximate lethal dose (LD50) of paraquat
  for an adult male (OBrien, par,2).
• When paraquat is absorbed through the skin,
  inhaled, or ingested, Paraquat is toxic to
  epithelial tissues such as
• skin
• nails
• cornea
• liver
• kidneys
• the linings of the gastrointestinal and
  respiratory tracts (OBrien, par.4).

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• At very low levels of contact, paraquat causes
• second degree burns
• a rash all over the body
• discolored, itching hands
• premalignant skin lesions where paraquat exposed
  skin is also sun exposed (OBrien, par.5)

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• Endosulfan is also used in technified coffee.
• Endosulfan has been linked to high rates of
  cancer, cerebral palsy and other serious
  disorders (Thanal Conservation Action).
• It is classified as an organochlorine, which is
  the same family as DDT and dieldrin (Thanal
  Conservation Action).
• It stays persistent in the environment, with a
  half-life of nine months to six years (Thanal
  Conservation Action).
• There is strong evidence that endosulfan is an
  endocrine disrupting chemical (Thanal
  Conservation Action).

37

• Endosulfan bioaccumulates in humans and other
  animals, collecting particularly in the
• liver
• kidneys
• fatty tissues (Thanal Conservation Action).
• More than 100 human poisoning and one death
  were attributed to endosulfan use in coffee
  during 1993 more than 100 poisoning and three
  deaths were reported in 1994 (Rice and Roberts
  ch.4).

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Workers Living Conditions
www.grida.no/aco/imf2f3.htm/
www.originscoffee.com/sbs_coffeepicker.jpg
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Workers Poor Living Conditions

• The price farmers receive for their coffee is
  devastating to their livelihood.
• When taking inflation into account, it is just
  now 25 per cent of its level in 1960, meaning
  that the money that farmers make from coffee can
  only buy one-quarter of what it could 40 years
  ago (Gresser and Tickell 9).
• Production costs are not even covered.
• In Viet Namin Dak Lak provinceat the beginning
  of 2002, the price farmers were receiving covered
  as little as 60 per cent of their production
  costs (Gresser and Tickell 9).
• The following graph illustrates that individual
  farmers did not capture the full producers
  profit as indicated here, since much was
  absorbed by intermediaries and inefficient
  marketing chains (Gresser and Tickell 17).

40

• Mohammed Ali Indris is an Ethiopian coffee
  farmers from the Kafa province. He is 36 years
  old and his household consists of 12 people,
  including the children of his deceased brother.
• He estimated that about five years ago, he could
  have made 320 for the year with the combined
  sale of coffee and corn. This year he will only
  make 60 for his coffee and his family has
  already eaten the corn (Gresser and Tickell 10).
• Five to seven years ago, I was producing seven
  sacks of red cherry unprocessed coffee and this
  was enough to buy clothes, medicines, services
  and to solve so many problems. But now even if I
  sell four times as much, it is impossible to
  cover all my expenses. I had to sell my oxen to
  repay the loan I previously took out to buy
  fertilizers and improved seed for my corn, or
  face prison

41

• Medical treatment expenses are very high as
  this is a malaria-affected area. At least one
  member of my household has to go to hospital each
  year for treatment. It costs US6 per treatment.
  We also need to buy teff stable starch, salt,
  sugar, soap, kerosene for lighting. We have to
  pay for schooling. Earlier we could cover
  expenses, now we cantThree of the children
  cant go to school because I cant afford the
  uniform. We have stopped buying teff and edible
  oil. We are eating mainly corn. The childrens
  skin is getting dry and they are showing signs of
  malnutrition. (Gresser and Tickell10).

42

• Families Going Hungry
• In March 2002, the World Food program said that
  the coffee crisis left 30,000 Hondurans
  suffering from hunger, with hundreds of children
  so malnourished that they needed to be
  hospitalized (Gresser and Tickell 10).
• The EU and USAID reported in January 2002 that
  there would be increased poverty and food
  security issues for coffee farmers in Ethiopia,
  saying that farmers were selling their assets and
  cutting down on food (Gresser and Tickell).
• The income of the worst-off farmers who are
  dependent solely on coffee are now categorized as
  pre-starvation in Viet Nams Dak Lak province
  (Gresser and Tickell 10).

