SOA Watch: Why We’re Committed
SOA Watch: Why We’re Committed
By: Bill Harris
In 1998, Cafe Campesino began as a small trading company grounded in a simple concept: by trading in an open, honest, respectful manner with economically disadvantaged farmers, we could in some small way make the world a better place. Cafe Campesino wanted to challenge traditional win-lose business models and instead help to create and guide a win-win international model for trade. Trade based on mutual respect, transparency, fair and honest practices with a desire to build friendships in coffee growing communities all over the world. A simple but somewhat revolutionary concept. This kind of thinking led us to surprising places – one of them being only 60 miles from our headquarters. As we learned more about why coffee farmers in Latin America were so poor, we learned about land rights and human rights abuses, the civil wars that ravaged Central America in recent decades, and atrocities committed by the military time and time again against peasant farmers in these countries where we buy coffee. And this led us to the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus Georgia. We do not attend the SOA Watch vigil and memorial service every year simply to protest – we attend to support an effort by tens of thousands of priests, nuns, students, and victims to close a small school that is housed within the grounds of Ft. Benning, supported by U.S. tax dollars, and used to train Latin American soldiers over whom we have no control once they leave US soil. Formerly called the School of the Americas, it is now called WHINSEC. While the school clearly taught torture techniques in the past, school officials say they have cleaned up the curriculum and that they now offer human rights courses alongside their counter-terrorism training. We want to see this school closed. Maybe the school has cleaned up its act; maybe at this point closure would only be a symbolic gesture. But symbolism carries tremendous weight – especially with the families of the thousands of innocent victims of this school’s graduates. Our country stands as a beacon of hope for so many from Latin America and beyond. We have asked hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens for sacrifices in the name of fighting terrorism, yet we continue to train foreign soldiers in dubious tactics that have directly led to the terrorism of villages and farming families. Why keep this school open? US taxpayers supporting a school that trains foreign fighters and have been directly connected to thousands of murdered victims in Latin America. . . It makes no sense. We have stood at the gates in support of the effort to close this school for 11 years, serving coffee to the masses, and we will continue to do so until it is closed.
September 2011: Community Caravan
More information about recent happenings and upcoming events….
Aug. 30- Catholic Relief Services Southeast U.S. Program Officer Michael Trujillo stopped by for a visit. We are very happy to know Michael and look forward to working more closely with CRS as a Fair Trade Roaster in the coming year.
Sept. 16- Live Music at Café Campesino in Americus! Café Campesino will host Chris Driggers, acoustic guitarist and singer for a live music night. Doors open at 6 p.m. Music begins at 7 p.m.
Sept. 24- Look for Café Campesino’s Atlanta Audubon Society Blend at the Atlanta Zoo, where the AAS will be participating in a special day for educators.
Oct. 1- The Atlanta Audubon Society will be at Glenwood Park’s Hotoberfest, where it will be selling pictures of migratory birds and its special blend of shade grown coffees from the Americas.
Oct. 2- Café Campesino and Little Red Hen Bakery will be at the Field of Greens Festival in Whippoorwill Hollow Farms in Walnut Grove, Ga. Get tickets online at http://www.fieldofgreensfestival.com/ or ask Maria at the Decatur, East Atlanta or Grant Park Farmers’ Markets. If you love food and in the Atlanta-Athens area, this is a must-do event!
Oct. 15-16- Find Café Campesino at the Atlanta Audubon Society’s booth at the Candler Park Festival in Atlanta. Not to be missed!
Oct. 22- Capoochino Day! Join us for a dog wash and other festivities as we raise money for the Sumter County Humane Society.
Fall 2011: Café Campesino coffee can be found at a number of Farmers’ Markets this fall. Find us at the following: Morningside Market in Virginia Highland on Saturday mornings; Decatur Farmers’ Market with Little Red Hen on Saturday mornings; Grant Park Farmers’ Market with Little Red Hen on Sunday mornings; East Atlanta Farmers’ Market with Little Red Hen on Thursday evenings and East Point Farmers Market, one Saturday a month (Aug. 13, Sept. 10, Oct., 8 and Nov. 12).
