Columnist Susan Snyder: Receiving a jolt of coffee news

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2003 | 8:17 a.m.

Life is too short for bad coffee.

Last week I said that to someone who called me a coffee snob, which I am. When I travel, I take my own. If the day I greet is to be my last, watery bitter brew will not be in the cup that starts it.

And yet, I am not snob enough.

Out in Texas I have this friend Suzie whose ethics of doing what's right by her fellow human being is illustrated in every daily decision, right down to the brand of toothpaste she buys.

We met 15 years ago and I credit her with connecting me to the human race in ways I never considered -- most of which happened in the grocery store. Though separated by miles, I still hear her when I shop.

Is that bath tissue recycled paper? Was that shampoo tested on animals?

Is that coffee Fair Trade?

No?

Put it back.

Consider: Coffee is second only to petroleum in value on the world commodities market. It is the United States' largest food import and our second-most valuable commodity after oil. We import some 2.72 billion pounds of it annually.

But coffee is overproduced. The price has sunk so low it threatens to destroy the economies of developing nations that depend on its exports.

These facts and figures from the Global Exchange, an international human rights organization, pack a jolt as stiff as a cup of French roast with an espresso shot.

We bicker and finger-point over whose SUV guzzles more foreign oil while standing in line for a $4 cup of gourmet coffee that, we may not realize, plunges some nameless coffee farmer in Guatemala deeper into financial ruin. Now www.hungerbanquet.org has put a name on the farmer. Alfredo Garcia Cuchuman, a fictional father of three, cultivates about 5 acres of coffee trees in Guatemala. Using a computer mouse, you make Cuchuman's daily decisions as he faces the lowest coffee prices on record.

The left side of the screen shows what Cuchuman's family has to eat based on those decisions. The right side shows how a U.S. resident's choice to buy coffee only according to its price affects the financial picture of a Central American family that grows coffee.

The idea is to show how it's more globally aware to buy coffee designated as Fair Trade. The Fair Trade movement guarantees small coffee farmers a steady, decent price for their beans, while helping organized farmers' cooperatives sell directly to U.S. importers and bypass the middlemen whose fees keep farmers in debt.

It also promotes environmentally friendly organic cultivation.

And yes, it costs more. You aren't going to save money by purchasing only Fair Trade coffee -- at least, not your money.

OK, maybe you'd have to buy a bazillion bags of Fair Trade coffee to make a difference to one farmer. Maybe it is a long shot.

My pal Suzie is the queen of long shots. She is battling a rare, aggressive form of cancer that's been documented fewer than 100 times. Yet, she's still fighting the good fights.

Hardly a week passes that she doesn't circulate some article, petition or global perspective that reminds her friends that life is short -- too short for thoughtless decisions.

And bad coffee.