43

• Worsening health care
• Earlier, Mohammed talked about medical expenses,
  this is a problem for many coffee farmers and
  their countrys ability to deal with other health
  concerns like HIV/AIDS (Gresser and Tickell 11).
• In Ethiopia, where coffee is the major export
  and 700,000 households depend on it for their
  livelihoods and millions more for part of their
  income, the fall in coffee export earning poses
  serious challenges to the countrys ability to
  deal with the HIV/AIDS crisis(Gresser and
  Tickell 11).
• It is estimated that over three million
  Ethiopians are infected with HIV/AIDS and The
  Ministry of Health has projected that treatment
  for HIV/AIDS alone will account for over 30 per
  cent of the total health expenditure by 2014
  (Gresser and Tickell 11).

44

• The burden of the disease not only has the
  potential to make extraordinary and unrealisable
  claims on the governments health budget, which
  in part but must be funded by coffee revenues
  (Gresser and Tickell 11).
• HIV/AIDS has huge economic affects which are
• low productivity due to sickness
• the problem of finding money for medical care and
  drugs
• funeral expenses (Gresser and Tickell 11).
• Women are particularly badly affected, both
  because of the added responsibilities arising
  from ill-health in the family and because they
  tend to go without when families have to make
  choices about who receives treatment (Gresser
  and Tickell 11).

45

• National Economy Problems
• The drying up of coffee cash in the local
  economy is one of the main reasons behind the
  collapse of several banks (Gresser and Tickell
  12).
• In Central America, the crisis has been said to
  be having the impact of another hurricane
  Mitch in terms of income losses these countries
  have seen revenue from coffee exports fall 44 per
  cent in one year alone, from 1.7 bn in 1999/2000
  to 938m in 2000/01. Forecasts for 2001/02 are
  grim a further fall of 25 per cent (Gresser and
  Tickell 12).
• In one year, Ethiopias coffee export fell 42
  percent from 275m to 149m (Gresser and Tickell
  12).

46

• In Uganda, where roughly one-quarter of the
  population depends on coffee in some way, coffee
  exports for the eight months to June 2002
  remained at almost the same volume as the year
  before but earning dropped by almost 30 per cent
  (Gresser and Tickell 12).
• Even though export prices decline, the price of
  imports to producer countries does not fall
  nearly as fast, which then leads to a
  deterioration in terms of trade (Gresser and
  Tickell 12).
• A coffee farmer would have to sell more than
  twice as many coffee beans now as in 1980 to buy
  a Swiss Army Knife (Gresser and Tickell 12).
• Debt repayment becomes extremely difficult
  because the debt remains fixed in US dollars but
  the value of coffee is steadily falling (Gresser
  and Tickell 12).

47

• Breaking up Families
• Farmers are forced to sell their land or leave in
  search for other work to survive
• In some communities, we see that migration to
  Mexico city is very big. In one community, about
  three or four months ago, about eight trucks came
  in and took away all the people who could work to
  Mexican fincasthey stayed there between four to
  six months. That means social disruption of the
  family is incredible. Says Jeronimo Bollen, from
  a Guatemala co-operative, Manos Campesinos
  (Gresser and Tickell 9).

48

• Coffee workers are forced into town to find
  work and housing resulting in a near collapse of
  the urban infrastructure in many coffee-growing
  regions of Guatemala. The population of
  Columbia, for example, a town about an hour away
  from Quezaltengo, has grown from 16,000 in 1994
  to 35,000 in 2001. New residents are forced
  into squalid slums, living in one-room shacks
  made of wood, plastic sheeting and sheet metal,
  with no plumbing or electricity. Crime in
  rampant. (Laslett, par.10).
• Women are effected by this crisis very directly
  because as their husband goes off to find other
  work, the women and children are left to work the
  land. This results in children having to leave
  school to help the family (Gresser and Tickell
  9).

