Pitfalls in the search for a concientious cup of coffee
Occasionally I notice things in my daily routine that make me wonder. Today's particular instance had to do with ethical product labeling. Is it really practical? Sure, I'm all for things like fair trade products. Who wouldn't mind paying a little more so that the guy who grew the coffee you're drinking can afford not to starve to death? Maybe that's oversimplyfing the issue but in general given the choice I'll take the fair trade stuff over the regular stuff.
Except in the case I was confronted with today. It just didn't seem practical. Like many weekdays I decided to visit the local university library in order to hit the books, and normally when I'm here I like to stop into the little coffee shop on the 1st floor and grab a little caffeineated motivation. Anyway, I happened to notice that among the several available flavors of coffee one of them was labeled to be fair trade certified. Of course since I'm predisposed to buying things with that label I started to go for it, even though it was a flavor of coffee I wouldn't go for normally. I figure hey, it's a worthy sacrifice.
And then it strikes me that it doesn't matter. You pay the same amount for whatever coffee you get. You can fill your cup however you want. On top of that every coffee at that place bears the label of the same company. It doesn't matter what coffee I drink, because my buck-sixty is going to the same place no matter what coffee I choose. So what good is the fair trade label, then? I can't assume that they're all fair trade because it seems like they went out of their way to indicate the one that was. At this point it seems like it's just a cynical use of an ethical production label in order to move the crappier flavors of coffee. I feel like maybe these folks take me for some kind of a rube.
And i still bought their coffee either way, so maybe I really am.
Adam on September 26th 2008
Point taken. Still sucks that the only fair trade flavor they carry is the exact last one I'd want to drink, though.
"The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men." -- Robert G. Ingersoll
happycodemonkey on October 11th 2008
I thought the Fair Trade flavor was fantastic, isn't it the Javanilla? Not very fair to say they're "pushing the crappy stuff" ;)
Adam on October 13th 2008
I know, it's not terrible, I just don't really care for flavored coffee.
Seth on September 26th 2008
I'm sure they keep track of how much of which coffee they go through. Assuming the label isn't a sham, your choice still makes a difference. If you're consuming the good thing, they have to buy more to refill it. Same for the bad thing. We can discuss whether or not it'd be more effective to start a campaign to get them to switch to all fair trade coffees, too, but in this case your consumption matters the same as when you choose the brand up front.
"Wherever little children are hungry and cry
Wherever people ain't free.
Wherever men are fightin' for their rights
That's where I'm gonna be, Ma.
That's where I'm a gonna be."
-Woody Guthrie "Tom Joad"