Starbucks Bucks Fair Trade Pledges

Starbucks is ubiquitous. It is, for example, the only national chain allowed in downtown Ashland. Quite an accomplishment. I stop at Starbucks, have relatives who are regular customers, who work at Starbucks and others who are close to Starbucks executives. Starbucks has a good reputation, treats employees relatively well and alleges Fair Trade practices on their web site. They say in part: Starbucks sells Fair Trade Certified coffee around the world.Starbucks is the only company certified to sell Fair Trade coffee in 21 countries...
Fair Trade Certified coffee is one part of a larger effort by Starbucks to be socially responsible in our relationships with coffee farmers and communities
Fair Trade certification is limited to small-scale farmers organized in cooperatives, and currently represents less than 3% of the world’s coffee farmers. Because of our size and quality requirements, Starbucks buys coffee from small, medium, and large scale farms. We pay premium prices for all coffee. We use coffee purchasing guidelines, called C.A.F.E. Practices, which give preference to farmers who score high in measurements of economic fairness, socially responsible working conditions, and progressive environmental practices. Updated 5/27/04

The  Organic Consumers Association, however, makes this claim:  ... “Unfortunately the supply of fair trade far outstrips the demand. Of the 170 million pounds of fair trade coffee produced globally only 35 million pounds are sold on the fair trade market. Coffee companies need to aggressively promote fair trade coffee.”

OCA, a very active organization (worth adding to your donation list) is running an ongoing campaign to encourage Starbucks to do more. OCA alleges that, "Despite repeated pledges, Starbucks is still loading up its coffee drinks with rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone)-tainted milk, and buying coffee and chocolate produced under exploitative labor conditions, and in the case of cocoa plantations in Africa, workers who are actually slaves."

The issue seems unclear. But something is going on. Google “Starbuck Fair Trade” for news and you will find a rash of articles locally and nationally about Fair Trade coffee and Starbucks in Nov/Dec of ‘05 . OCA and others seem to believe that Starbucks, the industry leader, can move faster. The OCA comment about rBGH is disturbing. Unfortunately, when I try to check out the Starbucks Fact Sheet an update on the issues, I get “file not found.” But, better order the soy latte until we get the Fair Trade thing and the ingredients sorted out.

Comments

[green LA girl]

Darling, you gotta take the Starbucks Challenge --