[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 112 (Friday, July 25, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1632-E1633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF A HOUSE RESOLUTION URGING THE GOVERNMENT TO PURCHASE 
                      FAIR TRADE CERTIFIED COFFEE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 25, 2003

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a group of my colleagues to 
introduce the Fair Trade Coffee Resolution. This resolution calls on 
the Legislative Branch and the Executive Agencies of the Federal 
Government to make fair trade coffee available at their events and food 
service venues. It also directs the Congress to provide information to 
the public about Fair Trade coffee. Last year, the House of 
Representatives passed H. Res 604, recommending that the Congress adopt 
a global strategy for resolving the coffee crisis. Since then we have 
not taken any legislative steps to do what we recommended. This small 
piece of legislation requires very little on our part and yet would 
promote efforts to give a decent standard of living to small coffee 
farmers around the world.
  The current coffee crisis has driven coffee prices down to a hundred 
year low. On top of that, small farmers are at the mercy of ruthless 
middlemen and are not even receiving the fair market price. These 
middlemen take advantage of small farmers who have no other

[[Page E1633]]

way to sell their coffee. Millions of small farmers are cheated out of 
their fair share of income as they receive as little as 1 percent of 
the final retail price of their coffee. This meager price is nowhere 
near enough to support their families and their communities. Instead of 
having enough money to spend on food, education and health care, coffee 
farmers are being thrust into a cycle of debt and poverty. The 
situation is so bad that some farmers have turned to producing cocaine 
and opium to support their families while others have given up in 
despair and even committed suicide.
  As a major purchaser of coffee, the United States has a 
responsibility to ensure that small coffee farmers are being adequately 
compensated for their work. And here in Congress we should do our part 
to ensure that we pay a fair price for the coffee that is purchased for 
our own use. If companies like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts can 
successfully offer fair trade coffee in their stores, there is 
absolutely no reason why the federal government cannot do so as well. 
While fair trade coffee is already served in some of the House of 
Representatives cafeterias we need to do more to send a signal to the 
rest of the country.
  The fair trade economic model is a unique way of providing small 
farmers with a living wage that has been proven to work. Coffee is fair 
trade certified when: (1) Coffee importers agree to purchase from small 
farmers included on the international trade register; (2) farmers are 
guaranteed a minimum ``fair trade price'' of $1.26 per pound for their 
coffee; (3) coffee importers provide a certain amount of credit to 
farmers against future sales to help the farmers stay out of debt to 
middlemen; (4) importers and roasters agree to develop long term 
relationships with producer groups that cut out the coffee middlemen.
  Small farmers are certified to be producing fair trade coffee if they 
are organized into democratic cooperatives and use environmentally 
friendly and sustainable growing methods.
  The development of these criteria has made the fair trade economic 
model a viable solution to the coffee crisis. Both major coffee trade 
associations, the National Coffee Association of U.S.A. and the 
Specialty Coffee Association of America have recognized this fact. So 
have numerous universities around our nation. UC Berkeley, Harvard and 
many others have already enacted policies promoting the sale of fair 
trade coffee on their campuses. It is time that Congress recognized 
that fair trade coffee is one step in solving the humanitarian 
emergency caused by the coffee crisis.
  By providing $1.26 per pound for coffee, fair trade certification 
provides small farmers with enough money to sustain their families and 
be able to contribute to their communities. Furthermore, by cutting out 
the middlemen, the price of fair trade coffee for consumers is the same 
as any other specialty brand of coffee. Besides being comparable in 
cost to other specialty coffee it is also comparable in taste. Fair 
trade coffees from all over the world have won awards such as Food & 
Wine Magazine's ``Best Coffee'' award and 1st place in the Greater 
Philadelphia Tourism Board's Blind Coffee Tasting for 2002 competition. 
With comparable cost and taste compared to other coffee, it is hard to 
justify not purchasing fair trade coffee. Seeing how there is more than 
165 million pounds of fair trade coffee being produced and only 35 
million pounds being sold, there is plenty of it. All that needs to be 
done is to create an awareness of the benefits of fair trade coffee 
among the public and this resolution does exactly that.
  This resolution sends an important message to the American public 
about the willingness of our Federal Government to aid poverty stricken 
farmers in other countries. We set an example for the rest of the 
country to follow by recommending that the Legislative Branch and the 
Executive Agencies make fair trade coffee available for all events and 
at all our government food service venues. Taking this small step on 
our part can go a long way toward helping thousands of small coffee 
farmers around the world. I urge my colleagues to support passage of 
this resolution.

                          ____________________