Just Coffee Cooperative

Ever buy a bag of Just Coffee's beans and wonder what that little four digit number is on the bottom?

Well friend, wonder no more!

On the right hand side of our site we now feature a "Trace Your Coffee" field. Type the number from your bag into the field and you will find out:

-What cooperative it came from

-What farm lot the coffee came from

-When the coffee was roasted

-Who the roaster was

-What temperature the coffee was roasted to

and more!

Hit the lot number and you will see exactly what the cooperative was paid between the Cooperative Coffees contract price and the Just Coffee differential price.

This is another installment in the Just Coffee Co-op "Transparency Project". We will continue to try to make our operations clearer and all information as user friendly as possible. Please use the comment section to make suggestions on how we can continue to improve.

We do it all for you, people!!!

If you are in or around the Madison area, please come to this event!

The Guatemalan Dream: Fair Trade and Fair Politics
DESGUA Speaker in Madison
Monday, March 15th
5:30-7:30pm
Speaker presentation, follow up conversation, and potluck dinner
Centro Hispano of Dane County
810 W. Badger Road

Speaker Omar Mejia will discuss DESGUA's work to create economic development and alternatives to immigration for rural Guatemalan communities through fair trade. A conversation will follow to exchange information and ideas.

This event is part of a nation-wide speaking tour organized by DESGUA (Economic Development for a Sustainable Guatemala/ Desarrollo Económico por una Guatemala Sustentable) to strengthen a network of solidarity among Guatemalan migrant communities, community coops in Guatemala, and supporters in the United States.

DESGUA is working to cultivate a relationship between Guatemala's producer community and U.S. markets to generate a sustainable and dignified way of life so that immigration in exchange for food is not the only option.

Event Speaker: DESGUA member Omar Mejia is an agronomist who has worked for more than 4 years providing technical support in various organic farming projects such as organic coffee and livestock. He has worked with Café Conciencia to market products with organic and Fair-trade principles within a network of fair-trade conferences and educational workshops.
DESGUA: is composed of Cafe Conciencia(Guate), Santa Anita La Union(Guate), Grupo Maya K'iche(U.S./Guate), Grupo Cajola(U.S), and the Canary Institute(U.S)

This just in...

Washington, DC - March 9, 2010 – The League of American Bicyclists is proud to announce Just Coffee Cooperative as a Silver Medal Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB), in an impressive group of 51 new BFBs. The official announcement was made at the 10^th Anniversary National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 9. The announcement, the fourth time BFB winners have been named since the program's inception in 2008, marks the ongoing success of the program and continued momentum amongst businesses to provide a more bike-friendly environment. "The League is especially excited to recognize Just Coffee Co-op 

as a 2010 winter BFB winner at the 10^th Anniversary National Bike Summit. "Just Coffee is setting a community-wide example,” said Andy Clarke.

Just Coffee serves as an example for best practices and innovations in bicycle friendliness at the workplaceand makes bicycling an easy option for transportation. “This Bicycle Friendly Business is making a difference for employees, customers, and communities,” said Bill Nesper, Director of the Bicycle Friendly America Program. “Just Coffee Co-op promotes bicycling as a viable form of transportation and gives their employees choices and options that make biking to work easy and fun.” 

The Bicycle Friendly Community and Bicycle Friendly Business programs are generously supported by program partners Bikes Belong and Trek Bicycle’s One World, Two Wheels Campaign.

 The League of American Bicyclists promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America. The League represents the interests of America's 57 million bicyclists, including its 300,000 members and affiliates. For more information or to support the League, visit www.bikeleague.org.

Mudslides last week in Uganda's Mt Elgon region have displaced hundreds and killed at least 80 people with scores more feared dead. At least one village associated with the Gumutindo Cooperative-- our partners in Uganda-- was wiped out.

Below is a letter from Willington Wamayeye from Gumutindo to Colleen Coy who will lead our upcoming delegation to Uganda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania:

Dear Colleen,

We very much your sypathies and I will definitely pass them over to the affected farmers.

