Poor Farmer

Aaron Glantz of OneWorld US , a non profit global network for information on international issues, exemplified the dispute over Ethiopia’s application to trademark its best-known coffees as being over the disparity between an average income per day in Ethiopia and the cost of a Latte in the rest of the world. “Human rights groups accuse Starbucks of trying to stop Ethiopia from trademarking its best-known coffee beans Sidamo and Harar, thereby denying farmers potential income of more than $90 million a year,” said One World US whereas “Fair trade advocates look at the dispute as a clash between David and Goliath. In Starbucks, they see a $6.4 billion giant with more than 10,000 stores in 37 countries; in Ethiopia, they see the impoverished, hillside farmers of Ethiopia's premium coffee-growing regions.” According to the online network, Starbucks refused to be interviewed for the story. The company preferred to issue an electronic statement. The documentary movie, Black Gold also ...

By anonymous contributor I have recently been following the news on the coffee branding war between the Ethiopian government and the US coffee giant Starbucks Corporation, which was fueled by the involvement of other third party blowers like Oxfam and may be the World bank, if not in an official capacity It is a paradox for me to see the Ethiopian government pursuing this law suit while it self is the one who systematically exploits the poor. The poverty stricken poor coffee farmers whom Oxfam claims to be their friend, pay taxes to sustain the life of this government, whereas others freely enjoy the cream of their labor, and still not enough, those gluttons are looking for every venue deem to generate more to fill their deep barrel. Very unfortunate! As many studies indicate the Ethiopian coffee farmer gets 6-10% of the retail price of his/her product. Is this the fair share? Is this just? Absolutely not! Hence, any attempt to the solution of this problem would have been more benevole...