Starbucks: The Missing Part Of The Guatemala-Story
view from a coffee plantation in Guatemala, by dustjelly on Flickr
Yesterday, I’ve come across leaflet titled Starbucks In Our Communities, in which Starbucks informs the conscious consumer about the company’s approaches to social and environmental responsibility. While some sound valid and reasonable – for example, paying employees for volunteering in their communities and donating unsold pastries to local charities, others are obviously greenwashing – or would anyone besides Starbucks call selling coffee in paper mugs with 10% post consumer content “Environmental Leadership”?
And one story sounded awfully familiar:
“One decade ago, Starbucks began working with international development and relief organizations to address social issues facing people living in coffee-origin countries. For example, Starbucks is working through Save the Children USA to support a four-year effort to provide children in rural Guatemala with access to quality bilingual education.”
There is another connection between Starbucks and children in Guatemala: In February 2000, San Francisco’s ABC TV affiliate aired a report on child labor and worker exploitation on some Guatemalan coffee plantations that supplied Starbucks with the main ingredient of it’s four-dollar-lattes. This was not the first time this issue was discovered, but this report triggered nationwide protests, led by Global Exchange. To save the image of the omnipresent siren, Starbucks finally agreed to offer certified fair trade coffee in all stores. Given the number of outlets, even the rather puny 5% fair trade share of all coffee sold at Starbucks was a big improvement for coffee farmers, who could now sell their beans for the fair trade minimum price.
I suppose the location of Starbucks education program is no coincidence – and not a manifestation of a genuine passion for sustainable development either, but the consequence of persistent public pressure. From one perspective, this is disillusioning, but from another, it proves the power of grassroots activism and the difference fair trade standards can make for coffee growers and their families.
admin @ December 30, 2007