Have you ever wondered about where your products come from? According to USA Today, roughly 83 percent of adults drink coffee in the U.S. If you\u2019re one of these individuals, perhaps you\u2019ve been curious on where your coffee comes from. The majority of the climate in the U.S is either too cold or too moist to maintain a healthy crop of coffee beans. There are particular areas in California that can support them, but not in the quantity we consume. For now, U.S coffee providers have to obtain coffee beans from overseas. The primary continents for acquiring coffee is predominantly Africa and South America.<\/p>\n
Who are these coffee growers? This varies from family farmers to larger corporate plantations. Unfortunately, most people carrying out the actual labor of growing coffee don\u2019t make a living wage if they were to live by the U.S standard. Living standards vary per country, but keep in mind that the majority of these individuals don\u2019t have running water or electricity.<\/p>\n
Henry Dean, president of Boston Stoker, said it\u2019s important to his company that their coffee bean providers are taken care of.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure our farmers make a healthy living so they can provide us with great coffee year after year,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
Boston Stoker\u2019s first shop was opened in Englewood in 1973 and was originally intended as a cigar shop. They later opened shops in Fairborn and Centerville. In 1979, Boston Stoker began roasting coffee at their Fairborn location. Over the years, tobacco demand declined while coffee demands increased. Since that time, Boston Stoker has been roasting 150,000 pounds of coffee annually in Downtown Dayton, Ohio.<\/p>\n
So, how much money do coffee growers actually receive from coffee purchases? Starbucks for instance gives $2.38 of each pound of coffee sold directly to the farmers, according to their website\u2014that information was collected in 2011. Upon a further inquiry about the current accuracy of the information, Starbucks declined to comment other than redirecting back to their \u201cAbout Us\u201d page. When taking a closer look at the Starbucks\u2019 Goals & Progress: Coffee Purchasing, Starbucks said, \u201c86 percent of our coffee was ethically sourced under C.A.F.E. Practices in 2011, up from 84 percent in 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being \u201cethically sourced\u201d is the only terms Starbucks uses and no further information on what \u201cethically sourced\u201d means is provided other than saying it means it is verified by the C.A.F.E Practices.<\/p>\n
C.A.F.E Practices is a set of guidelines to ensure \u201cquality and integrity,\u201d upon further inspection, two companies were involved in creating those guidelines.<\/p>\n
One is Conservation International and the other is SCS. According to multiple sources, there was a Papua New Guinean critique on Conservation International accusing them of neocolonialism, green imperialism, and being a \u201cmultinational conservation company.\u201d In continuation, there was a June 2003 report by the Chiapas, a Mexico-based Centre for Political Analysis and Social Investigation who dubbed Conservation International as a Trojan horse of the U.S government and transnational corporations.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the SCS (Scientific Certification Services), according to several sources, has a longstanding reputation of about 25 years of developing internationally recognized standards and certification programs in pursuit of the highest level of environmental performance and social accountability. They have been known to explore multiple topics; such as, forestry, food, biofuels, fisheries, furniture, and retail\/CPG (consumer packaged goods).<\/p>\n
Those are the standards for Starbucks and who influences those standards. To compare Starbucks\u2019 $2.38 per pound of coffee going directly to the farmer, let\u2019s put it into actual terms. A regular one pound bag of coffee ($14.95, all prices vary) is roughly 15 percent. Some of their prices are cheaper for less coffee or cheaper depending on what kind of coffee it is, but compare that to Boston Stoker prices.<\/p>\n
An average cost for a 12 oz bag of Boston Stoker coffee is $16.00, why is it more expensive for slightly less?<\/p>\n
\u201cOur coffees are slightly higher than Starbucks. Around 25 percent is going back to the producing countries and around 15\u201320 percent is going back to the farmers,\u201d said Dean.<\/p>\n
At the smallest percentage of what Dean has provided, that would mean that at the least $2.40 is going directly to the farmers and up to $3.20 goes directly to them. That may not seem like much, but it adds up. More importantly, as stated previously, living conditions are poor for most \u201cthird world\u201d farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe receive coffees from Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panam\u00e1, Nicaragua, Colombia, Per\u00fa, Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Indonesia, and possibly a few others,\u201d Dean said in response to what countries does Boston Stoker receive coffee beans from.<\/p>\n
This led into the next question about what countries has Dean and his co workers been to. Dean responded, \u201cOur team has been at least once to each of those countries minus Rwanda and Nicaragua.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the living conditions in most of the coffee growing countries isn\u2019t ideal, Dean said they want help fund schools and build houses, but they have mainly only been to Honduras and Colombia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sending a group down to Honduras each year in February to build a home for a family in need. We have also helped with funds for schools in Columbia,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have supported other charities over the years to help support coffee producing communities as well. Coffee Kids was a group that we used to raise about 10K to 15K a year for. They no longer exist anymore,\u201d Dean said in response to if Boston Stoker has extended any other form of aid in the past.<\/p>\n
Dean said he has been sending a group for the past three years to Honduras.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn February, 2016, we will be building our fourth home. We have supported Coffee Kids since the early 90s,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
Buying coffee may seem quite expensive at times, but there\u2019s a large process to it most people may be unaware of, payment starts at the beginning. To buy the beans, ship them, package them, grind them and to add any additional ingredients becomes expensive. Often times, the actual coffee growers see the least yield from the profit.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s good to keep in mind that if a coffee is more expensive, it may be because that company isn\u2019t cutting corners and stunting the coffee farmers from a fairer wage. And perhaps it\u2019s also important to remember that certain businesses invest resources in their coffee bean providers and that requires money. The next time you buy coffee, think about where your money goes. If you\u2019re interested about who actually grows your coffee, maybe when you buy coffee, remember that your money supports what that company supports. It\u2019s basic capitalism, and hopefully the next time you sip your coffee and experience it\u2019s taste, you will at least keep in mind who grew what you\u2019re drinking.<\/p>\n
Ehron Ostendorf<\/strong> Have you ever wondered about where your products come from? According to USA Today, roughly 83 percent of adults drink coffee in the U.S. If you\u2019re one of these individuals, perhaps you\u2019ve been curious on where your coffee comes from. The majority of the climate in the U.S is either too cold or too moist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2041],"class_list":["post-12518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-ehron-ostendorf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3fU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12595,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518\/revisions\/12595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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