Episode 56 - Ethical Coffee
What is Coffee?
Coffee beans are the inner seed from the “cherry” of the coffea plant, which is native to Ethiopia.[1] Coffee is the world’s second most tradable commodity, after crude oil. There are four primary types of coffee: Arabica (coffea arabica), Robusta (coffea caniphora), Liberica (coffea liberica), and Exelsa (coffea liberica var. dewervrei).
Arabica is the most common type of coffee consumed in North America. Arabica beans are sweet less acidic in flavour than Robusta beans. They are farmed in areas with high elevations above sea level and where rain is prevalent. Arabica plants are delicate and prone to disease, which makes it challenging to grow in large quantities.
Robusta beans are most popular in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It is not generally very popular because it can taste burnt or rubbery. But Robusta coffee is easier to grow and has higher levels of caffeine (which acts as a natural insect repellant). It is typically used in instant coffee and as a filler in dark roasts. There are some very good Robusta coffees, but this variety is usually seen as lower quality.
Liberica and Excelsa are both relatively rare coffee beans.
You can grow a coffee plant in your apartment, but don’t expect it to produce coffee cherries. Coffee plants are trees that yield mature harvests only after 4-7 years of attentive cultivation.[2]
There are lots of different coffee brewing styles (e.g., drip, pour over, cold brew, espresso, ristretto). Capsule coffee is a rising trend. More than 40% of U.S. households own an espresso pod machine. The global market for coffee pod and capsule machines is expected to double by 2025.
There is also a wide variety of coffee drink types (e.g., espresso, americano, cappuccino, flat white, affogato, iced coffee) but we won’t get into those.
How Coffee is Made
When coffee cherries are picked, the beans are removed either through a “dry” or “wet” process. The dry process involves leaving the beans in the sun to dry and then running them through a grinder. In the wet process, you use water to wash the fruit away from the seed. The “green” coffee beans are then “cleaned” (inspected and sorted) and then roasted.
A (Brief) History of Coffee
Four hundred years ago, coffee was a “mysterious Ottoman custom” cultivated commercially only in Yemen.[3] Now it is an “unrivalled work drug” and a ubiquitous daily necessity.[4] It is also a cash crop produced by more than 25 million people in over 70 countries.[5]
The word coffee derives from the Arabic “qahwah”, meaning wine: coffee is the wine of Islam.[6] Early coffee cultivation took place in the sixteenth century on the hillsides of Yemen.[7] The Ottoman empire set up a coffeehouse as one of its first actions after conquering a new city, to demonstrate the civility of their rule.[8]
Coffee became a European luxury in the seventeenth century as Europeans brought the tradition back from visits in the Middle East. Coffee was especially popular in England. The first coffeehouse in London was established in the early 1650s, but by the turn of the 18th century there were several hundred coffeehouses there.[9]
British traders had more success trading for tea than coffee, which is one reason that England is today associated more with tea than coffee.[10]
Arab traders in Yemen monopolized coffee production until 1699, when the Dutch successfully introduced coffee to Java.[11]After that, coffee spread around the world through pathways of empire and slavery.[12] After the Dutch, the French colonial administrators took coffee to Africa. Then the Dutch introduced coffee to Suriname. Then a Portuguese official smuggled coffee from French Guiana to Brazil. The British began cultivating coffee in Jamaica and the Spanish established coffee in Cuba. By the end of the 18th century coffee was virtually everywhere in the Americas.[13]
The Coffee Industry
The total value of the global coffee industry was $465.9 billion in 2020 (this was a huge jump from 2019). 10.21 million bags of coffee were exported in 2020.
People around the world drink coffee, but the Aussies may be the most committed market. Even though the U.S. population is 12x the Australian population, the Australian coffee market ($7.8 billion) is more than half as much as the U.S. coffee market ($14 billion).
The world’s top coffee exporters include: Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Honduras, and Indonesia. Canada’s top coffee supplying countries are Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Around 125 million people globally depend on coffee for their livelihoods. Unlike some commodities, which are grown on large plantations, small coffee farms proliferate: smallholder farmers produce 80% of the world’s coffee.
