Survey: Coffee Farmers and Consumers Have Different Perspectives on SustainabilityDaily Coffee News by Roast Magazine

Value is implied by the degree of meticulous sorting, processing, and elimination of defects. In the specialty sphere, a detailed understanding of this implied valuation is crucial to the success of cooperatives and small farms. Access to capital is the biggest hurdle presented to smallholders, so investing in the farm year over year by the importer or roastery can literally be the difference in their success or their starvation.

The access of information for the farmers needs to be more ubiquitous than it has traditionally been. The transparency of the coffee supply chain is beneficial to the farmers, and we should push for open and honest communication between all participating parties. It is as a coalition of coffee communities, we can generate real, lasting changes to the coffee world. The whole system is predicated on the capitalist exploitation of the working class due to their lack of means. Unless the workers ARE the owners (such as in a cooperative), the system and our participation in it is a farce built upon flowery language and imperialist dogmatism.

Valuation in coffee is intrinsically connected to this exploitation, and the perpetuation of this cycle is what allows for the capitalist class to net massive wealth while the workers are subjected to the peaks and valleys of the market. In short, worker conditions in the imperial periphery will not improve so long as the large corporate stakeholders hold the keys. This unequal exchange must not be overlooked when determining the path forward. The problem with economic sustainability is it always comes at the expense of the working class.

This neo-feudalism that penetrates every level of the coffee market is the antithesis of sustainable.