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49

• Child Labor
• Children are forced to work in the coffee
  plantations because fathers are forced to leave
  and also just do to the fact that families need
  additional hands to make ends meet.
• Because of this situation, many coffee workers
  bring their children to help them in the fields
  in order to pick the daily quota. These child
  laborers are not officially employed and
  therefore not subject to labor protections.
  While children in most rural families work at an
  earlier age than urban children, a February 4
  investigative report by ABC-affiliate KGO
  television in San Francisco revealed children as
  young as 6 or 8 years old at work in the fields.
  (FAQ par 7).

www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/ makemeal/ima
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50

• Children Leaving School
• Children are forced to leave school because
  fathers leave and also because families cannot
  afford to send their children to school.
• Bruno Selugo (aged 17) and his brother Michael
  (15), who live in Mpigi District, Uganda, have
  both had to drop out of school because they
  cannot afford the fees (Gresser and Tickell 11).
  
• I cant be successful if I dont go to
  school, says Bruno. I have been send home
  again and again from secondary schoolThey just
  send you away if you dont have the feesThis is
  the main coffee season. Everyone used to go back
  to school with the money from coffee, but now the
  money is not thereAll I want is to go to
  school (Gresser and Tickell 11).

51

• A head teacher at Brunos school, Patrick Kayanja
  explains
• The number of students is very low. Much as we
  try to reduce the fees, the parents cannot pay.
  They always took cash from selling coffee but now
  it is gone. There was a time, between 1995 and
  1997, when we had 500 students. Three years ago
  we had 250. Last year we started with 140 and
  ended with 54. This year we cannot go beyond
  120, the way I see the situation with farmers
  (Gresser and Tickell 11).

52

• Seasonal Plantation Workers
• These are coffee workers who are always away from
  home who work on small to medium plantation (10
  to 50 hectares, and big plantation (more than 50
  hectares) (Gresser and Tickell 11).
• Seasonal workers are faced with not being able to
  supplement food with crops and suddenly having no
  job because they can be fired (Gresser and
  Tickell 11).
• According to a UN report, 87.5 of rural workers
  had temporary or migratory jobs in 1992
  (Laslett, par 7).
• Traditionally coffee workers lived on the
  plantations they worked but now owners have
  thrown them off and replaced them with temporary
  workers (Laslett par 7).
• Housing conditions are awful
• They are typically housed in large barns or
  bunk-houses with no privacy, lacking basic
  requirement such as clean water and adequate
  sanitary arrangement (Gresser and Tickell 12).
• Many times they cook, wash, and bathe from the
  same water source (FAQ par 7).

53

• Seasonal workers were paid a daily wage but now
  they are paid a piece rate (Laslett, par9).
• According to several coffee workers, the standard
  pay for cleaning one cuerda (24.5 square yards)
  of land is 1. Cleaning two cuerdas a day is
  possible, but a lot of work. This means that an
  average daily wage for coffee workers is 1.75
  per day, significantly below the daily legal
  minimum of 2.75. Women and children are often
  paid half that amount. (Laslett, par 9).
• During the coffee season (3 to 4 months, which is
  not long) is when seasonal workers earn the most
  (Laslett par9).
• Workers can earn 2.50 for 100 pounds of coffee.
  On a good day, workers can earn 3.50 for 150
  pounds of coffee (Laslett par 9).
• After the season is over, seasonal workers find
  themselves in the same situation as coffee
  farmers who have to migrate to the city in
  search of other income.

54

• Denied Worker Rights
• Seasonal workers do not have the basic rights to
  unionize or negotiate wages (Gresser and Tickell
  12).
• In Guatemala, the coffee workers tried to
  unionized but received much opposition (Laslett
  par2).
• The head of the union, Otto Rolando Sacuqui,
  received death threats (Laslett par2).
• His family was thrown out of their house on the
  plantation where his family lived for generations
  (Laslett par 3).
• The unions paper work and the unions funds were
  stolen (Laslett par 3).
• Where there is labor legislation, it is often
  overridden or ignored (Gresser and Tickell 12).

