Coffee & chocolate: from luxury foodstuffs to mass products

The gourmet scene is just one side of the coin. The other represents a mass of consumers, who have little or no interest in the origin, cultivation and production conditions behind their cup of coffee or bar of chocolate. For them, the price is all that matters. But when you look at the devastating environmental consequences of mass coffee and cocoa cultivation for example, it can really ruin the appetite. As both plants produce small yields in relation to their size (cocoa max. 2,000 g cocoa beans per year; coffee 500 to 1,000 g raw coffee per year), they demand huge areas for cultivation. Following ruthless slash-and-burn deforestation, they are planted in controversial mass monoculture plantations. These plantations displace animal species, leach the soil and guzzle vast quantities of artificial fertiliser and, above all, water. After all, cocoa and coffee must not be exposed to too much sun. In the wild, they naturally grow in the shade of large trees. On the plantations, they are subjected to relentless tropical sunlight and, as such, need to be watered heavily to prevent them from wilting and dying. The so-called virtual water consumption of one kilogram of roasted coffee is around 21,000 litres of water; it is an unbelievable 27,000 litres of water for one kilogram of cocoa beans. In other words: it takes 140 litres of water to produce 7g of powder for one cup of coffee!

What can we do about it? The solution is simple, but it is too expensive for many consumers: only buy certified sustainable organic products. After all, they are produced using natural cultivation methods, such as those using mixed crops and agroforestry systems. Shade plants make watering unnecessary, and the flora and fauna can co-exist with the cultivation by small-scale farmers. If fertilisers are used, they are handled with care and only natural substances are applied, such as guano.

Unfortunately, environmental problems are not the only negative result of intensive coffee cultivation on large plantations. There is another sad consequence that is also known to take place in cocoa cultivation: child labour. There are mainly African countries like Kenya and Tanzania that are affected, but it is also known to take place in shocking levels in Central American countries like Guatemala and Honduras. In many countries, around half of the workers on coffee plantations are children. As harvesting is often tedious manual work, children are regularly used, so their meagre wage can improve the income of their desperately poor families. But children are also used for transportation and fertilisation, which can include handling pesticides – a job that can have a devastating impact on their health.

As with cocoa, production under fair-trade conditions can help. The Fairtrade mark is well-known for ensuring that small-scale farmers receive a fair wage; but it also incorporates developmental aspects. Establishing democratic communities, education and ecological farming are all part of the parcel, including many other issues. But in recent years, there have been more and more critics of fair trade, claiming that it is not transparent enough. There are different fair-trade labels in use, and they all have different criteria. Some people claim that fair-trade coffee is an extremely ineffective way of combating poverty. Other studies prove that the opposite is in fact true. It is a huge debate and one that we don’t want to get into here. The fact is, there is already a counter-model to fair trade – it is known as direct trade. With direct trade, the coffee roaster doesn’t trade with a coffee co-operative, but rather directly with the farmer. The roaster generally looks at the local production conditions and decides whether the quality is good enough. Direct trade gives farmers a direct trading relationship and, thus, more revenue. For roasters, the benefits are obvious: they can guarantee the finest quality coffee by implementing their own quality controls. Under regular fair-trade conditions, the quality of the coffee can vary massively.