Life Cycle: Java Break
Life Cycle is a series of posts on the extraordinary lives of ordinary things.
Seven minutes: The amount of time it takes for me to boil water, grind beans, push the French press, pour the milk and dump an embarrassingly large spoon of sugar into my coffee cup.
Ten minutes: The duration of my occasional morning coffee-by-the-koi-pond-with-one-American-Spirit-light meditation.
Thirteen months: The time it took to grow the coffee cherries, pick them, pulp them, roast them and package them to be shipped to my area. (To say nothing of the milk and sugar--that's for another day.)
Our morning pick-me-up likely started its journey in a Brazilian or Columbian rainforest. Or a place that used to be a rainforest, before it was leveled to make way for a coffee plantation. There, a farmer earning about $300 a year planted, tended and harvested the coffee cherries (what we call "beans") amid petroleum-laced fertilizers (that not only fed our oil addiction but contaminated his water sources with dangerous nitrates) and insecticides (that actually hurt him more than us, as most poisons are removed during processing). The unused plant pulp was dumped into rivers, clogging waterways that were already compromised by chemicals.
Our pick-me-up can be a bit of a downer, really.
Going beyond fertilizer and bug-killer to boost production, growers have moved toward planting in the sun rather than traditional shade-cover methods--at great cost to the soil, which erodes and bakes beneath the equator sun. But this is a seemingly easy way to keep up with outrageous demand.
Next to crude oil, coffee may be our strongest addiction. More than half of Americans fuel themselves with one to four cups of coffee, totaling upwards of 330 million cups daily. It's not surprising that coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world--caffeine is one of the fastest, most effective drugs on the market, soaking into our brains to block adenosine, the chemical that tells us to sleep.
Coffee is becoming the chosen picker-upper among wealthier classes in places like China and India, and there's no dearth of coffee-infused drinks in the West - from MooLattes to Coffee Slurpees.
Annual production of coffee cherries is expected to reach 7 million tons by 2010, yet the folks meeting that demand are facing debt and starvation. While we feel the pinch dishing out over $5 for a half-caf, skinny cappuccino with extra foam, commodity coffee prices have plummeted to less than 50 cents per pound. The coffee crisis is forcing even the world's biggest producer, Procter and Gamble (Millstone, Folgers), to take notice.
Let's run some more numbers, courtesy of the Center for a New American Dream: Drinking two cups of conventionally grown coffee each day for a year requires 12 trees, 11 pounds of fertilizers and a few ounces of pesticides, and results in 43 pounds of pulp being dumped into rivers. Add travel to this, and our beans are probably racking up more frequent flier miles than we are (if your coffee beans were grown in Sao Paulo and roasted in New Orleans, they've traveled 4,675 miles).
No, we're not giving up coffee. We are, however, attempting to find java that's fair-trade, shade-grown and organic (hint: no Starbucks brew wears this virtuous, triple-gemmed crown). It's the only sort of coffee that doesn't turn out to be a depressant.
Next installment: Our second favorite fix, the cigarette.
This post was written by Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh. Thanks to the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Lacey Johnston for research assistance.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
I read this while I was drinking my second cup of coffee of the morning. I'm happy to know that I am fueling my dependency in the least harmful way. I like what you said to mrcleantech about trade-offs. We really can't live without doing some harm. The best we can do is try to minimize the harm by making decent choices (which is just crazily difficult given the challenge of fully understanding the consequences of just one decision--that's the dark cave for me). Blogs like yours can help. Thanks.
Simran,
you make an excellent point about the addictive aspect of coffee/caffeine. I admit I participate and need my cup of Joe in the morning but what is startling to me now is the number of young kids (middle school and high school) drinking coffee- especially of the sugary, almost dessert kinds. I didn't start drinking coffee until after college and it scares me to see young kids starting their addiction to coffee or caffeine so early, given the negative health impact we know it has for this age group...this coupled with a new generation of coffee drinkers increasing the limited resources needed to produce our cup of joe. It's good to see more discussion about organic, fair trade coffee.
Other posters here seem a lot more educated than I am. So let me just say I enjoyed this post and am shocked (SHOCKED! really!) to learn what it takes to yield two cups of coffee. It's a wonder we're not all surrounded by pulp.
You know, there is a way to be rid of the environmental blight wrought by American Spirit and its worse counterparts.........
See Simran Sethi's Profile
AliceL, you seem to be suggesting I give up my morning meditation! The same can be said for our coffee fix, or the slew of products we will detail in this series. That is certainly one route to take, but I am also an advocate of small steps. So, triple-gem coffee, organic cigs, electronic newspapers, recycled toilet paper. . .the list goes on.
I would actually love to see a little life cycle analysis (similar to this piece) about the American Spirit Light. I've long thought an interesting article could be made of all these eco-vices. Everyone's got one (or six)--yet I sense that many folks really don't know what distinguishes, say, an organic cigarette from a regular marlboro red, or a Wolaver's Organic Lager from a High Life.
Let's make Starbucks part of the solution. As corporate citizens go, it could be much worse. The fifth of that company's six guiding principles is this: "Contribute positively to our communities and our environment." You can send Simran's column to the investor relations people at Starbucks at investorrelations@starbucks.com -- and you can send it to the media relations people at press@starbucks.com. Let's ask for fair-trade, shade-grown and organic.
