May 2008
Grace Girls Home and Elder Care Center
By Ruth Ann Church
The World Peace Café is excited to offer a unique and direct way to help children in need in the month of May. Donations this month will support Grace Girls Home and Elder Care Center in Trincomalee Sri Lanka. Help is urgently needed, since in the last few weeks difficult cuts in programs and operating costs had to be made, including reducing the frequency of meat and vegetables in the meals for the children and elders. The on-going civil war and decreased donations over the past year has resulted in a $35,000 deficit.
The goal of the World Peace Café this month is to raise at least $200 to support getting some veggies back on the plates of the 100 girls who live there, and also to fund the start of a vegetable garden, so that vegetables can be grown at the facility. If any gardeners out there read this and feel inspired to help directly, an Ann Arbor group is currently organizing to go visit Grace Girls Home in July 2008. (Contact the FUMC church office for contact info for Dr. Naresh Gunaratnam.)
Grace Girls Home and Elder Care Center was founded in 2002 and serves as a refuge for 100 girls and 40 elders who are victims of the 25 year Sri Lankan civil war. It also provides daily daycare for 50 children from a refugee camp, hosts an onsite vocational training school for 60 girls over age 18 and hosts a widows empowerment program that provides microcredit loans. The facility is supported entirely by donations and is sponsored by the California based charity VeAhavta (you shall love in Hebrew). Dr. Naresh Gunaratnam of FUMC and over 30 people from the Ann Arbor community have worked on multiple educational, medical and relief projects at Grace. The facility which is built near a beach was severely damaged by the 2004 Tsunami, however was rebuilt with the help of our community.
Please consider supporting Grace Home by buying adding your donation to the World Peace Café buckets during Connections time (10:30 - 11:00am on Sundays) or by sponsoring a child or elder ($30/$40 a month). More details about Grace and sponsorship at www.you-shall-love.org.
The featured coffee this month will be Brewing Hope, from the Yachil Cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. This regular, brewed coffee has a highly ranked flavor profile and it exemplifies a direct trade coffee relationship between the farmers of the Yachil Cooperative and Higher Grounds, a roaster in Traverse City, Michigan. The link between these two groups was facilitated by a group of University of Michigan students. One of the students got the idea to help coffee farmers during a 2002 alternative spring break trip organized by the Ecumenical Center and International Residence (ECIR) in Ann Arbor.<><><><>
February 2008:
Papua New Guinea
By Ruth Ann Church
In February we will continue to the feature coffee from the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea. We started with this coffee in January, and it has given us such a good start to 2008, we want to continue! It has an engaging, full-bodied taste and a bright, floral aroma -- interesting enough for the expert and mellow enough for the everyday drinker.
Decaf coffee drinkers will be glad to know that our decaf coffee is also contains some Papua New Guinea (PNG) beans. They are blended, however, with select beans from Costa Rica and Ethiopia to create an excellent decaf cup.
Coffee was first brought to Papua New Guinea by Europeans who planted the Typica (Blue Mountain) variety. Now the beans are a leading export. More than 70% of this coffee is grown and harvested in family-run plots.
Beyond Fair Trade - Building Schools
The story behind this “direct trade” coffee exemplifies the kinds of relationships that the World Peace Café promotes. Roaster, Portland Roasting, has established a multi-faceted relationship with the Medan estate and the Kinjibi tribal community in PNG. In addition to purchasing their premium grade coffee at prices that are fair market prices for excellent coffee, Portland Roasting is also subsidizing the costs of new school buildings.
Several years ago, they helped subsidize the building of a schoolhouse for the Kinjibi Tribal community. Now they are gearing up to replicate the program for the children of the Medan Estate.
This program intentionally works towards United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal number two, to “achieve universal primary education.”
Interested in buying some for your home or office?
You can purchase coffee on-line and learn more about Portland Roasting’s progressive efforts in six different countries at www.portlandroasting.com.
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December 2007:
Supporting Nicaraguan Farmers and Kenyan Schools
By Ruth Ann Church
In December, enjoy a Sunday morning cup of joe from the airpots during Connections time, and you will be sipping premium, specialty coffee from Nicaragua, as well as promoting fair wages and human dignity. Not only will your donation for coffee support the coffee farming families of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, it will also be going to support FUMC’s Kenya mission trip. All December proceeds go to support the school, library and music projects in Meru, Kenya.
