For the Love of Coffee: International Coffee Day to be Held on October 1

International Coffee Day 1 October 2016

On October 1^st, the coffee world will celebrate International Coffee Day. This is a day for honoring the people who work in coffee, appreciating the passion that coffee creates, as well as taking the opportunity to inform consumers about coffee as a global product.

We encourage you to get involved on International Coffee Day! Here are a few ways you can engage your guests and staff to celebrate coffee on this day:

1. Share your appreciation for the work involved in making great coffee happen: Use the hashtag #internationalcoffeeday and follow along on October 1st!

2. Donate to your favorite NGO supporting coffee farmer communities, and share your commitment with your customers.

3. Plan an event to engage customers and community members about the coffee supply chain:

• Lead a special coffee tasting
• Team up with a local restaurant to offer a special International Coffee Day brunch with unique coffees
• Lead a discussion group with your baristas about any of these Symposium lectures to deepen their knowledge of the coffee value chain and the work of producers
• Bring a producer whose coffee you buy to visit your shop and give a talk about his/her work

4. Run a promotion in your shop or business:

• Buy one, get one free
• Offer free samples or free shots
• Feature a unique coffee
• Commit to donating a percentage of your earning to a coffee-focused charity

5. Engage local media in coverage of the day:

• Tell the local media about any special events you have planned. Be sure to emphasize how folks can get involved!

For more information or to submit your events to be featured on the official International Coffee Day website, please visit internationalcoffeeday.org.

Defining Sustainability at SCAA Expo

By The Specialty Coffee Chronicle on July 19, 2016

By Miguel Zamora

Defining what “sustainable coffee” means has been a challenge for the coffee industry. This is also an opportunity for all of us working in coffee: to define what we mean with sustainability in coffee and communicate this to our customers and consumers, while channeling our resources towards true “sustainability”.

In reality, answering the question: “What is sustainability?” for coffee might require broad participation all over the supply chain and broad consensus. The panel supported by the Sustainability Council of the SCAA and moderated by the SCAA Director of Sustainability, Kim Elena Ionescu, discussed this question.

There were voices in the discussion that asked for drawing a line between what is “sustainable” and what is “conventional”. We are all somewhere on that line, but it might be important to define where the line crosses into the “sustainable” side. Other voices highlighted that “sustainability” might be a journey, and we should try to highlight how we are doing on that journey.

The panel discussed how we have a success story with “specialty coffee.” The term and the definition of what “specialty” means is clearer to consumers and companies now more than ever. We could build something similar for “sustainable coffee” and define and promote what we mean with that.

The panelists are working on this issue from different perspectives. Bambi Seamroc and Conservation International are working with the Sustainable Coffee Challenge, an initiative that brings coffee roasters, importers and NGO’s together to try to raise the demand for sustainable coffee and make coffee the first sustainable agricultural product. The initiative is trying to create a safe space for industry to discuss what we mean with “sustainable coffee.”

But defining what sustainable coffee means is just a step. James Barsimantov from SupplyShift highlighted that we need to be able to measure progress and compare information to have a bigger chance to make progress on making the coffee sector truly sustainable.

Felipe Croce from Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza in Brazil asked “what is the value of sustainability for farmers?” It is not necessarily financial, in practice, because farmers get to implement many of the sustainability practices that the industry demands without necessarily being properly rewarded for that work.

Consumers might be willing to pay for quality coffee but not necessarily for sustainability. There are other benefits that farmers can get from their work towards a more sustainable coffee, but having a clearer way to define, measure and identify how sustainable the practices of a farmer are, can help farmers to get more value from their sustainability efforts.

Sitting at this panel I thought about the many times I have heard (and said) that sustainability is a journey. Many people agree it can be a journey, in a way. But a journey to where? If we are not clear about what our destination is, how do we really know we are making progress? The sustainability challenges farmers and the coffee industry face will grow and be more pressing in the future. Climate change, profitability of coffee farming, the situation of farmworkers in coffee, and other critical issues will not be solved individually. They require sector-wide approaches, collaboration and participation of all the links in the supply chain. Having a clear north star and definition of where we want to go and how we measure progress is a necessary step to have a chance to get there in the future.

Miguel Zamora is the Head of Americas Region for UTZ and current Chair of the SCAA Sustainability Council. Miguel has been involved in agriculture for over 20 years. His work focuses on building and strengthening sustainable supply chains while creating opportunities for sustainable trade between farming communities and the coffee industry. Miguel is a board member of Food 4 Farmers. He holds an Agricultural Engineering degree from Zamorano University in Honduras and a Masters in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University.