Poor Farmer

ACTION Starbucks, Stop Usurping Ethiopia's Cultural Heritage Friday, December 01 2006 @ 07:08 AM PST Contributed by: WorkerFreedom The meeting of Starbucks' CEO with Ethiopia's Prime Minister has not changed the company's mind on a licensing agreement which respects the cultural heritage of coffee farmers. Starbucks says the coffee farmers don't need the licensing agreement just like baristas don't need a union- because the company is already so magnanimous. Tell that to coffee farmers living in brutal poverty and baristas struggling to make ends meet often without health care. More information about the proposed agreement is available on Oxfam's website: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee/starbucks . E-Mail Action: Tell Starbucks to Sign Ethiopian Coffee Farmer Agreement and Respect Right to Organize. Please take a moment to register your distaste for this extreme corporate greed from Starbucks: http://starbucksunion.org/node/1127

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At least, conceptually. Mary Crane asks on the Forbes, “So when your social responsibility agenda makes your company a target, is continuing your CSR program worth the headache?” Keith Slack of Oxfam sees it differently on Putting Teeth in Corporate Social Responsibility . “Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a fashionable, if not particularly well-defined, term in recent years.”, Keith said adding, “A key component of the general discourse around CSR has been so-called multi-stakeholder initiatives, which bring together corporations, governments, and non-governmental organizations to talk about and in some cases develop mechanisms for addressing, particular areas of concern.” Keith thinks the voluntary CSR initiatives are toothless and thus “lack any real enforcement mechanism for sanctioning corporations that fail to comply with the principles or standards promoted by the initiatives.” ” Putting teeth into CSR is a challenge. Incentivizing lenders and purchasers to car...

Chronological order of major events in the Starbucks vs. Ethiopia dispute over coffee names 2004 : Starbucks filed application to register “Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo” trademark. Ethiopia asked Starbucks to drop its application because the country is preparing to register the names Sidamo and Harar; Starbucks refused to talk 2005 March : The Government of Ethiopia filed applications with USPTO to trademark Harrar, Harar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe 2 006* : NCA filed a letter of protest asking Ethiopia's application to register all the names be denied. Starbucks then drop its application for “Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo” but continued to ignore Ethiopia's call to discuss. Ethiopia's application for Yirgacheffe trademark has been granted; members of the contesting party expressed their regrets for lack of preparations to block it. Ethiopia continued to seek Starbucks' voluntary agreement acknowledging the country's ownership of the names Sidamo and Harar 2006 October : Oxfam...

Breaking its silence , the government disclosed details of Starbucks CEO Jim Donald’s Ethiopia visit to the public. The Embassy in Washington D.C., also known for its antiquated business styles even at Ethiopia’s standards, posted the press release on its website today. As a result, we now know that the CEO and his team of executives have not succeeded in their attempts to influence the authorities either. As expected, Starbucks’ executives have expressed their “willingness to help the poor farmers and to promote Ethiopian fine coffees.” It is not clear, however, if the executives have visited the farmers’ living conditions. The press release reads, “Both parties agreed to cooperate and work together in the protection and use of the Intellectual Property Rights of Ethiopia’s specialty coffee names and for Starbucks to promote high quality Ethiopian coffees produced under the umbrella of C.A.F.E (Coffee and Farmer Equity) practices.” I am not a fan of the C.A.F.E. practices because the...

Starbucks CEO Meets with Ethiopia Over Ownership of Coffee Names (Pic credit: scidev.net) To: National Desk Contact: Helen DaSilva 617-728-2409 or 617-331-2984, or Laura Rusu 202-496-3620 or 202-459-3739, both of Oxfam America WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- International aid agency Oxfam welcomed Tuesday's meeting between Starbucks CEO Jim Donald and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, but urged the international coffee giant to stop dragging its feet before the holidays, and instead recognize Ethiopia's ownership of its coffee names and the enormous benefits that ownership could bring to the 15 million poor Ethiopians who depend on coffee for their livelihood. "It's significant that after a year of trying to engage Starbucks on trademarks, the company finally sat down to discuss the issue directly with Ethiopia," said Seth Petchers, Oxfam International's Make Trade Fair campaign coffee lead. "Starbucks must now follow up with immediate action to recogn...

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...