Like other agricultural commodities, farmworkers receive very little of the value added from coffee. Coffee farmers typically earn only 7-10% of the retail price of coffee. The rest goes to traders, roasters, and retailers downstream.
In part, this has to do with the concentration of coffee buying and processing. Three coffee buyers control half of the global coffee trade (ECOM, Neumann and Volcafe). And 40% of coffee is processed by the ten largest coffee roasters, including Nestlé and Jacobs Douwe Egbers (JDE).
There is an interest in making the coffee industry fairer. Consumer research has found that 53% of U.S. coffee drinkers want to buy ethical coffee and are willing to pay $1.31 extra for a cup of coffee produced by a cooperative farmer.
Working Conditions
A Living Wage for Coffee Farmers
The low, and volatile, price of coffee is one of the biggest problems for coffee producers. Nearly 61% of coffee growers are selling their coffee at prices under the cost of production. While the global coffee industry has been growing, coffee farmers’ average incomes have not changed in the past 20 years, and has actually decreased when you factor in rising farming costs.
The low price of coffee is also a cause of child labour. Remember that coffee is farmed primarily by smallholders. Farmers will often pull their children from school into labour on coffee plantations, in order to produce enough to make a living.
Fairtrade Coffee
Fair trade is one solution to the problem of low coffee prices. Coffee is by far the leading fair trade product.[14]
To provide farmers with a living income, fair trade estimates that coffee would need to be sold at $1.40 per pound. That is 40% higher than the current market price for coffee. And arguably even that price is not high enough. That is why the Fairtrade Minimum Price for coffee is $1.40 per pound (or $1.70 for organic).
On top of that, farmers receive a $0.20 per pound Fairtrade Premium, of which at least 25% is invested in productivity and quality initiatives. Co-operatives invest the rest in projects that they choose, which can be facility upgrades or things like community healthcare. Fairtrade coffee producers earned more than $94 million in Premium in 2017.
Forced Labour
Forced labour is a problem on some coffee plantations. For example, a 2019 investigation by Thompson-Reuters Foundation found evidence of widespread use of modern slavery on Brazilian coffee plantations.
Environment
A 2008 study by Ben Salinas found that brewing and transportation are the two biggest sources of emissions from coffee production. The study shows that coffee growing and roasting both have a relatively small environmental footprint.
Coffee Growing
Sun Grown versus Shade Grown Coffee
Coffee has traditionally been grown under a shaded canopy of trees (shade grown), but recently there has been a shift to sun-grown coffee to meet greater demand. Sun-grown coffee is worse for the environment for two main reasons: it requires fertilizer and it is a cause of deforestation since forested area is cleared to make space for the plantations.
Coffee from Colombia, Brazil, and Costa Rica is usually grown on full-sun plantations. Whereas Peru, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Ethiopia usually produce shade-grown coffee.
Most, though not all, organic growers will use shade-grown methods. To be extra sure that your coffee is shade-grown, you can also look for Bird-friendly Certification.
Water Use
Approximately 130 litres of water are needed to produce one cup of coffee. For context, a kilogram of beef takes 15,400 litres of water. And a cup of dairy milk takes 255 litres to produce.
Most of the water used to produce coffee is used in the growing process.
Impact of Climate Change
Climate change is impacting coffee yields as pests infest crops. It is also changing the ideal altitude for coffee growing. For example, Fairtrade International has said that warmer temperatures could push Arabica coffee production higher up into mountains and forest reserves, potentially displacing communities and wildlife.
Brewing Method
There are debates about the best and worst ways to brew coffee, but a lot depends on the volume of coffee that you are making and how you are using the system. One thing we can say fairly definitively is that cold brew is the most environmentally friendly way to brew coffee, since it requires no electricity, provided that you use a reusable filter. Generally speaking, a brewing method will be more environmentally friendly if you have a reusable filter, waste very little product, and keep the machine on for a short duration.
There are some articles out there saying that coffee pods are good for the environment. I take issue with these articles.
So, what is true about them? The life cycle assessments have pointed to something that is generally right: single-serve systems tend to result in less coffee waste, and that be more sustainable.