55

• Workers at Finca Maria de Lourdes unionized in
  1992 and tried to negotiate wage raises, from
  which they were earning half the legal minimum
  wage (Laslett par 4).
• Negotiations failed and 125 of 150 workers
  joined, in response the owner raised wages but
  fired 31 workers (Laslett par 4).
• The union went to court and won reinstatement and
  back pay for all fired workers but two years
  later the owner fired 21 more workers and another
  34 in 1997 (Laslett par4).
• The owner tried to pass management to pretend to
  be workers and have the unions legal status
  dismissed (Laslett par 4).
• The owner denied children school and refused to
  sell cornmeal for tortillas, which is the staple
  of the Guatemalan diet (Laslett par 4).

56

• In their struggle to win justice and a union
  contract, a majority of the 55 fired union
  members continue to live on the plantation,
  refusing to leave. As of today June 2001, they
  have still not been reinstated, despite the fact
  that the courts have ruled in their favor many
  times (Laslett par 5).
• There was a warrant issued for the owners arrest
  but this also goes unenforced (Laslett par5).
• Owners get out of giving their workers their
  rights such as benefits by cheating the system.
• Guatemalan law states that workers must work
  continuously for 3 months to be eligible to
  unionize or to be eligible for social security
  programs (retirement or disability benefits)
  (Laslett par8).
• Workers must work continuously for the same
  employer for 6 months in order to receive their
  legal two annual bonuses ( to 2 months pay)
  (Laslett par 8).
• Owners cheat the system by rarely keeping
  workers for more than 90 consecutive days
  (Laslett par8).

57

• Another example of unfair treatment of coffee
  workers is of 57 workers at a plantation called
  Finca Asuncion in Quezaltenango, Guatemala.
• The four members who organized the union in
  September 1997 were immediately fired (Laslett
  par 14). Of the 57 who were in the union, only 3
  members still worked at the plantation 2 yrs.
  later (Laslett par 14).
• When the union first started, the ownerf tried
  many things to destroy the union.
• In December 1998, he accused the union of being
  connected to armed guerrillas-after the peace
  Accords had been signed. Early one morning, over
  300 military personnel and police occupied the
  community searching for guns and other proof of
  guerrilla activity. There was nothing to be
  found (Laslett par 16).

58

• The owner tried to sell his plantation to his
  wife and two daughters to avoid any legal
  obligations (Laslett par 17).
• He tried to deny union workers access to water
  and firewood (Laslett par 18).
• He pulled out fruit trees, which were planted by
  the workers grandparents because the union
  workers were eating them (Laslett par 18).
• He order the church to be boarded up with the
  justification that it was being used for union
  meetings (Laslett par 18).
• He denied children school (Laslett par 18).
• He also blacklisted the union supporters by
  sending their names to other employersAs a
  result, union members were forced to travel long
  distances to find work or work under false names
  in local plantations (Laslett par 18).

59

• Another plantation called Finca Violetais another
  example.
• In 1992, Mario Acabel Peres and his family of
  nine lived in a one-room bamboo shack with a
  leaky roof (Laslett par 20).
• Mario and his coworkers demanded
• decent housing
• a doctor visit once a month
• school beyond the third grade
• a non-abusive supervisor
• the legal minimum wage
• women to be paid the same as men (Laslett par 20).

60

• Mario was fired 4 months after helping start the
  union (Laslett par 21).
• The owner accused him of drunkenness and missing
  work, even though Mario doesnt drink alcohol.
  As in other cases, Mario and the other union
  leaders were blacklisted (Laslett par 21).
• In 2001, 8 unionists were left (Laslett par 23).
• Marios house was surrounded by the army twice.
• During one of Marios many trips to the city for
  a court date, his wife had to fend off the
  owners effort to remove the roof from their
  house (Laslett par 23).
• The owner removed the water system that provides
  water to their house (Laslett par 23).
• In October 2000, one of the supervisors
  threatened Mario with death (Laslett par 23).

61

• There are almost no national unions that attempt
  to organize all the workers in a particular
  industry. Rather, with few exceptions, workers
  are organized into small, company-based unions
  that remain isolated from other workers in their
  industry, even those that are unionized (Laslett
  par 24).
• This lack of organization makes code-of-conduct
  campaigns, like the one aimed at Starbucks (which
  we address later), difficult to win because
  without organized workers to confirm or deny
  claims of improvements, codes of conduct have
  limited effect (Laslett par 26).