SAVE THE DATE! Feb. 24-25, 2012: Georgia Organics’ 15th Annual Conference will be held in Columbus this year! Expect fantastic farm tours of the area, informative educational sessions and a meal of a lifetime at the Farmers’ Feast on Saturday evening. Learn more about attending at www.georgiaorganics.org or consider setting up an exhibit booth or participating as a sponsor. Contact Sandy Layton at sandy@georgiaorganics.org for more information on sponsorship opportunities.
New Coop Coffees Chair: Tripp!
Cooperative Coffees Members (plus Tripp- beige shirt, leaning on rail) picutred during the 2011 Annual General Meeting held in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories- the home of fellow coop member, Bean North.
During Cooperative Coffees’ Aug. 18-21 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, roaster members elected a new chair of for the coop’s board of directors, and he is none other than [insert imagined drum roll] our own Tripp Pomeroy! As chair, Tripp will represent the 24 roaster members who make up Cooperative Coffees – the one-of-a-kind green coffee importing cooperative that allows Café Campesino to work directly – and fairly – with farmers.
This is an especially exciting time for Cooperative Coffees, as Janet Utecht was hired earlier this year as the organization’s new executive director and the cooperative embarked on a three-year strategic plan that it had developed over the past 12 months. Prior to becoming chair, Tripp served as vice-chair of the board of directors under the leadership of then-chair, Queen Bean Lee Wallace of Peace Coffee. Lee will remain on the board this year and will be joined by the following members: Helen Voogd of Bean North, who will be vice-chair; Mike Moon of Just Coffee, who is also vice-chair; Chris Treter of Higher Grounds, secretary; TJ Semanchin of Kickapoo Coffee, treasurer; Dan Bailey of Amavida Coffee; Glenn Lathrop of Desert Sun Coffee; Larry Larson of Larry’s Beans; Mike Mays of Heine Brothers’ Coffee and Terry Patano of DOMA Coffee Roasters.
Cooperative Coffees is the world’s only green coffee importing cooperative of roasters, bringing together 24 Fair Trade, organic coffee roasteries located in the United States and Canada. By the end of 2011, Cooperative Coffees will have purchased 3.5 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee from 22 farmer-owned cooperatives around the world. Café Campesino is a founding member of Cooperative Coffees, which was formed in 1999.
Our Favorite Filmmaker: Minh Nguyen
So, Minh Nguyen (pronounced “win”) breezed into our world this summer as Bill’s blueberry pickin’ manager (for Easterlin Farms), and then all of a sudden she began wowing us with her video-making talents. After two Easterlin Farm videos, Minh set her sights on Cafe Campesino and came up with the Good Coffee video that received town-wide acclaim and made internet sensations out of our local Americus stars. Since making her last (soon-to-be released) video of Cafe Campesino, Minh started her freshman year at Yale University (way up North). We caught up with Minh to learn more about life as a college student.
FG: Are you having fun?!?
MN: Yeah! It’s definitely a lot of fun. My favorite part is meeting all of the different people. They come from all over. Probably the person with the neatest background is this Irish guy who was born in Ireland but grew up in Uganda.
FG: Have you been busy the past few weeks?
MN: The first two weeks I spent adjusting and having fun, but now classes have picked up, and there is A LOT of reading and writing.
FG: What class do you hate?
MN: Probably Philosophy, because it’s such dense reading.
FG: What class do you love?
MN: Philosophy again. It’s a love-hate relationship. I love the class discussions, but I hate the reading. Also, I’m taking Korean, and that’s pretty interesting.
FG: Have you made any more films?
MN: Not yet! But there is a student-run production company on campus, and tomorrow I’m meeting the guy who is in charge of that. Hopefully, I will be the assistant director for one of his projects.
