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coffee with a conscience

Conscience, Environment, Food: coffee with a conscience

Posted by Mikki Brammer on January 23, 2007 | 1 COMMENT

We’ve all heard of the dreaded Latte Factor – how much money we could save if we cut down on all those coffees we buy each week – but now there’s a way to get our daily fix without feeling so guilty. Melbourne-based company, Jasper Coffee, combines its passion for coffee with its desire to ‘re-humanise the coffee supply chain’ by supporting the environments and communities that produce the beloved beans. Jasper was the first Certified Organic Roaster in Australia and is committed to producing all its products using sustainable and ethical practices. Each cup of Jasper’s Fairtrade coffee guarantees a fair wage for its coffee farmers in developing countries, more eco-friendly growing conditions, and donation to a community trust fund that works towards improving health care and education in each country. Cafés around Australia are slowly embracing the cause (swing by Vitality in Fortitude Valley for an altruistic latte or two), but you can do your part by purchasing beans from Jasper’s online store or from any of the retailers listed on its website. So the next time you’re trying to justify that third cappuccino, at least you can argue that it’s for the greater good…

 
  • http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/mtf/coffee/fairtrade/index.html the meek

    Great to hear about Jasper, I wasn’t aware of them and it’s great to know which businesses to support. On the notion of Fairtrade Coffee, a lot of Australia’s roasters offer a range of Fairtrade Coffee (as you mentioned: same beans, higher price, but an ethical investment on a sustainable future both for the industry and the Third World farimng communities the above link is a good outline on what it’s all about), such as Toby’s Estate, Allpress Espresso, Grinders, and even those world-dominating bastards, Starbucks.

    The truth is, Fairtrade Coffee is a necessity if the industry is to survive, but not enough businesses put in the demand from the roasters for it. We need to kick this forward and put some demand on the hospitality industry so they, in turn, can make it more financially viable for our good coffee roasters to buy more Fairtrade Coffee. Hell, it’s like being carbon neutral: pay a little supplement, heal the world, right?

    So let’s apply a little map village pressure and ask our favourite baristas whether they have Fairtrade coffee available. If they don’t, ask why not. And equally importantly, if they do, tell them, ‘Bloody good on you!’ and order a double shot to celebrate.