gino
07-06-2003, 04:23 AM
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Just as Starbucks popularized cappuccinos for mainstream America, a new group wants to put "ethical" coffee on supermarket shelves across the globe.("only the grounds are incriminating...")
The Utz Kapeh Foundation (www.utzkapeh.org), whose name means "Good Coffee" in an ancient Mayan language, guarantees basic standards for poor peasants hit by rock-bottom prices and inhumane living and working conditions. (didn't the mayans use skulls instead of balls when they invented soccer?)
And it strives to do so without putting up retail prices out of the reach of ordinary consumers. (what a concept.)
With coffee bean prices trading at around half the levels of four years ago, weakened by a glut of supply, coffee firms have come under fire for reaping huge profits while peasant farmers suffer. ((urgent call for willie nelson.)
"I don't want to make use of child labor, and I want to prove that I don't," said Ward de Groote, who as head of coffee at Dutch retailer Ahold helped launch the concept. "I want to make sure there is free schooling (on plantations), I want to make sure the environment is in balance." (never had these problems until we quit testing those a-bombs...)
De Groote came up with the idea during a purchasing trip to Guatemala, where he was appalled that small children were forced to pick coffee and that basic sanitary facilities were lacking.
(giving new insight into old phrase "this coffee tastes like sh*t...")
Utz Kapeh, recently spun off from Ahold as an independent group, is an alternative to "Fair Trade" coffee, which retails at a higher price than mainstream brands. (former spokesman, Juan Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers, now working for "No Trade" coffee..)
Ahold -- which early this year finished certifying all the farms that supply 12,000 tons of coffee it purchases each year -- absorbs the slightly higher prices it pays to farmers. (who says these guys are a bunch of aholds....)
Farms get Utz Kapeh certification after pledging to adhere to a code that includes fair wages and healthcare for workers and curbing waste and pollution. (i thought Utz Kapeh was an israeli figure skating kibbutz...)
The Fair Trade movement, in contrast, supports struggling peasants by guaranteeing minimum incomes, but only small numbers of socially-committed shoppers will pay for it. (another California invention....)
"The high ground has been staked out by organic and Fair Trade coffee, but there is a limit to how far those segments are going to grow. The question is what is going to happen to the other 95 percent that is not in that niche," said Utz Kapeh director David Rosenberg. (my guess is Folger's....)
The Utz Kapeh Foundation (www.utzkapeh.org), whose name means "Good Coffee" in an ancient Mayan language, guarantees basic standards for poor peasants hit by rock-bottom prices and inhumane living and working conditions. (didn't the mayans use skulls instead of balls when they invented soccer?)
And it strives to do so without putting up retail prices out of the reach of ordinary consumers. (what a concept.)
With coffee bean prices trading at around half the levels of four years ago, weakened by a glut of supply, coffee firms have come under fire for reaping huge profits while peasant farmers suffer. ((urgent call for willie nelson.)
"I don't want to make use of child labor, and I want to prove that I don't," said Ward de Groote, who as head of coffee at Dutch retailer Ahold helped launch the concept. "I want to make sure there is free schooling (on plantations), I want to make sure the environment is in balance." (never had these problems until we quit testing those a-bombs...)
De Groote came up with the idea during a purchasing trip to Guatemala, where he was appalled that small children were forced to pick coffee and that basic sanitary facilities were lacking.
(giving new insight into old phrase "this coffee tastes like sh*t...")
Utz Kapeh, recently spun off from Ahold as an independent group, is an alternative to "Fair Trade" coffee, which retails at a higher price than mainstream brands. (former spokesman, Juan Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers, now working for "No Trade" coffee..)
Ahold -- which early this year finished certifying all the farms that supply 12,000 tons of coffee it purchases each year -- absorbs the slightly higher prices it pays to farmers. (who says these guys are a bunch of aholds....)
Farms get Utz Kapeh certification after pledging to adhere to a code that includes fair wages and healthcare for workers and curbing waste and pollution. (i thought Utz Kapeh was an israeli figure skating kibbutz...)
The Fair Trade movement, in contrast, supports struggling peasants by guaranteeing minimum incomes, but only small numbers of socially-committed shoppers will pay for it. (another California invention....)
"The high ground has been staked out by organic and Fair Trade coffee, but there is a limit to how far those segments are going to grow. The question is what is going to happen to the other 95 percent that is not in that niche," said Utz Kapeh director David Rosenberg. (my guess is Folger's....)