A Quality Cup
Nicaraguan specialty coffees reach a distinction of quality because of the coffee tree varieties of Maragogype, Bourbon, and Caturra, the rich volcanic soil, and an ideal growing altitude. Your typical specialty grade Nicaraguan bean will have a full body and rich sweet flavor profile, finished with a slight nutty finish. The coffee being served this month is from the Matagalpa region - a northern region of Nicaragua, and 3000 feet over sea level. It is known for its cool weather, and cloud forests.
A Special Project of Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
The coffee is grown by a group of about 400+ farmers belonging to CECOSEMAC - Central de Cooperativas de Servicios Múltiples Aroma del Café. They bring their coffee to another cooperative, CECOCAFEN, which mills and exports their coffee to roasters in the U.S. like Higher Grounds (Traverse City, MI, see www.javaforjustice.com).
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has played in important role in connecting these farmers to markets in the U.S. They began working there during the coffee crisis in 2002, before any of the farmers had any kind of formal organization. In the very beginning the work was focused primarily on humanitarian assistance—helping farm families with small plots survive the ill effects of the coffee crisis and stay on their land. Soon after, CRS shifted to a longer-term focus on sustainability and competitiveness in specialty coffee markets.
The coffee crises and Nicaragua
What happened to Nicaraguan farmers during “the coffee crisis” of the late 1990’s/early 2000s is typical of what happened to thousands of Central American coffee farmers. Coffee prices plummeted in part due to new low cost Vietnamese coffee beans flooding the markets. Until this market phenomenon, coffee cultivation represented nearly a third of Nicaragua’s agricultural sector, half of agricultural export earnings and a quarter of the country's total exports. When the prices dropped, coffee growers by the thousands left their coffee fields and migrated to Matagalpa and Managua in hopes of finding emergency food. Today, thanks to support from international aid and dedicated growers banning together to form fair trade coffee cooperatives, Nicaraguan farmers are finally getting a chance to share their specialty coffees direct to the world at a fair price. With 79% of Nicaraguans earning less than $2/ day, it is about time that they earn a fair share of the value of their extraordinary coffee!
Note: the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), like Catholic Relief Services (CRS), is also at work with coffee-growing communities in Latin America. In April, this column will feature one of UMCOR’s projects with CEPCO, a network of coffee producers in Oaxaca, Mexico.
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November 2007:
Sustainability and Prime Working Conditions at Daterra Estate
By Ruth Ann Church
This month the World Peace Café is proud to bring you brewed coffee and espresso (regular, not decaf) from Daterra (The Earth) Estate, which has five sizeable farms in Brazil. Plantations are located in the Cerrado region (State of Minas Gerais) and in the Mogiana region (State of São Paulo). The high altitude, stable temperature and defined rainy season create perfect conditions for sustainable arabica coffee farming.
Besides the fact that Daterra’s coffees offer a premium grade for taste, (they have been chosen by world champion baristas and top roasters), Daterra is also a leader in sustainable growing practices and in providing high quality working conditions. Few estates anywhere can boast the number and quality of certifications Daterra has received. (See list below.) Daterra is also pioneering new shipping practices in order to keep green coffee beans fresher during their long journey from farm to roaster, and then during the sometimes long wait in warehouses. They vacuum seal their beans in airtight bags, as opposed to simply shipping them in conventional 60kg jute bags.
Direct Trade between Ann Arbor and Daterra
Zingerman’s Coffee Company, like all of Zingerman’s community of businesses, is focused on obtaining high quality ingredients for everything they make (sandwiches), bake (bread) or roast (coffee). So it’s not surprising, that when Allen Leibowitz, Zingerman’s roastmaster, was seeking out a premium coffee bean for Zingerman’s signature espresso blend, he eventually found himself traveling to visit Daterra Estate in Brazil. He got to see for himself the careful agricultural practices and decent working conditions at these plantations. And, of course, the true deciding factor was the impressive taste in the cup. Allen cupped dozens of coffees and blends of Daterra’s arabica beans. Daterra’s relationships with roasters like Leibowitz create transparency that is more valuable than a fair trade label when it comes to ensuring that money paid by one party is being used effectively by the other party. A direct link between roaster and grower produces powerful incentives for sustainable and just practices for the long term. ( Allen first met Luis Norberto Pascoal, owner and founder of Daterra Estate, at a Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) conference when he attended Luis’s seminar titled, “the passionate cup”.)
