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...

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...