June 2007
Coffee is a goldmine for multinationals - but what about the coffee farmers?
Life for coffee farmers is tough and multinational companies are making it worse. That's the message of Black Gold, a hard-hitting documentary film about the coffee industry screening nationwide from this weekend.
According to the directors, brothers Marc and Nick Francis: "We wanted to urgently remind audiences that through just one cup of coffee, we are inextricably connected to the livelihoods of millions of people around the world who are struggling to survive, while corporations are earning record profits."
But it doesn't have to be like this. The premium paid to farmers through Fairtrade coffee offers growers the chance to live a decent life, rather than just scrape an existence.
With multinational companies such as Nestle jumping on the Fairtrade bandwagon, are all Fairtrade coffee brands as ethical as each other? No, says Ethical Consumer. Because of their poor social and environmental records, Starbucks and Nestle Fairtrade coffee score only 6 and 1 out of 20 respectively in Ethical Consumer's Ethiscore rating system.
To coincide with the release of Black Gold Ethical Consumer interviewed film makers Marc and Nick Francis.
FAIRTRADE COFFEE BRAND (ETHISCORE)
Equal Exchange organic (17)
Union Coffee Roasters organic (17)
'A Lot of Coffee' Ethiopian organic Yergacheffe (16.5)
Cafedirect organic (16) Suma organic (16)
Coffee Plant organic (16)
Traidcraft organic (15.5)
Essential organic (15)
Natural Coffee Company organic (15)
Clipper organic (14.5)
Traidcraft (13.5)
Costa Rica Coffee organic (14.5)
Boiling Coffee Ltd (14)
Brian Wogan organic (14)
Percol organic (14)
Taylors of Harrogate (13.5)
Percol (13)
Rombouts (9)
Starbucks cafe Estima Blend (6)
Nescafe Partners Blend (1)
Ethiscores correct as of June 2007. Daily updated scores for coffee are available on our online shopping guide www.ethiscore.org.
Ethical Consumer...
-
maintains the most comprehensive database of corporate ethics in the world - tracking over 30,000 companies, compiled over 20 years, updated daily by dedicated researchers
Ethical Consumer's unique ethiscore system rates companies on their social, ethical and environmental performance. Companies are rated in over twenty categories across four main headings - Environment, Human rights, Animal rights, Politics. Products are then rated for their positive ethical and sustainability features.