I sent my team to assess the situation, they are back assembling the report. The situation is a state of flux, although the humatarian part of the disaster is more or less addressed, ie the sentlement of people in camps, provision of food and temperary shelter. The government and the Red Cross and some other orhanizations have provided some of the immediate needs of the survivours.

We have chosen to look at the long term needs of the survivours, the more reason we went for a more comprehensive report, detailing the individual survivours who belong to our cooperative and their neighbours. After we have assessed the medium to long term needs of the survivours, only then can we then ask some of trading partners like you with specific proposals. I believe this is better than for us to saturate the disaster area with relief food and forget the long term needs of the survisors, which i do believe are not being considered by government and others.
 
As for yours, please keep us updated on the itinerary so we prepare for you.

Thanks

Over the years we have seen the genesis and growth of many coffee marketing systems that, on some level, seek to put a different spin on the old school exploitative coffee industry. There are systems and certifications that focus on bird habitats, tree canopies, production practices, and social conditions. There are many varying opinions in the coffee world about which of these systems brings the most benefits to growers, the environment, and to coffee drinkers themselves. Within this discussion, there is a growing debate about the merits and deficiencies of two of the most popular systems: Direct Trade and Fair Trade.

While these systems have some things in common, they also have some stark differences. "Direct Trade" roasters market their coffee as the best-tasting coffee out there and take this idea as the final measurement of their product. Roasters using the "Fair Trade" philosophy use the relationship with the coffee grower as a starting point and work forward towards the end product from that point. Both argue that their system benefits growers and end consumers more than the other.

Instead of dissecting how DT operates or extolling the virtues of FT, this little article will instead implore you, the brave coffee drinker, to make up your own mind using one simple tenet as a baseline measurement for what you buy. I am talking about transparency.

From our friends at DESGUA...

Four Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders Murdered in January and February 2010

2009 was the most violent year in the past decade for Guatemalan human rights defenders, with 15 defenders murdered; 2010 is proving to be even worse, with 17 attacks on defenders, among them 4 dead.

Take action now to investigate these murders.

The Guatemala Human Rights Commission respects and promotes the work of Guatemalan human rights defenders and their right to continue their work without threats, attacks, or assassination.

We condemn the murders and demand the immediate and thorough investigation of the crimes, and prosecution of those responsible. We insist on protection for the families and other threatened defenders in accordance with their wishes.

Evelinda Ramírez Reyes was attacked and killed while driving home to San Marcos from Guatemala City on the evening of January 13, 2010. Evelinda was a community leader and member of FRENA (Resistance in Defense of Natural Resources and People's Rights) and the CUC/Farmer's Union. She had just attended a series of meetings with government officials on public access to electricity; she and other FRENA members filed complaints about the excessive rates charged by service provider DEOCSA-Unión Fenosa and also advocated for the public management of electrical energy distribution. She leaves behind a four year old son.

Bags of coffee were thoughtfully placed in a basket on the floor in front of us, alternating between black and red labels.  The black ones were stamped with Just Coffee's logo and the red ones with Las Diosas logo.  The labels were different colors, read in different languages, but were filled with the same contents; organic coffee grown by women in northern Nicaragua.  Next to the coffee were candles and incense.  Nine of us women had come from near and far to attend this meeting, among them small scale coffee producers, directors of La FEM, and me consumer and representative of Just Coffee. Three of us were named Julia. I came armed with a long list of questions and them a world of answers, and from the beginning it was clear that this meeting was about much more than Just Coffee.
                 

Share the World's Resources-- a website devoted to examining issues of sustainable economics-- has published a great article by Jill Richardson (featuring the JC) examining fair trade and the claims that it makes. Please check it out and discuss at length.

Also, to be totally clear, the article seems to indicate that Just Coffee Co-op uses TFUSA's certification system. We do not and have not since 2005 or so. We offer all of our contracts and financial information here on our site so that you do not need a third party to tell you if we do what we say we do.

A movement that cannot look at itself critically is doomed to failure. We can make all trade fairer by demanding transparency from all of the companies that we buy from and build economic democracy, swilling tasty coffee the whole way.

Read and enjoy!