Featured Coffee: Counter Culture - Apollo
To honor the presence of coffee on the show, Ben and Aaron figured what better topic to tackle first than the inequities of the coffee trade. Challenging conventional wisdom around fair trade and what it means to source equitable and sustainable coffee, the hosts paint a dire picture of the coffee industry that leaves many farming communities across the Global South mired in poverty. Despite the gross inequality that dominates the coffee trade, the hosts discuss multiple alternative models to fair trade, including the Direct Trade and Revenue-Sharing models as well as the potential for an intergovernmental coffee organization like oil has with OPEC. The hope for this episode is for listeners to become more conscious consumers of coffee so people can make better purchasing decisions that support transparent, equitable, and just coffee roasters.
Sources
National Coffee Association: The Economic Impact of the Coffee Industry
Hollins University: A Cup of Colonialism - A Qualitative Analysis of Starbucks and Fair Trade Coffee
GGC Coffee: How Much Money Coffee Farmers Make
Perfect Daily Grind: Many Fair Trade Coffee Farmers Don’t Earn Enough To Live On
Stanford Social Innovation Review: The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee
Stanford Social Innovation Review: The Paradox of Fair Trade
Global Post: Low Coffee Prices Are Starving Farmers. Can a Cartel Fix It?
BBC News: How the 2019 Coffee Crisis Might Affect You
Counter Culture: 2018 Sustainability Report
Transparent Trade Coffee: Featured Roasters
CNN: OPEC Fast Facts
Perfect Daily Grind: Cold War Coffeenomics - Combating Communism with Coffee
International Coffee Organization: Mission
Sustainable Brands: How Thrive Farmers Is Collaborating To Create Sea Change in the Coffee Industry
Thrive Farmers: Meet the Farmers
SCS Global: Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices
Reuters: Picked by Slaves - Coffee Crisis Brews in Brazil
Forbes: Study Links Nike, Adidas, and Apple to Forced Uighur Labor