Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee

Student Protest for Fair Trade Coffee Fails for the Usual Reason: Sheer Laziness

Members of the Students for Fair Trade organization at the University of Houston--that's right, in Texas--were protesting a plan to install a Starbucks in a library kiosk yesterday because the 'Bucks doesn't buy or serve exclusively fair trade coffee. The students marched their giant bean of protestation right into the chancellor's office, but, hey, guess what? The head honcho was out of town. So, what do you do when your protest target is MIA? You badger a poor receptionist until the campus fuzz shows up! Smooth.

Okay, kids, here's the first thing you need to do to have a successful protest--and believe me, I've been in my fair share to know firsthand just how quickly a protest for a good cause can fall apart when, sure, there's plenty of people but they're all lazier than a profit-at-all-costs corporate CEO who'd rather maintain the status quo than divest from a situation in which people are suffering: Call ahead.

Link (via Coffee Talk)

Green Carpet Gala Honors Gloria Jean's and Lavazza

On May 15, the international nonprofit conservation organization Rainforest Alliance will recognize its 2008 honorees at the annual Gala of sustainability stars. The Gala, held at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, honors those companies and individuals who have worked with Rainforest Alliance and demonstrated leadership in sustainability and support of conservation work.

Among the recipients are two global coffee companies: Australian youngster Gloria Jean's International and Italian elder Luigi Lavazza S.p.A.

Read the press release and give them both an environmentally and farm worker friendly Huzzah! (via Coffee Talk)

Crawl, Don't Run, During World Fair Trade Day Tomorrow

The Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition has organized the 1st Annual Fair Trade Crawl to take place tomorrow, May 10, in celebration of World Fair Trade Day. There are discounts and special tastings scheduled at over twenty businesses around the city, but in order to get those discounts and/or tantalize your taste buds ya gotta pick up what they're calling a Passport at one of the participating locations.

Numerous coffee joints are in on the Crawl, so be sure you're at one when everyone and everything stops for the World's Largest Coffee Break at 2PM.

Link (via ExpressMilwaukee)

Green Mountain Coffee Saving Green Mountain Chimp

This intel has been out there for a good year now, but it's worth bringing to your attention and so I shall. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and the Jane Goodall Institute have partnered to create a sustainable coffee farming program in the Kigoma region of Tanzania, which borders the protected chimpanzee habitat of Gombe National Park. The program has birthed Green Mountain's Tanzanian Gombe Reserve and about 10% of sales proceeds goes to the Jane Goodall Institute.

As the most famous of all primatologists, coffee lover Dr. Jane Goodall has worked tirelessly to save chimpanzees from extinction, but she has also worked just as hard to assist the humans who live among them. This program helps to ensure that some 2,700 small farmers in the Kalinzi Cooperative can grow high quality coffee using sustainable methods and receive a fair price for their beans.

Watch a video on the program to get the warm chimp fuzzies. Then, if you're so inclined, buy Green Mountain’s Tanzanian Gombe Reserve to show your support.

Fair Trade--Wal-Mart Style?

Wal-Mart, the undisputed king of crappy labor practices, introduced three new Fair Trade Certified house-brand coffees yesterday. Let me just repeat that in case you're stuck in a stupor of shock--Wal-Mart introduced three new Fair Trade Certified house-brand coffees yesterday. Wasn't any easier to swallow the second time around, was it? Yeah, didn't think so.

In the wake of this highly suspect announcement, the fingers are a pointin' and the charges of hypocrisy are a flyin'. US labor groups are shining a light on what seems to be a pretty obvious PR ploy on the part of Wal-Mart, stating that the retail giant shouldn't be able to reap the positive consumer perception benefits of sustainability while denying their own employees living wages and decent health benefits. And global labor watchdogs are none too pleased either as they've found evidence of sweatshop produced items sold in Wal-Mart stores.

But not everyone is exclaiming j'accuse! TransFair USA is super happy about the new Wal-Mart fair trade house-brand coffees, and Greenpeace USA is all a twitter over the corp's broad environmental goals.

But the real question is, what do you think?

Link (via Coffee Talk)

Editorial: No Stinkin' Rules?

Though it jumps on the bandwagon of using "latte" pejoratively, this is a great article on the decline of rule-following in our society.  Actually, I believe that the problem goes beyond the failure of individuals to follow rules.

Time for me to go into old geezer mode: the era when I was growing up saw perhaps the last days of the classic middle-class paradigm.  The metaphor for life, as its meaning has been transmitted to me, is a soccer match between two teams.  One team consists of you, your girlfriend/boyfriend and your buddies; the other of parents, teachers, professors, doctors, clergy, employers, goverment officials—heck, pretty much anyone old(er) and particularly anyone behind a counter or desk of any description.  There was little or no confusion over who was playing on whose team.  Throughout life, the ball is kicked back and forth between each others' territory.  The end result is a sort of equilibrium.  The impression to an impartial observer would be that very few goals are being scored and generally, the whole thing is like watching paint dry.  Voila—social harmony.

I have grave doubts that this metaphor would resonate with anyone much younger than 35, and perhaps even with relatively few people my age.  A more appropriate one would perhaps be that life a passing parade of more or less random imagery, in which one is merely a player (video game) or that life is an opportunity to "strut your stuff" before adoring throngs (catwalk).  Either way, the world exists for little else than to tickle one's fancy. 

Fair Trade: Free FT Coffee Wednesdays

Four Corners of the World, located at 5401 W. Vliet Street, is offering free samples of their Fair Trade coffees on Wednesdays between 12 noon and 2 p.m.