See Simran Sethi's Profile
I love it, Rhetorician. Start the movement.
honey, trader joes has about 30 kinds of fair trade organic coffees, many, if not all are shade-grown. i just wish there were more Trader Joes!
in LA, "Groundworks" also does. Even Target has a few fair trade organics - i haven't checked for shade grown - thanks for mentioning that, since i didn't know it was an important factor - i thought it was descriptive like "nutty". i have been only buying organic, fair trade coffee for years now, even when it was very difficult to find. roasting then steaming pesticides just can't be a good thing, even if you have no social conscience, right?
i have boycotted the big chains for their poisonous, polluting, exploitative (and icky tasting) coffee, too depleting their collective coffers by a mere $7,500 - but what if 10 million of us did it? that's $75 billion they would lose over 5 years - far more than they gain by exploitation of workers and ecology.
i thank you for bringing this to a larger audience, since it is a painless way to make the world a slightly better place. our vote doesn't seem to count for much when politicians are bought and sold by lobbyists, but perhaps we can use our purchasing power to demand change...
Also check out your local Food Co-op (if you have one in your area). They usually have a pretty good selection of fair trade organic coffees.
The whole supply chain analysis/embodied energy thing is interesting (if not a a tad too cute), but what people (at least me) are really looking for are ways out of the dark cave, not being led further in (that's a depressant). For me, it's a question of perspective, and this one just bums me out because it doesn't provide a clear and convenient path to an alternative. Looking forward to your next one.
See Simran Sethi's Profile
Mrcleantech, I, too, want this to be easy. I want to know there is a Right way and a Wrong way. I want to save Mother Earth in 10 Easy Steps. But it's just not that simple. Everything involves trade-offs. And that is all that Sarah and I hope to show. We are NOT trying to push you into a dark cave but, rather, shed light so we can all make better informed decisions.
I really wish this was easier. I get overwhelmed and angry myself and asked Sarah to join me in writing these because life cycle analyses were seriously getting me down. I try to take my inspiration from Dr. Sylvia Earle (hero of the planet, first woman to walk untethered on the ocean floor, a seventy-something marine scientist super-star). I interviewed her last year and asked her how she stayed optimistic in light of the fact that we have literally created "dead zones" in our oceans and have compromised over 90% of our fish stocks through over-fishing. She grabbed my hands and said, "Yes, but we still have 10%." It was a really important moment for me.
I don't want to sound too precious, but the first step to change is awareness. As we said in our first post, saving this beautiful planet is messy and complex. Just know we are right there with you trying to shed some light and figure out the answers.
Hey Simran, I listen to you on treehugger radio and am stoked to see you here. I gave up coffee and cigarettes a year ago, along with plastic bags and bottled water. I was wondering about the impact of tea growing, processing and transport. China and India produce over 2 million tons of tea every year and consume most of it domestically. Worldwide production is increasing and more people in the West are consuming the stuff each year. We keep hearing of the health benefits of tea over coffee, so I'm wondering how the environmental cost of tea production compares to that of coffee. For now, I'm gulping it down it by the gallon.
See Simran Sethi's Profile
Ajita, my dear chai-lover, nothing is pure. While tea may have greater health benefits, the same labor and environmental issues exist. I loved "All in this Tea" - a film we showed this season on Sundance Channel that looks at some of the social, environmental and cultural impacts of tea cultivation in China. You can see a clip here: http://www.sundancechannel.com/series/thegreen_docs_2
Hey at least the cigarette is natural - now just shift to the American Spirit organic smokes and some fair-trade locally roasted beans and you've got yourself a healthy low-emission organic green breakfast. But seriously, how do we get some of that $5 in the hands of the people growing the beans, if fair-trade represents such a small percentage of the market? What would it take to get Starbucks and P&G to shift to fair-trade shade grown coffee?
See Simran Sethi's Profile
It takes consumer demand and pressure. A shareholder action campaign forced P&G to bring fair-trade coffee to market back in 2003. It represented a small share of P&G's massive market share and didn't bring fair-trade to its most popular brand (Folgers). Starbucks started selling fair-trade coffee back in 2000. They give lip-service to it, but you can only buy it in bulk (not in drinks) and it represents a fraction of Starbucks sales (about 1%).
Small changes are better than none, but we have to stay on companies and continue to demand more. And we have to be willing to pay a price premium, which will inevitably get pushed to consumers & is a luxury many can't afford.
Then there's labor. One can argue Starbucks (because of scale) can offer benefits to its baristas that a local, fair-trade selling coffeehouse cannot afford to do. So do we support the indie cafe that sells the Zapatista blend and makes sure coffee farmers are paid a living wage or do we support the chain that covers insurance for local workers? ("Both," I know, but we're not there yet.)
Sarah and I don't claim to have answers. If we do our job right, this series will raise more questions that you and others will consider the next time you grab a cuppa. There isn't one answer, which makes this whole green/ sustainability way of living exciting, frustrating, and ripe with opportunity.
See Simran Sethi's Profile
You are absolutely right, kaytrey. Go with a local roaster or one as cool as Cafe Bom Dia!
Not to mention, what about emissions from roasting process or the impact on local economies that only export a raw commodity for a much lower price than the final product.
Shameless plug for family-owned Cafe Bom Dia, where Fair Trade, Organic and Rainforest Alliance beans are the products of choice, roaster emissions are offset and furnaces are fueled by biomass, and coffees are roasted in Brazil in state of the art plant in coffee country. 300 people have jobs and a product with 4-5 times the value of a raw commodity gets exported. The coffees rank among the best on Coffee Review as well, http://www.coffeereview.com/review.cfm?ID=1291.
Lots of other companies have innovative ways to keep our coffee quality high while reducing the inequality in the industry. It's worth a quick investigation into the practices of your usual brand.
Very Good!
Choice to do what is ethical vs. choice to do what is selfish?
Way past time to re-enlighten the human species.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
