Poor Farmer

~ My Starbucks Story ~ I attended the Annual Starbucks Shareholders Meeting held in Seattle on March 22, 2007. Tagline of the event, "My Starbucks Story," was repeatedly told by every performer and speaker, except the Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the former Beatle Paul McCartney who was linked via live video from London. At the start of the Q & A session, I had a chance to ask Chairman Howard Schultz and President & CEO Jim Donald two questions regarding the trademark dispute between Starbucks and Ethiopia. A day before that, I visited company headquarters and briefly conferred with senior VPs Sandra Taylor and Dub Hay; also, I met with six experts in their fields. I will soon post my observations and analyses of the information I gathered ... and that will be My Story of Starbucks. Stay tuned. ------------------- Emad Mekay Washington, United States 22 March 2007 11:59 The international advocacy group Oxfam is taking on United States coffee retailer Starbucks ...

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) Wednesday, March 21, 2007 On the day of its annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, Starbucks Corp. has been targeted by a Boston-based nonprofit that's working to help Ethiopian coffee farmers trademark their coffees. In full-page ads Wednesday in The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Oxfam America of Boston said Seattle coffee giant Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) "refuses to sign an agreement recognizing Ethiopia's ownership of the trademarks of the country's coffees." Oxfam says it's working with the farmers to obtain trademarks of famous Ethiopian coffees, including Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. Obtaining the trademarks, Oxfam officials said, would give "farmers a greater share of the retail value of their coffees." "If Starbucks is seriously committed to humanity, it needs to change its position and agree to negotiate a licensing agreement with Ethiopia that respects its ownership of its u...