Poor Farmer

Reminiscent of the fate of Victoria’s Secret Reverend Billy, founder of the Church of Stop Shopping, joins the public movement calling on Starbucks to give Ethiopia what is rightfully hers. The highly respected Reverend is known by many for his unparalleled role in the fight for global and environmental justice. He has run many successful corporate campaigns including the recent campaign against Victoria’s Secret to stop the “clear-cutting of virgin forests” from the Canadian Rockies Mountains. The glossy pages of Victoria's Secret catalogues have been targeted as environmentally destructive products. The Reverend helped end the two year campaign by environmentalists to convince the company to utilize recycled papers for its catalogues. Reverend Billy once again stands for justice and is now siding with the Ethiopian farmers to correct the imbalance of power between Starbucks and Ethiopia. He wants to see Starbucks help the poor farmers help themselves out of poverty by making use ...

Ashley Seager Monday January 29, 2007 The Guardian A campaign by Ethiopia to get a fair price for its coffee - some of the world's finest - kicks off in London today as a spokesman for the east African country's impoverished coffee growers meets Tony Blair. The meeting will be accompanied by a screening of the film Black Gold - a movie on the global coffee industry - to MPs at Westminster, who will also be addressed by the Ethiopian ambassador to Britain. The spokesman, Tadesse Meskela, who is the subject of Black Gold, together with the film's English makers, brothers Nick and Marc Francis, are a serious irritant to some of the world's coffee giants - in particular Seattle-based Starbucks, whose annual turnover of $7.8bn (£4bn) is not much lower than Ethiopia's entire gross domestic product. Mr Meskela runs the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia, representing about 105,000 coffee growers, and struggles to get the best price - although it is nowhe...

Partnership Aims to Enhance Recognition and Promotion of Ethiopian Coffees (CSRwire) London and Washington D.C. January 29, 2007 Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., a leading roaster and distributor of specialty coffees, has signed a Letter of Intent with the Government of Ethiopia that signifies a commitment to work with Ethiopian fine coffee stakeholders on their initiative to bring greater value to Ethiopian coffees and coffee producers. As part of this partnership, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters will provide its expertise in further developing the program to ensure that premium coffees from Ethiopia are recognized for their distinctive tastes and qualities and to establish better treatment and pricing for Ethiopian farmers. In 2005, the Ethiopian government filed applications with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and foreign trademark offices to protect its rights to its three heritage coffees –- Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Harar. The Government of Ethiopia has also been talki...

Oxfam America Press Release 29 January 2007 For more information, contact:Helen DaSilva, Press Officer 617-728-2409 617-331-2984 (mobile) hdasilva@oxfamamerica.org BOSTON -- Today's announcement that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has agreed to work closely with Ethiopia to raise the value that Ethiopian farmers receive from their coffees is a welcome first step that other companies should follow, says international agency Oxfam. The formal Letter of Intent between Green Mountain -- a major coffee roaster and distributor in the US -- and Ethiopia "is an initiative made in good faith between a major company, the government, and a national stakeholder group that includes farmer cooperatives," said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. "Developing countries need greater control over their own agricultural markets in order to negotiate a fair return from the quality and reputation of their products. Coffee companies that expect to thrive in a global market ...

Starbucks has just hired a lobbying firm, the Rosa Whitaker Group , to advance the company’s interests internationally, most particularly in Africa. Rosa Whitaker was the Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa under both Presidents Clinton and Bush Administrations before she left to form her lobbying group in 2002. For now, Ethiopia is the primary focus of Starbucks, thus the need for a well connected new lobbying firm. Rosa Whitaker will attend the 4th African Fine Coffee Conference & Exhibition, 15th-17th February, 2007 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on behalf of Starbucks. More to come soon.

Douglas B. Holt* 26 January 2007 The Starbucks Corporation is working with its lobbying group, the National Coffee Association (NCA), to block efforts by a coalition of Ethiopian coffee producers to secure US trademarks on two of Ethiopia’s most valuable coffee brands—Sidamo and Harrar. [1] Ethiopia’s coffee coalition wants to own the trademarks in order to increase profits on these brands, which could substantially raise the incomes of the estimated 6 million Ethiopians who are dependent on the fine coffee trade. The coalition has successfully registered the trademarks for Sidamo, Harrar and Yirgacheffe in other important markets including the EU and Canada. The coalition was able to get Yirgacheffe approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) before Starbucks and the NCA had time to act. Following the approval of Yirgacheffe, the NCA filed Letters of Protest—legal documents exceeding 400 pages—against the registration of both Sidamo and Harrar. On the basis of this protest...

This week, Coffee Politics highlighted information suggesting as though a meeting between Starbucks experts, NCA, Ethiopian government officials, and representatives of cooperatives was going to be held in Geneva. The information was based on this report which has now proved to be inaccurate as it was based on an outdated statement. Though there was an idea suggested by Starbucks in December 2006 to hold a meeting in Geneva, there is no such plan at the moment.