FG: What do you miss about Americus?
MN: I miss the people. I miss sweet tea (they don’t drink that up here!). I also, surprisingly, miss the weather. There are extremes up here, and it’s impossible to know how to dress- it’s cold in the morning, and it’s hot by noon.
FG: Have you picked a major?
MN: Not yet. I’m still undecided, but I’m in “Humanities Intensive,” which keeps me pretty busy.
FG: Thanks for talking Minh! We hope to see you when you get home. When do you plan to be back?
MN: Dec. 17 or 18th. The ticket is already purchased.
Coop Coffees in Chiapas with Maya Vinic
Espresso training during Cooperative Coffees' September 2011 trip to Chiapas, Mexico.
Cooperative Coffees Executive Director Janet Utecht joined Matt Early of Just Coffee, Chris Treter of Higher Grounds and Chuck Slaughter of Heine Brothers’ Coffee on a trip to Chiapas, Mexico, to work with members of the Maya Vinic coffee producing cooperative. The trip is a part of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program to bring technical skills to farmer cooperatives around the world and one of several that Cooperative Coffees will make this year to work with its farmer partners around the world.
During this trip, Cooperative Coffees worked with Maya Vinic members on developing a business plan and strategy for opening a coffee shop in San Cristobal – a project that has received funding from Japan - and also led training sessions in coffee roasting and espresso preparation. The group also looked at Higher Grounds’ Chiapas Water Project that aims to construct sustainable water systems in the area and made tentative plans for the Annual General Meeting of Coop Sol (part of Cooperative Coffees based in Montreal) that will be hosted by Maya Vinic in January. The January conference will attract members of coffee producing cooperatives from neighboring Latin American countries, as well as Cooperative Coffees roaster-members from the U.S and Canada.
Founded in 1999, Maya Vinic is a 500-member farmer cooperative that produces only Fair Trade and organic coffees. It operates with a respect for local language and culture and a reverence for Mother Earth and traditional forms of self government. Maya Vinic was born out of a larger pacifist movement known as “Las Abejas” that supported the Zapatista’s principles and goals but renounced its violence. “Las Abejas” became the target of paramilitary forces in 1997 when 45 members were killed while praying in a local church in what has become known as the Acteal Massacre. Today, Maya Vinic honors its community members lost in the tragedy with a tomb that bears a photograph of each of the fallen members. At the entrance of the Acteal community is also a Pillar of Shame, one of a series of statues of the same name designed by the Danish artist Jans Galschiot that depicts twisted human bodies in a triangular shaped statue. Other Galschiot-designed Pillars of Shame have been erected in Hong Kong to protest China’s 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters and in Brasilia, Brazil, to remember the 19 landless peasants who were killed by military police in the northern state of Para in 1996.
Farmer-owned Cooperatives are the Foundation of Fair Trade…and for good reason
Fair Traders: Members of Cooperative Coffees and other travelers pictured with Don Pedro Pacheco Bop, a small-scale coffee farmer who is a member of the Associacion Chajulense. Photo taken in Chel, Guatemala, on March 26, 2011.
By: Tripp Pomeroy
Greetings from Americus! We have just completed an 8-day journey to Guatemala where we visited one of the first cooperatives we ever bought coffee from – APECAFORM/Manos Campesinas, met with a new trading partner – CCDA – and then wrapped up with a visit to our other long-standing trading partners at La Chajulense. On the balance, the news is good, as more money is getting back to the farmers and the co-ops with which we work have proven themselves to be extremely effective in the face of unusual volatility in the coffee market. The tough news is that yields in Western Guatemala this year were very low, though next year is looking to be considerably better. On the Fair Trade front, the good news is that our direct trading relationships seem to be stronger than ever and reciprocally so (to be explained below).
