Tag: farm workers

Does Fair Trade Coffee Work?

Coffee beans can be pretty confusing these days.
At times it can seem like a political, even a
moral decision. You might want to buy those pricey specialty beans,
but now the supermarket also carries beans labeled Fair Trade
Certified. That might seem like the nicer thing to do for the farm
workers – and the environment. Julie Grant takes a look at those
claims:

Transcript

Coffee beans can be pretty confusing these days. At times it can seem like a political, even a
moral decision. You might want to buy those pricey specialty beans,
but now the supermarket also carries beans labeled Fair Trade
Certified. That might seem like the nicer thing to do for the farm
workers – and the environment. Julie Grant takes a look at those
claims:


Ahhh… it smells great in here. The owner of this coffee shop travels
the world in search of the best coffees. Linda Smithers has gone to
places such as South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia to
visit farms and to taste coffee. She imports her favorites and roasts
them at her store.


And she has high expectations. Smithers wants to make sure that if
you’re paying a few dollars for a specialty coffee, it’s a satisfying
personal experience:


“And coffee should be able to do that for you. It should bring you
closer to you, and closer to the farmer. You should feel like you know
the farmer. And you feel passion and an intimacy with that farmer.”


I should probably have mentioned, Smithers really loves coffee.
She says the best coffees are grown on farms that are good to the
coffee trees, the local water, and the workers:


“Happy workers, safe workers, produce better coffee. They just do. I
see it every time I go to a farm. I see it when a worker enjoys what
they’re doing and feel they’re getting a fair price. They’re just like us. You
would not enjoy working and at the end of the day being given 20 cents.
You wouldn’t be happy with that. You wouldn’t work in a pleasant
way. And you wouldn’t pay attention to picking the ripe beans rather than the unripened beans.”


The Fair Trade label claims it’s found one way to help keep coffee
farmers happy and safe. The Fair Trade certification is supposed to be
a guarantee that farm co-operatives will get at least $1.21 for a pound
of beans. When coffee prices are low, that can be twice what other
farmers are paid. Fair Trade also promises farm workers have safe
conditions and are paid a living wage.


Michigan State University Professor Dan Jaffee wanted to know if the
Fair Trade system was doing what it set out to do:


“The Fair Trade movement claimed to be able to help bring them out of
poverty, improve their farming practices, make them more sustainable
and just generally improve conditions a lot, and I was interested in
finding out whether that was the case.”


Jaffee spent a few years in Oaxaca, Mexico studying two farming
communities. Some coffee farmers were part of Fair Trade
cooperatives, some decided against it. He’s just published a book called
Brewing Justice to report his findings. Jaffee says families
that joined Fair Trade were more food secure when the market price of
coffee fell:


“That is, they have food shortages much less of the time. They have
significantly greater access to animal protein, foods like milk and
meat and cheese in their diet. And they’re essentially able to feed
their children much more of the time than their neighbors, who were
really, at the time the coffee prices were at their low point at the
time I was doing my research in 2001, 2002, 2003, who were definitely
showing signs of malnutrition and there was a significant problem with malnutrition
in these communities.”


Fair Trade is still only a small fraction of the coffee market, but
its share of customers is growing, and the big players are taking
notice. Nestle is marketing Fair Trade products in the UK, and you can
find the Fair Trade seal at your neighborhood Starbucks. Only 3.7%
of Starbucks coffee is Fair Trade certified, but Jaffee says
that small percentage still makes Starbucks the single largest buyer of
Fair Trade coffee in the US.


Smaller coffee shop owners, such as Linda Smithers, also
buys some Fair Trade coffee. But Smithers doesn’t think guaranteeing a
specific price is the best way to encourage farms to grow the best
coffee:


“You’re given a price regardless of the quality. I have a problem
with that. I do not think that’s a sustainable agricultural model.
Remember, I’m a coffee person. I’m not a cause person, I’m
a coffee person. And to me, sustainable is: the product must be
outstanding and have good sociological and ecological practices, then
get a fair price.”


Smithers believes farms that treat workers and the environment well
naturally have the best tasting coffee and will always get a fair
price in the specialty coffee market.


Some conservative economists agree with her. They say the Fair Trade movement
will only continue to grow if looks beyond the socially-conscious crowd and continues
to improve the taste and consistency. That’s what people eyeing those gourmet coffee beans
want.


Smithers says Fair Trade has already been a success in that it’s put
issues of working conditions and the environment on the table…
and she could sit and drink a cup and talk about that for hours.


For the Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

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Phased-Out Pesticide Needed for Orchards?

