Fair-trade priced brew has lasting effects
How can we form a better society? It might be feasible by improving laws and institutions and overhauling the social structure, but that will not change one’s ordinary life. Can we do so through small but valuable practices? In this series, the Hankyoreh will search for such examples of small changes that can make all the difference. - Editor ***We are coffee beans. Our names are "Present of Himalaya," and our hometown is in the peaks of the highest mountains in Nepal. As coffee beans, we are generally 1 centimeter in height and weigh 0.15 grams in weight, but our small size conceals the fact that we often embody the world’s pain and tears. About 25 million people in so-called "Coffee Belt" nations such as Kenya, Indonesia, and Brazil are being exploited by multinational companies in our production. Despite their toil, these workers have not yet thrown off the yoke of poverty. Let me tell a story of my friends who grew up in a town in Uganda. There, middle merchants - called "coyotes" - buy coffee beans at a price of 40 pence ($US0.75) per kilogram. The price is less than 60 percent of the cost of production. The number of middle school students in the town has fallen to 54 from about 500 in 1997, because children were forced to quit school to work at coffee farms to make ends meet for their families. However, when I was growing up, I did not give pain to a man named Harigotam, the person who raised me. That’s because I am being sold at a 3,000 won per kilogram to the "Beautiful Store" in South Korea. The money allows Harigotam to raise coffee beans without pesticides and chemical fertilizers and to send his children to school again. After arrival in South Korea, I am being roasted at a coffee academy in downtown Seoul. Now, I’m in a cup of espresso, one with a distinct, sweet yet strong flavor. Two women, Son Ro-sa (47) and her sister Jeong-yeon (43), are about to sip me. They are taking a course at the academy, planning to open a coffee specialty store soon. "Sister, I am proud of this 5,000-won coffee because it pays fairly to farmers in Nepal for their labor, and consumers in South Korea sip coffee without worries over pesticides," says one of the women to the other. The other replies, "Yes, and I feel a sense of connection with coffee farmers overseas. How about selling ’Present of Himalaya’ in our store? Customers may like this good coffee." As of two weeks ago, I am being sold to general customers in South Korea. Some say there may be more stores that sell me, in Europe and in the U.S. Let’s imagine that sipping coffee is an act of toasting to somebody’s happiness, not to their tears. How good it could be. I hope that rather than the bitter ones, the happy flavors of coffee - which protect the world’s environment, fellow solidarity, and future - rapidly spread in this land.