Rainforest Alliance Certification
Daterra Estate’s unique quality coffees are the result of an 18 year project to establish Daterra as a fully sustainable coffee producer. One way this effort is recognized, is through a certification by the Rainforest Alliance. This certification recognizes ecosystem conservation; community relations; integrated crop management and complete, integrated management of wastes.
Examples of Sustainability
What, specifically do these practices accomplish? One example is habitat for birds. Traditional coffee farming can obliterate the natural surroundings native birds require, but by planting fruit trees among the coffee trees, habitats for birds are maintained. Another example is Daterra’s thoughtful elimination of waste. They use a machine during processing which packs coffee parchment and extrudes compacted bars which are used as fuel for their coffee dryers. This way less trees have to be chopped down for wood for fuel for the dryers.
Other certifications Daterra has earned include Utz Kapeh, Eurepgap and ISO 14001-Environmental Management System. Daterra was the first agri-business to be granted the ISO 14001.
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October 2007:
The story behind Brewing Hope coffee
By Ruth Ann Church
The World Peace Café is featuring Brewing Hope coffee in our brewed coffee airpots during October. This coffee represents both the goals of the World Peace Café and the good things FUMC has accomplished through its support of the Ecumenical Residence and International Residence (ECIR) on the University of Michigan campus.
Brewing Hope got its start with an ECIR ‘Alternative Spring Break’ trip
In 2002, Yochi Zakai, a student from an Orthodox Jewish family in New York Ciry, joined one of ECIR’s “Alternative Spring Break” trips to Honduras. For eight days in the Santa Barbara province, the group helped repair the cinder block family homes, which had been badly damaged by hurricane Mitch. It turned out the families were coffee growing families. While there, Yochi and a few friends hiked four miles up the mountains to the shade-grown coffee fields and worked with the campesinos pruning coffee plants and learning about coffee harvesting and the coffee trade. He was so impressed by his experience, he worked diligently after he was back on campus to learn more about fair trade. He talked to his professors at the UofM’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE). Through SNRE connections, Yochi eventually started a project to study fair trade coffee and got to Chiapas, Mexico in 2004. The Chiapas project grew to include 3 more students, more professors and community members. They researched the socio-economic conditions of coffee farmers in Mexico and evaluated the feasibility of helping farmers export their coffee. Soon the group was importing and packaging coffee from the Yachil Xojobal Chulchan Cooperative, and selling it in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.
Today Brewing Hope is run by a student leadership team and an Advisors Board, which has many faculty and other community members. They have a strong partnership with the Yachil cooperative. Sales of coffee have grown to about 150 lbs per month. Retail outlets near FUMC include the People’s Food Coop, Café Verde, Arbor Farms, Coleman’s Fresh Season’s Market and the Rendevous Cafe. On campus the SNRE, University Co-ops, the ECIR and the Environmental Justice Club are regular customers. The students have partnered with Higher Grounds, a roaster based in Traverse City. Via this relationship the coffee is available for purchase on the web, at www.javaforjustice.com ($10.75/lb), and at Connections time. Adele and Rob Roy have added the “Brewing Hope” label to the coffees they are offering for sale during FUMC’s social hour between services (@$10.00/bag).
Benefits of this Direct Trade Relationship
To date, Brewing Hope’s program is providing the only international market for the Yachil Cooperative. They purchase 3000 lbs of coffee at a time, twice a year during the coffee harvest season. Brewing Hope pays a premium of $.18/lb directly to the cooperative to support indigenous rights programs. Then, with the proceeds of coffee sales in the north, Brewing Hope funds consumer education about Fair Trade. They have sponsored two delegations to visit the coffee growing communities in Chiapas, developed a traveling photo exhibit, and brought speakers and panel events to campus, including a group of farmers from the Yachil Cooperative.
Why the Yachil cooperative is so inspiring
Yachil Xojobal Chulchan, which means "new light in the sky" in the Tzeltal language, has members from both the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Mayan indigenous groups but all belong to the Zapatista autonomous movement working toward indigenous rights. While in Mexico, the students learned about the tough living conditions of these people.