62
More Health Impacts

• For communities surrounding the coffee farms
• Pesticide use in technified coffee farms
  threatens the water supply of rural residents.
• For example, serious public health and water
  quality impacts have been linked to pesticide use
  in Mexico in one documented case in 1987, more
  than 200 people became sick from drinking water
  contaminated with agricultural pesticides and
  fertilizers in the western Mexican state of
  Jalisco. (Rice ch. 4)

63
More Health Impacts

• For the regular consumer
• An average cup of java contains about 80 to 150
  milligrams of caffeine. (Dicum 116)
• Too much coffee brings on caffeinism, a
  condition characterized by anxiety, irritability,
  nervousness, lightheadedness, and even diarrhea.
  (118)
• Scientific research on the physiological and
  psychological impacts of moderate coffee drinking
  has turned up very little evidence implicating
  the drink in serious harmful effects. (119)
• Regardless of lack of scientific proof, remember
  that is not to the multinationals advantage to
  fund more substantial studies. It is, however,
  your responsibility to make sure that better
  studies are performed.

64
Distribution of Coffee

• How do coffee get finally in our cup?
• The distribution of coffee varies from country to
  country depending on the mechanisms of local and
  national regulations. More importantly, in the
  free-trade route, small farmers and farm workers
  are at the expense of the middle man and the big
  plantation owners. Those farmers who are able to
  sell their harvest, do so for very little money
  in exchange for loans or services. The following
  illustrates the path that coffee generally
  follows from tree to cup.

65
Distribution of Coffee Continuation
Source (Waridel,43)
66
Distribution of Coffee Continued

• It starts off at the farmers plantations. Small
  scale farmers, who produce roughly half of the
  worlds coffee supply, are caught in the vicious
  cycle of poverty. They have limited land and
  limited resources,and they do not produce enough
  to export directly, so most have to sell their
  crop to the local merchant (known as coyotes in
  Latin America) at low prices. (Waridel 42)
• Because small farmers do not get enough money to
  meet their financial needs from harvest to
  harvest, they also have to borrow money from the
  coyote or middle man (Waridel 42).
• It is usually the case that governments promote
  technified coffee crops by offering loans
  oriented towards specific projects, such as the
  purchase of pesticide or the planting of certain
  export crops. (Waridel 44)

67
Distribution of Coffee Continued

• Then, depending on the situation, the farmer
  would mill their coffee themselves to get a
  better price for it. However, some farmers dont
  have enough coffee to justify the cost of the
  pick-up truck, and are too far away to take their
  coffee to the mill by bicycle. These farmers have
  to take the lower price offered by the local
  middleman for their unprocessed cherries.
  (Gresser and Tickell 24)
• The plantation workers at the large landowners
  farm have more to loose that small farmers
  because they have to migrate from plantation to
  plantation following the harvesting season
  (usually traveling with their families-women and
  children), and they are paid by the amount of
  coffee they pick. (Waridel 44)

68
Distribution of Coffee Continued

• Because the need for labor in large plantations
  is seasonalpeaking during the harvest many
  regions have developed systems of migrant labor.
  Usually, these temporary laborers come from
  regions even worse off than the coffee-producing
  areas. Plantation labor in Guatemala, for example
  is trucked to the coastal plantations from the
  impoverished highlands. Similarly, the Costa
  Rican harvest is undertaken by poor Nicaraguans
  and Panamanians. (Dicum 47)
• From the local middleman or the large landowner,
  coffee is sent to the processors, which are
  often small entrepreneursalso called coyotes
  by producersalthough in some cases, processing
  is done in factories owned by multinational
  corporations. (Waridel 50

69
Distribution of Coffee Continued

• Next the exporter, who makes sure the beans are
  of the best quality for export, makes sure that
  the right coffee is sent to the right place at
  the right time. Their goal, naturally is the same
  as of that of every intermediary, to buy coffee
  at the lowest time and resell it at the highest
  profit. (Waridel 50)