Introduction: December 2010
“Baby, it’s cold (err..FREEZING ) outside…” Winter is certainly in the air here in Americus and is putting us in a cozy, caffeinated holiday mood! We hope all of you are staying warm and cozy, too. Gift ideas for the holidays, a festive Christmas beverage and a new “Roasted-to-Order” program in Atlanta are detailed below. Also, December is the month we say good-bye to a loved and loyal employee (it’s here already!?). Rebecca Young, our assistant manager, is off to a new and exciting adventure in Birmingham, Ala., next month. She will be dearly missed at Café Campesino where she has helped grow & develop the organization since she arrived in August 2007. Rebecca, we thank you for all of your work and want you to know that you will always have a home at this little South Georgia roaster. Good luck, Rebecca, and happy holidays to all of our readers!
Producer Profile: Oromia
Oromia
Established in 1999
Member: 128,361 as of 2007, 129 cooperatives
Regions: Limu, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Nekemte, Jimma, Sidamo, Neqemte/Ghimbi, and Harrar
Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and yet the fourth poorest country in the world. Coffee farmers live a very traditional lifestyle. Farming less than 5 acres and living in stick houses, electricity, running water and indoor plumbing are rare in rural areas. The Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) is an exporting cooperative with offices in Addis Ababa, and affiliated farmer cooperatives located throughout the coffee growing regions of Ethiopia. Oromia was established in 1999 to facilitate the direct exportation of coffee produced by Ethiopia’s small farmers and assist in marketing, processing and credit issues. Oromia is a well organized umbrella organization responsible for processing, marketing, and commercializing coffee for its members. The union is comprised of 129 cooperatives, made up of 128,361 members as of 2007. OCFCU works exclusively in Oromia Regional State, which accounts for 65 percent of the country’s total coffee growing land and includes coffees from Limu, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Nekemte, Jimma, Sidamo, Neqemte/Ghimbi, and Harrar.
During the harvest of 2004, OCFCU processed 81,596 tons of coffee (30,415 of which was organic). To support this work, OCFCU maintains 55 pulperies, 15 hulleries, and 129 warehouses in growing communities supported by 30 employees. Of the 129 co-ops, 28 of them are fair trade certified by FLO.
Establishing a direct relationship with the farmers is always an important aspect of Cooperative Coffee’s mission. But as one of their first buyers and the first foreign importer to meet the farmers, the impact appears all the more dramatic in Ethiopia. “Before people would not come here, but treat us like animals and oppress us,” said the elder Tasew Gebru of the Nagelle Gorbitu Cooperative. “We appreciate your efforts, and to help us improve our lives; we really have seen an improvement in the last two years.”
With their fair trade premiums they have constructed four schools, two health clinics and a clean water supply. They now have a cupping lab located at their office and are in the process of constructing two warehouses. They hope to have their own processing plant within the next three years.
Visit their website: www.oromiacoffeeunion.org
Recipe of the Month: Egg Nog Latte
RECIPE OF THE MONTH – EGG NOG LATTE
In this busy time of year, we thought a quick and easy recipe was called for. Here ’tis:
3 oz strong coffee
3 oz egg nog
3 oz steamed or heated milk
Mix heated milk with egg nog and add to coffee.
Garnish: Sprinkle nutmeg over top or add whipped cream and sprinkle nutmeg on top of that. Drink and enjoy.
Community Caravan
COMMUNITY CARAVAN
Americus-
Nov. 17- Savannah’s Sentient Bean visited Café Campesino in Americus. We had a great time with the whole gang, and miss them already!
Nov. 20-21 – Another great event at SOA Watch Vigil at Ft. Benning, GA. Read about the event and the movement here. Vast amounts of coffee sold that resulted in another donation to the cause. We thank all those who attended and special thanks to the group from Newman Catholic Center of Eastern Illinois University who served the coffee all weekend long. Your volunteerism is much appreciated.
Dec. 5- Carmen Iezzi, executive director of the Fair Trade Federation, visited Americus! We were excited to have some time with a friend and leader in the Fair Trade movement. Cheers to FTF.