Being a college student, I absolutely love my morning, mid day, snack time, before dinner, after dinner, and after midnight coffee. Drinking coffee is something that has become a habit. While I try not to think about all the bad it is doing for me, I recently thought about the bad it may be doing to others that produce it. I am not saying that I look into all my food products to see where they come from, but with the amount of money Starbucks gets from me a year, I thought I would take a look in to what I am drinking and where it came from.
Starbucks has become a large status symbol in many countries. People will buy it religiously and pictures of it appear all over your social media. It is considered to be the representation of a true ”hipster.” They specialize in coffees and teas and supposedly have something for everyone. Starbucks coffee is grown mostly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The beans and tea leaves are grown in mass and require labor to retrieve. Starbucks wants to make sure that they are socially and ethically friendly. It is important to the Starbucks brand that the customers are sure that the products were fairly grown and produced. Some customers may want to know that their drinks were made in good soil and are relatively healthy to have (until you add all of the sugar and milk.)
Due to United States child labor laws, some customers also like to know that children were not involved in the harvesting of the coffee beans and tea leaves because they consider it to be unethical. Starbucks has a few ethical farming programs making them a company that people want to buy products from even though it raises the price.
Starbucks claims that their coffee is fair trade. Fair trade means that the Starbucks is working with traders and producers in underdeveloped countries and paying them equally for their work and time. Fair Trade is used to promote sustainability in these countries. This makes this fairly new movement a very economy-friendly movement. To most people, this sounds like a great idea and makes Starbucks prices seem a little more acceptable.
If you look into the Fair Trade idea a little more, you realize that the money does not always go back to where they say it goes. The farmers, packers, producers, and traders may not even fair compensation from the venti caramel iced latte that you just spent six dollars on. There is actually very little proof that it helps the under - developed countries at all. Putting the fair trade stamp on Starbucks products makes people feel like they are doing a great thing. This is a deceiving tactic to gain customers and make their prices seem acceptable. To Starbucks’ credit this is currently the only program for coffee that at least tries to prevent unethical production of the product. Starbucks is trying to create their own farming program called Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.). C.A.F.E. is a way that Starbucks can control how their products are made and received so that their customers are sure that what they are drinking was ethically produced and that the producers are receiving payment and good in return for what they are selling. This program is just beginning for Starbucks, but it is a way for Starbucks to truly live up to their values as a coffee company that supports ethical labor.
Starbucks tea, Tazo brand tea, is received from the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP). Similarly to Fair Trade, the ETP is used to promote growth is underdeveloped countries and to allow the producers to receive fair compensation for their products. ETP is a little more reliable than Fair Trade and has seen a direct impact on the farmers in countries such as India, China, and Guatemala. ETP wants to make sure that all products received have been harvested in an economical way that minimal child labor was used and that everyone is compensated for what they have done. This makes Starbucks tea appealing to a customer because that are sure that it was created from factories where excessive child labor has been used.
People like the idea of ethical farming programs because it gives them a sense of helping out the world. It could be argued that these programs really do not help and the price of the Starbucks latte is just the name brand, however there the economic development in these underdeveloped countries proves otherwise. While these countries still struggle, the fact that Starbucks attempts to give back for all the farmers efforts allows the economy to start flowing within these countries. It could also be argued that not everyone is aware of these programs and just buys Starbucks for the label. This is a very plausible argument and is probably frequently true; however most regular Starbucks customers are aware of these programs and love the idea of the coffee coming from ethical farms. Starbucks also shares pamphlets in their stores and has a lot of information about the programs on their website to keep customers informed on their efforts to help.
Starbucks coffee and tea are both fresh grown products. Starbucks gives credit to where each product is from and supports farmers as much as they can. Starbucks is not just a greedy commercial company, although they do receive a lot of money from their sales. Starbucks really makes sure that they product that they are advertising is the product that their customers are receiving. Starbucks wants to make sure that ethical producing of their coffee and tea is enforced and is constantly looking for ways to help underdeveloped countries grow and expand economically by producing their product.
So go ahead for now and drink your Starbucks guilt free!
