An Atlantic Canadian company promotes justice and fairness in trade with Third World countries Story and Ask any sleep-starved parents of a newborn and they'll tell you: coffee is a liquid wake-up call that gets poured down the throat hot and sweet, end of story. But recently, more and more folks have been thinking about where their coffee comes from, and how their buying practices can make a difference to the lives of producers in developing nations.
Few people have a better handle on how ethical consumerism has grown than the people behind the Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op, in the community of Grand-Pré in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. Warming his hands on a steaming mug of Evangeline Blend (one of about 20 organically grown, "fairly traded" coffee blends the company produces), founder Jeff Moore explains that being located in the Land of Evangeline, just a few miles from Grand-Pré National Historic Site and mere minutes from the site where the Acadians were expelled by the British in 1755, has always felt right.
"It's appropriate that we've ended up here, in a place of great historic injustice. The abuse of power that the Acadians experienced is similar to what's happening around the world today." Canada's first fair trade organic coffee roaster started small in spring of 1996-a couple of workers in a cramped little building in the village of New Minas, NS-and has grown to become the largest distributor of fair trade products in the country. Today, the co-op has about 50 employees, four cafés, a large roasting operation and gift shop, and two new additions-the Fair Trade Coffee Museum in Grand-Pré and the Fair Trade Chocolate Factory in the nearby town of Hantsport.
The seeds for it all were sown years ago in Ethiopia when Jeff was visiting his sister, a development worker.
"We were walking along and came upon a coffee farmer who was crouched by the side of the road selling beans," he says. People there roast their own beans each morning over the cooking fire. I bought some and roasted them in a cast iron frying pan on the stove. It was the most wonderful coffee!"
Later, while attending a conference in Cuba, he learned about the fair trade movement. "Producers were saying, 'We don't want charity, we want a fair price for our products.' I started thinking about what kind of business I could get into with products from the Third World, and I immediately thought back to my Ethiopian experience."
Jeff returned home to Wolfville, NS, eager to explore the possibilities, and before long he was boarding a plane for Mexico.
"I ended up in Chiapas. I went into small villages way up in the mountains where the people were dependent on coffee for their livelihood. It was so clear that the fair trade co-op had benefited these farmers, not just economically, but in terms of their dignity and empowerment."
Jeff returned home determined to set up a fair trade coffee importing and roasting business. "This will work," he told his wife, Debra, who is now the company's CEO.
The two put up their home as security to borrow $40,000 to buy a 10-ton container load of coffee beans from a co-op in Mexico. They came up with a business plan, received Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) financing for a roaster, and set about learning how to roast coffee from experts in New York and Boston.
Today, Just Us! (the name is a play on the word "justice") sells its organically grown, fairly traded coffee, tea, sugar and chocolate products at outlets across Canada. It is a remarkable accomplishment, but only secondary, Jeff insists, to "educating people about the social and environmental issues related to international trade." He says people are often surprised to learn that coffee is the most heavily sprayed food crop in the world.
In keeping with the couple's educational philosophy, the Fair Trade Coffee Museum-a first for North America-displays photographs, stories, artifacts, artwork and a half-hour film to give visitors a taste of a typical South American coffee producing area. You can savour the experience while sipping on a mug of just-roasted Mexican Morning, Rise Again, Break the Silence or Rainforest Rhapsody as you learn about how shopping choices can have a social and environmental impact in Third World countries-and closer to home as well.
Naturalist Jim Wolford, who appears in the film, explains how coffee grown under forest trees is environmentally friendly to migratory birds found in Atlantic Canada. "Many birds that breed here in summer-the ruby-throated hummingbird and rose-breasted grosbeak, for example-migrate south to overwinter in coffee-producing countries of Central and South America," Jim says. "These birds require habitats that will sustain them over the winter, and sun-grown coffee [typical to conglomerates] is extremely poor for this, in marked contrast to coffee grown under a canopy of natural tropical forest trees."
Harbourville, NS, artist Lois Bearden, who designed and constructed the museum, chose a handmade look for the hands-on exhibit. She scrounged used and worn materials, including driftwood from local beaches, to build an authentic replica of the type of one-room dwellings, or casitas, in which peasants live in South America and other parts of the world.
"The exhibit is intended to evolve," Lois says, "so people can keep coming in and discovering new things." In preparation for the project, a Just Us! contingent travelled to Mexico where they spent two weeks taking photographs, conducting interviews and filming small coffee producers in Oaxaca and Chiapas. They spoke to farmers who had been paid at the most $.15 to $.20 (US) a pound by multinational conglomerates, but who now receive $1.41 a pound under the fair trade system.
"We wanted to communicate that coffee isn't just a commodity, it's something produced with care by these small producers," says Jeff, who adds that the same holds true for sugar, tea and chocolate.
Chocolate, in fact, has been on his mind since visiting a small fifth generation chocolate factory in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. "The common belief is that you can't produce chocolate on a small scale. You have to be the Nestlés of the world to produce the kind of chocolate the world will buy, but it just isn't so."
A recent journey to visit fair trade cocoa producers in Bolivia required travelling for 10 hours on what is called the most dangerous road in the world; a narrow, precipitous route cut high through the Andes.
Those who know Jeff say risky travelling is merely a sign of his resolve. Last fall, the Just Us! Fair Trade Chocolate Factory opened in Hantsport, a historic shipbuilding and gypsum town nestled between Wolfville and Windsor on the Minas Shore.
Factory manager Kevin Gauthier (who studied chocolate making in California and Paris) says in terms of awareness, "chocolate is going through the same evolution that coffee was 10 to 15 years ago. Most people don't have a clue where chocolate comes from, but it has a fascinating history similar to that of coffee. For centuries, the cacao plant was revered by native tribes in Mexico who used it as a nutritional and medicinal food."
One important difference between the chocolate products produced by multinationals and those of small independent producers is flavour. "We're importing couverture, the high-end European chocolate that has a high percentage of cocoa butter," Kevin says. Processed in Germany from organic beans that come from a small-scale, fair trade co-op in Bolivia, blocks of dark and milk chocolate in two-and-a-half kilogram chunks are melted down using an exacting and delicate process called tempering.
"For the most part, we'll be producing solid molded chocolates and specialty truffles that are sold in our chocolate factory outlet and as well as other Just Us! cafés." Patrons of the café can watch chocolate-makers in action through viewing windows.
"We wanted to start small and simple, but as we progress we plan to develop additional products and visitor attractions, including an exhibit similar to the coffee museum, chocolate-making workshops, and school tours."
Not only is chocolate becoming more recognized for its health properties, says Kevin, it's a natural attraction for kids.
"We see fair trade chocolate as a great way to talk to young people about the issues." Chocolate maker Jeanine Caron says in the end, there's simply no denying chocolate's uncanny ability to make people smile.
With a delectable display at her elbow, she quips: "Forget love. I'd rather fall in chocolate!"
The Just Us! Fair Trade Coffee Museum is located at 11865 Highway 1 in Grand-Pré, NS. Phone: (902) 542-7474.
The Just Us! Fair Trade Chocolate Factory is located at 35 William Street, Hantsport, NS. Phone: (902) 684-3247.
For more information go to www.justuscoffee.com.