By Nathan Greenhalgh
Times-Press (Reedsburg, WI) - May 16, 2008
Although downing a cup of coffee in the morning is almost as common as showering in the morning, if you asked most people where their coffee comes from, they'll just say the store.
Coffee is one of the most-traded commodities in the world, and the bean in your coffee machine may have traveled thousands of miles before appearing on the supermarket shelf. In an effort to raise awareness about the global implications of coffee choices, Just Coffee, a coffee roasting cooperative based in Madison, and Family Farm Defenders, a nonprofit political advocacy group, brought a delegation of Latin American coffee producers to Sauk County for a tour of farms, the Cedar Grove Cheese factory and meeting local organic farmers at The Deli Bean Cafe in downtown Reedsburg. Just Coffee is not just a company but also political activists for the Fair Trade movement, which advocates the payment of a fair price and implementing environmental and social standards for Third World agricultural producers.
"It's definitely better than the alternative," Colleen Coy, a Just Coffee delegation coordinator, said.
Coy added that bringing delegations to the U.S. helps close the gap between between consumers and producers by building relationships and understanding.
Carlos Reynoso, of the Guatemalan coffee cooperative Manos Campesinas, said the visits to farms and meetings with local organic farmers had left a strong impression on him.
"One thing that we've noticed, the desires and expectations of the small farmers are the same around the world," Reynoso said through a translator. "Small farmers around the world encounter the same problems with manipulation of the market by the government."
The delegation said they were exposed to different agricultural techniques while on American farms, too.
"We're learning a lot of things about agriculture," said Elmer Pena of Peru. "We had no idea a dairy cow could milk three times a day."
The delegation also spoke of the benefits that fair trade had brought their communities and encouraged consumers to be conscientious of their purchases.
"When the consumer doesn't see the producer they begin to doubt, 'does this product really come from small producers?'" Policarpio Ali Cruz of Bolivia said. "This kind of trade is seriously stabilizing … the lives of producers around the world. Fair trade strengthens the relationship of our communities. People in our community are better able to strengthen their health and education. Fair trade is able to help us develop further the agriculture of our communities but doing it in a more organic way. Fair trade is also extremely important to us because it stresses the importance of the equal participation of women."
Jitzy Centana Ruiz said fair trade was improving womens' status in Nicaragua.
"It's giving women an opportunity to create a market for their products. We are able to be involved in international trade in a way we were never able to before," she said.
Just Coffee is sold at the Deli Bean and on their Web site http://justcoffee.coop.
This is not the first international delegation to visit The Deli Bean. In October the cafe hosted a representative from a cocoa producers' cooperative in Ghana.