Over the last decade, the growers of Yachil have suffered repression at the hands of government security forces and the paramilitary. Many members and their families have been forced to flee their communities as internal refugees and they continue to be victims of oppression, intimidation, and even assassination. In fact, nearly half of all growers in the co-op live in a refugee center built on the side of a steep mountain.
Through storytelling, the farmers pass on their history to younger generations, always emphasizing the importance of preserving their culture and their unique connection to "Mother Earth". The older farmers remember when their parents were young, they were forced to work on coffee plantations from five in the morning until seven at night. Their salary consisted of one peso each day but they were not compensated until after one hundred days of work were completed. If they did not work, they were beaten or expelled. Their elders began organizing in secret and such activities have led to the creation of organizations such as Yachil.
Through the formation of Yachil, fair trade coffee growers throughout the region work together to earn a dignified wage for their crops and continue the struggle for indigenous rights in the face of global economic policies that work to dismantle the culture of the indigenous.
The students, professors and community members involved with Brewing Hope are proud to be bringing to Ann Arbor the organic, fair trade coffees from this inspiring cooperative!
Fair Trade Primer
For decades, farmers in developing countries have faced unequal bargaining power in the trade of their products. Various market failures, from lack of information about market prices to an inability to access the market (often due to geographical isolation) -- have contributed to the situation and resulted in all time low prices for many commodity products. In the coffee market, the imbalances are particularly severe as over 70% of the world’s coffee is produced on small farms with less than 10 hectares of land. When commodity coffee prices hit an extreme low, as often happens, many farmers are unable to cover their costs of production.
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September 2007:
The story behind Rwandan coffee
By Ruth Ann Church
The coffee beans that will be ground and brewed to fill FUMC’s coffee urns this month are an excellent example of the goals of the World Peace Café – promoting peaceful trade, not war, and the highest ethical trade standards. We think you’ll find it satisfying to drink coffee that is good tasting, and at the same time directly supports an innovative program that created on-going livelihoods for otherwise oppressed and war-torn people. Etienne Bihogo, 36, works with the PEARL project in Rwanda and notes that Hutu and Tutsi farmers work side by side at their local coffee washing stations. “You can see that people are together now, and they can think in terms of profits, not in terms of what divides them,” he says.
For its debut month, the World Peace Café is featuring Rwandan -- the stunning new hot-shot among the world’s best coffees. Most specialty African coffees sold in North America are from Ethiopia and Kenya, the two most distinctive coffee origins in the region and arguably in the world. Rwandan has gone from being completely unknown to being the most raved about coffee origin in recent years. Look for the great fruity taste one expects from an Ethiopian coffee, but with gentle floral juiciness ultimately different from any Ethiopia type.
Rwandan coffee has become available in North America in large part due to an agricultural extension project initiated at Michigan State University. For MSU professor Dan Clay, a specialist in agricultural development for Africa and other economically struggling regions, rebuilding Rwanda’s coffee industry was a huge challenge: how to get the industry on its feet after years of devastation, yet avoid the commodity trap that dooms many farmers to subsistence living. Also, Rwanda is a land-locked country. Many would laugh at the thought of trying to successfully compete with neighbors like Kenya who have ports and a well established, globally recognized brand of coffee.
The ground-breaking approach was created by Clay, Texas A&M professor Tim Schilling, Emile Rwamasirabo, then rector of the National University of Rwanda and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). They teamed up to form the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda Through Linkages (PEARL). They created cooperatives whose farmers, 20% of whom are genocide widows or orphans, learn a multi-step process for producing gourmet coffee.
Since 2001, PEARL has assisted 11 cooperatives with 15,000 members. The co-op’s income has jumped form $650,000 in 2004 to about $3 million in 2006. That’s just a drip in the $11.4 billion world coffee market, but to farmers like Triphine Mukamyasiro, 23, whose family was killed in the genocide, it’s huge. She now earns $400 a year, about twice the average for Rwandan take home pay.
You can buy Fair Trade Rwandan from Paramount Coffee Company, based in Lansing, MI. for $8.49 per 12oz bag. Use their on-line store (www.paramountcoffee.com) or call at 800-968-1222.
Coming up in October – wonderfully full tasting coffee from a Zapatista cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico.
Sources for the information above include Coffee Review Newsletter, June 2007; Time, Sept. 19, 2005, Diedre VanDyk