Drip coffee has generally been found to have a larger environmental impact than single-serve coffee, because LCAs assume that people prepare too much coffee at one time and brew extra batches to retain freshness. However, wasted product is something the consumer can control.
And that can make a big difference for thre outcome of these assessments. For instance, a 2015 study finds that accurate amounts of drip-brewed coffee outperformed single-serve methods, while over-preparation and keeping the warming plate on meant the highest environmental impact. (This study also assumed that drip coffee was brewed using a disposable paper filter and conventionally packaged coffee, but that is not necessarily what people are using.)
Even if you waste less coffee using a capsule system, that still does not mean that single use-coffee pods are good for the environment. It means we need to be careful about over-producing coffee and keeping warming pots on. These analyses typically do not measure against single-serve measures like French press, which eliminate the waste problem while also avoiding the garbage problem of coffee pods.
Every minute approximately 29,000 coffee capsules are dumped into landfills worldwide. The pollution problem associated with single-use capsules is huge, and it is undercounted in these lifecycle analyses. That is because these studies build in rosy assumptions about coffee pods. Sure, single-use capsules might not be a problem big deal if you assume that coffee pods are always put in the recycling—which they aren’t—and actually recycled—which, again, they aren’t.
There is a debate about the relative merits of different capsules. In one study, biodegradable capsules perform the best. In another, aluminum pods are viewed as the best choice. But these studies assume that capsules are ending up where they need to – either being composted or recycled appropriately, and we know that that is rarely the case.
So, if you are going to stick with a coffee pod machine, the best solution is to go for reusable pods. We think that’s a great choice! Here is a guide to help you choose the right reusable capsules.
It might be more efficient to get coffee at a café, since they produce a high volume of coffee. But there are a lot of factors that would go into it, and we couldn’t find a study on this question.
Packaging
Most coffee packaging is not recyclable because of the coffee bag laminate. Some roasters will sell coffee by weight in a container of your choosing. Or you can try your local bulk foods store.
Accompaniments
How do you take your coffee? One great way to reduce the environmental impact of coffee consumption is to switch from animal milk to a plant milk (for more on that see our alternative milks episode). If you add sugar or a powdered creamer, consider the impact of these accompaniments as well.
What You Can Do
Buy Ethical Coffee
World Vision recommends looking for coffee that is Fairtrade International, Fair Trade Certified, UTZ Certified, or Rainforest Alliance Certified. Try doubling up with organic certification, to ensure that your coffee is shade-grown. You can also buy from local roasters that are committed to buying ethical coffee. These roasters may prefer a direct purchasing strategy instead of going with a certification program. That can be a good approach, if you trust that the roaster takes ethics seriously.
Brew Efficiently
Whatever brewing method you use, make it as efficient as possible by:
● Avoiding single-use filters
● Turning the machine off when you’re done
● Not producing more than you need
● Keeping the machine clean, so it operates efficiently
Support Responsible Supply Chain Legislation
Support legislation that would require big companies to take action and report on their efforts to address child labour, modern slavery, and other human rights violations in their supply chains.
Canada started consultations in 2019. Bill S-216, An Act to Enact the Modern Slavery Act, would require large businesses listed on the Canadian stock exchange, or having a connection to Canada, to provide an annual report which would be posted publicly on the company’s website, as well as in a public government database. The Bill would also ban the import of goods produced by forced or child labour.
The Bill is currently in committee in the Senate (since 30 March 2021), having passed the second reading. That means that now is a good time to contact your Senators and Member of Parliament to ask if they support Bill S-216 and let them know that the Bill has your support.
Australia, the United Kingdom, California, and France already have similar laws (although in France the approach is a bit different). However, the Canadian legislation potentially goes further by amending the customs tariff to wholly exclude goods from entering Canada if manufactured by forced or child labour.
Endnotes
[1] Sedgewick. Augustine. (2020). Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favourite Drug. New York: Penguin Randomhouse LLC.
[2] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[3] Sedgewick, Coffeeland p.11
[4] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[5] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[6] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[7] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[8] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[9] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[10] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[11] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[12] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[13] Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
[14]Sedgewick, Coffeeland.
