Nose to the Grind— How Sustainable Is My Morning Coffee?
As a student, coffee is my guilty pleasure. Arguably a luxury that I can’t fully afford, but one that I buy anyway — my regret around buying my morning coffee increases the nearer it gets to pay day. However, I will of course continue to buy it in copious amounts the next month, no matter what I tell myself.
In 2010 British consumers spent £730 million pounds on coffee with the average person consuming around 500g of the product, with the increase in coffee culture continuing to grow across the last decade I have no doubt that this number has risen. According to the Sustainable Coffee Challenge the demand for coffee globally is predicted to triple by 2050, therefore now more than ever we need to consider how this small habit (or large one depending on your addiction) could be impacting our planet and communities across the world.
In terms of the ethics around coffee there a few key issues which make it a moral conundrum, these are; its’ sustainability, the labour and capitalisation of the product. For coffee bean farms to be considered environmental, we first must look at the way in which its’ grown whether it is a mono-crop or shaded plantation. Mono-cropping is the practice of the same crop being grown year after year in the same land, with the growing value of coffee farmers are being forced to turn to this practice — producing coffee specifically (and in many cases this is mainly Arabica coffee) consistently without breaking up the cycle with other crops. While yields from mono-crop plantations show far better results in terms of the amount of coffee grown and produced, it is at the the expense of the environment. Mono-crop plantations mean increased deforestation to create room for coffee farms, huge usage of CO2 producing machinery, fertilisers and pesticides and continually reducing biodiversity of these areas.
In comparison shaded plantations is a more traditional method of growing which works cooperatively with the environment, utilising techniques waterway buffering which enable the beans to be produced in coherence with the environment. Not only does this ensure the biodiversity of the habitat is largely uninterrupted, but it is also a technique that is far more sustainable for the future. It’s a question of whether higher profits now are more important than ensuring business can continue in the future?
The second issue is the impact on the communities and farmers producing the coffee beans. Coffee is the 2nd most tradable commodity after oil, due to its’ increasing trendiness and important place in our society the coffee business is extremely lucrative — however this is only for those part of the monopoly. There are roughly 200 million people growing coffee, considering its’ popularity this should be a business that produces a sustainable livelihood for farmers and their families creating a good standard of living. However, this isn’t the case. With companies such as Starbucks, Costa and Pret A Manger holding the monopoly over the coffee business, its’ estimated that coffee farmers actually only receive 10% of the eventual retail price — nothing in comparison to the labour that they put in.
Finally, this leads to the last issue with coffee — its’ capitalisation. And for this I am going to consider my own cup of coffee. This morning I drank a cup of Nescafe Gold Caramelized Honey Latte (made from a sachet), the entire box cost me £1.50 and I’ve been drinking it without thought for what this means for the planet and people who’ve made it. Why? Because coffee has become so popular that our automatic response in buying it has become so mindless we don’t think about where it comes from. When I looked into Nescafe I wasn’t fully aware of the awful things their main company Nestle have done worldwide, of course I knew about the bottled water scandal however their corruption is far greater than I had expected. However, if you were to go on their website you’d never see this, in fact you would see the headline ‘Nescafe is the most sustainable coffee brand in the world’.
And this is the issue companies have green washed themselves to make it appear that they are part of global movements towards sustainable practices, however the main goal continues to be profit over people and the planet.
So what changes can we make as consumers? Originally my main change was switching from single-use plastic to a reusable cup, however it’s definitely not enough. The change that I need to make (and maybe some of you) as a consumer is to become more mindful about companies I purchase my coffee from. If I am out and about, consider going to a independent coffee shop over a chain. When buying coffee for home, it’s about looking beyond the companies displayed at my supermarket. Of course, all of these changes are not as accessible to everyone and I understand that. My message to you is that if you can afford to make a change — make the change — as best you can be part of a movement to pressure companies to become more sustainable and ethical.
*Suggested Company for those who (like me) live in Scotland or the UK: Dear Green Coffee based in Glasgow — ttps://www.deargreencoffee.com/*
