Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere

I drink too much coffee. Too much that I don't pause and take time to think of what I've consumed. I've been buying fair traded coffee beans and I thought that was enough to cover the guilt, of not noticing the hardwork of coffee farmers across the continent and not paying the equal price and leave them starve.

I saw BlackGold last night, a movie from the 2006SundanceFilmFestival that reveal the industry, and how understanding and choosing what coffee I buy make a difference. My friend told me, "don't feel guilty after the movie," joking, anticipating that the movie will put guilt on me with the amount of coffee I drink and where I bought them from. I don't, at least try, not to buy from big corporation roasters that don't appreciate the equal value of the bean, such as Starbucks (But even Starbucks can make a difference if they {ever} want to).

One thing I realize from the movie that the bean had a long journey before they reached me. The coffee plant need to be nurtured for five years before it yields cherries that can be picked. Farmers picked, skinned, and meticulously separate the good quality beans from the rest. There were about six chains from farmers to roasters and retailers before they reach costumers that greatly reduced farmers' profit. Buying coffee beans that resulted from this chained trading market, even in its fair trade price, still won't make that much of a difference for coffee farmers. In Ethiopia, farmers received $0.12 per kilogram of coffee while Starbucks sells $2.90 per cup of brewed coffee. In comparison, for one kilo of beans, we can make 80 cups of coffee. Sure, there are processing, distributing cost, etc, but still, the inequality is outrages.

Farmers Co-op organization eliminate the chain, and farmers gained more when consumers purchase coffee from co-op organization. Starbucks is the most obvious corporation that consumed the most coffee in the world, although many others such as PG and SaraLee also ranked the highest. I wonder what could be changed if they take the idea of buying coffee from co-op farmers with equal price. Okay, some of them might now started to sell a small percentage of fair trade coffee, but that's not enough! We'd have a perfect world when corporations think about the producers more than their profit margin.

As a big people power believer, I notice that consumers have the power to drive the market. And big corporations including starbucks knows this (that's why they started to buy fair trade coffee, because organizations such as oxfam organized campaigns to make these giants to change their attitude).

I've never been to Ethiopia, but as far as I know, where coffee grows, food also grows. Although I notice the lack of available water supply might be the challenge to grow food. I can't recall the last time I was hungry. I've never seen anyone being so hungry when a year old baby could weigh only nine pounds. A school cannot even purchase a new black board. The challenge is unbelievable when faced with extreme poverty. People are forced to ignore their ethical values when they are starving: they would grow chat (marijuana substitute that is legal in East Afica and elsewhere but the US) when the price is higher than coffee. Extreme poverty in the world where compassion is abundant is not acceptable. What could we do? Purchase only coop farmers' fair trade coffee beans. Buy coffee from roasters who bought their beans from coop farmers. Find fair trade logo on the package. Accept nothing else.