  • Apple and cherry farmers are concerned phasing out an effective pesticide will affect production and leave more pesticide residue. (Photo by Lester Graham)

The EPA has granted a six-year reprieve for fruit growers to continue to use a highly toxic pesticide. But the decision to eventually phase it out is an uneasy compromise. Environmental health advocates say the delay continues to put farm workers and their families at risk. But growers say they haven’t yet found an effective replacement. Bob Allen reports:

Transcript

The EPA has granted a six-year reprieve for fruit growers to continue to use a
highly toxic pesticide. But the decision to eventually phase it out is an uneasy
compromise. Environmental health advocates say the delay continues to put
farm workers and their families at risk. But growers say they haven’t yet found
an effective replacement. Bob Allen reports:


No one wants Gramma to find a worm when she opens a can of cherries to make
a holiday pie.


According to regulations, inspectors have to make sure cherries coming to market
are worm free. And that puts big pressure on growers when they bring fruit out
of the orchard.


“And you know there’s a zero tolerance for worms. And if they find one worm
they can reject, not just that load, they can reject your whole crop for that
season.”


Francis Otto oversees pesticide spraying for one of the largest cherry orchards
along the west side of Michigan.


For decades those who grow cherries and apples have relied mostly on one
chemical to keep their fruit worm-free. Some call it the hammer. It knocks
down every insect in the orchard for several days. Then it degrades quickly
under sunlight and rain. It’s called azinphos methyl or AZM.


A generation ago workers were directly exposed when they mixed the chemical.
But things have improved since then.


Francis Otto fingers a safer pre-measured packet of AZM.


“It’s called a water soluble packet inside of an overwrap so I can pick this bag up
of azinphos and this plastic bag that it’s actually in dissolves in the water. And so
workers are not exposed to the actual materials.”


That kind of protection is not enough to satisfy groups that sued the EPA on
behalf of farm workers and their families.


Shelly Davis is an attorney with Farmworker Justice. She thinks AZM is just too
toxic to use at all and it ought to be phased-out right away.


“It’s so toxic that if you make the slightest error people are going to get hurt.
>From moderate senses of nausea, vomiting, weakness to convulsions or death.”


There’s no record of anyone dying from AZM. And incidents of serious
poisoning are fairly rare.


But Shelly Davis is mainly worried about effects from low-level exposure to
workers over a long time.


Studies show workers bring pesticides home on their shoes and clothing. It’s in
the dust in their houses where children play.


In Oregon, migrant workers exposed to AZM showed slower reaction times on
tests of how quickly their brains respond than those who don’t work in the
orchards.


“This is a ticking time bomb. Because when children get exposed it gets to the
effect that it can affect their intellectual functioning over time.”


But health researchers are careful to point out there’s no direct link established
between AZM exposure and learning deficits.


As a precaution, they recommend reducing children’s exposure as much as
possible.


EPA is cutting in half the amount of AZM that can be sprayed over the next six
years until it’s phased out. And workers will have to wait 14 days to re-enter a
sprayed orchard instead of 48 hours.


Mark Whalon runs the pesticide alternative lab at Michigan State University.


He’s experimenting with less toxic materials. He says they have to be sprayed
more often and much closer to harvest than AZM to be effective.


Whalon also has spent 25 years developing ways for growers to keep insects in
check other than using chemicals.


“And now we’re going to have to start over again with these new reduced
compounds because they have a whole different set of impacts that we’ve got to
learn all over again.”


Whalon says EPA doesn’t have good data on what the long-term health effects
might be from exposure to the alternative pesticides.


But Shelly Davis with Farmworker Justice says she’d prefer the unknown effects
from much less toxic materials than the sure danger of AZM.


Either way, Francis Otto at Cherry Bay Orchards says something’s got to give.
The alternative pesticides he’s tried are way more expensive but not as effective
as AZM.


Yet he’s still expected to deliver apples and cherries to the buying public free of
insect damage for the same price.


For the Environment Report, I’m Bob Allen.

Related Links

Epa Phasing Out Common Food Pesticide

Over the next six years, the Environmental Protection Agency is phasing out the remaining uses of an insecticide used on foods. Lester Graham reports, some environmentalists say it should be banned immediately:

Transcript

Over the next six years, the Environmental Protection Agency is phasing out the remaining uses of an insecticide used on foods. Lester Graham reports, some environmentalists say it should be banned immediately:


The insecticide azinphos-methyl, or AZM, is still used on some vegetables, nuts, and fruits. The chemical can cause short term harm to farm workers and their families who live near orchards. Over-exposure can cause nausea, vomiting, and in severe cases convulsions, coma, and death. Low-level long-term exposure can cause memory loss and other affects on the brain.


Shelley Davis is with the group Farmworker Justice.


“There are plenty of adequate, safer alternatives for pest control on the market already. Growers do not need to use AZM. This is the time the EPA should show leadership and should say ‘Let’s switch to safer alternatives.'”


The insecticide won’t be completely phased out until late in 2012. Apples, blueberries, parsley, cherries and pears will be the last foods still treated with AZM.


For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

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