Poor Farmer

When masks of “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) accidentally fall off, the true nature of globalization is revealed. Thanks to The Forbes , CSR now stands for , at least to me, Continuing Slavery at a Remote (because slavery is illegal in the constitutions governing the business laws.) In my view, the following article concludes, the price Starbucks pays for the specialty coffees - under the C.A.F.E. practices - in the amount of $1.28/lp should be enough for Ethiopian farmers. If not, the CSR, along with its C.A.F.E. program, should be taken away because people are not thankful anyways! The magazine goes on to discourse that we should be happy (and probably proud of the “smart”, read unethical, business strategies the company followed because) Starbucks is good to its employees. The poor farmers would admire such neo-colonialist rhetoric since they do not know that Starbucks sells Shirkina Sun Dried Sidamo Coffee for $27/lp. [The Forbes article is posted below to provoke healthy...

7 Comments on the trademark issue prompted by " The government must start to talk publicly " Anonymous said... I really do not see the point of fighting with Starbucks when the govt does nothing even minimal to help the coffee farmers at a local level. Why should the govt. be allowed to own the trademark when the govt. does not even allow the coffee farmers to own their land? I don't trust our government is working for the benefit of the Ethiopian farmer. In fact, I am concerned that this battle will now encourage Starbucks ot not increase their sale of Ethiopian coffee. November 25, 2006 3:17:00 PM PST Anonymous said... Thank you for your very useful and informative blog about the Starbucks brouhaha. I honestly I'm having a hard time figuring out all the twists and turns in the arguments as far as all parties are concerned. But I do have some preliminary comments/questions: 1)I agree that this is a good move on the part of the government to shift the balance of power...