Buy coffee directly from farmers?

[johnee]

Hi all,

I have been researching the coffee market, and in the past year have been disgusted with how coffee is bought from the farmer at a ridiculously low price per pound and sold at starbucks for $2 a cup.

Because of food import laws, you can't buy green coffee beans from farmers. However I have found this website :

http://communityagroecology.net/fairtradedirect.htm

which allows you to buy roasted coffee from a Costa Rican co-op, of which $3.77 per pound goes to the farmer (compared to $0.55 for normally traded coffee and $1.26 per pound for fairtrade). Currently, I think their website needs to be updated because I am getting a PHP error when I try to go to their Order page. I am going to call tomorrow and ask them to fix it, but I will also order some coffee

Has anyone else found a way to buy coffee direct from the farmer?

Thanks!

 

[TheAnswer]

Well...in general you want to brew it soon as you can after you roast it. So importing it after it is roasted has some drawbacks. Just stop throwing your money at Starbucks and find a local shop that actually roasts the coffee in the store...their prices should be close to Starbucks but the quality will be better (assuming that they know what they are doing).

 

[CanadaRAM]

Not diRECTly from farmers, but read their policies:
http://www.levelground.com/

 

[devilot]

I know it's not as ideal as pulling up alongside a farm and buying the beans, but check out some local coffee shops, you might be pleasantly surprised by their Fair Trade offerings.

I know that Peet's has some fairly well-respected beans from smaller farms. Here's a link to the particular coffee.

 

[TheAnswer]

You might check out these locals from your area. Don't know anything about them myself, but they have some Fair-Trade coffees and you'd at least be supporting a local business instead of the Big Green Monster.

 

[johnee]

You might check out these locals from your area. Don't know anything about them myself, but they have some Fair-Trade coffees and you'd at least be supporting a local business instead of the Big Green Monster.

Yeah, I read how Green Mountain Coffee has made some arrangement/agreements with Ethiopian farmers. I like that very much. Thanks for the info on the flavor of roasted coffee, I'll research that. I think I'm just going to order some from the link i posted earlier and see how it tastes.

I'll let you know!

 

[mantic]

We buy Kona from Hawaii and put it in a deep freezer to help keep it fresh. Only grinding what we use a day or two at a time.

 

[Abstract]

You know, Fair Trade isn't really a bad way to go. You're not paying a coffee co-op directly, and you say the farmers get paid more through this co-op, but Fair Trade is a good alternative to the....erm.....alternatives.

 

[johnee]

I received an email from Community Agroecology Network. You can check them out at

http://communityagroecology.net/fairtradedirect.htm

They allow you to purchase roasted coffee DIRECTLY from the farmers' co-op, no middlemen.

Here is a diagram showing how they work :



Below is the email I received:

I recieved and inquiry regarding the online ordering system. It may be easier to download and print the attached order form and send with a check to:

Community Agroecology Network
PO Box 7653
Santa Cruz, CA 95061

You may notice that the mail order form price is $11 per lb while the online price is $13. This price difference is due to online processing fees from our internet order provider.

Please feel free to email or call with any other questions you may have.

Best Regards,

Mandi Odom
Marketing Coordinator
Community Agroecology Network
831) 459 3619

I have a pdf of the order form, but it's 895Kb, and I can't upload it. If you contact Mandi Odom (above), she can email you a copy or I can send one to you if you PM me.

 

[johnee]

You know, Fair Trade isn't really a bad way to go. You're not paying a coffee co-op directly, and you say the farmers get paid more through this co-op, but Fair Trade is a good alternative to the....erm.....alternatives.

I know, and you are correct. What I'm trying to do is show people there is a three tier system. the best being fair-trade direct model. The second best being normal fair trade, and lastly the traditional model where the farmer gets nearly nothing.

What I'm going to do is buy the fair-trade direct coffee (from CAN) for home, and when I'm out, I'll buy traditional fair-trade coffee.