Virginia LU [08FG] - Year 8 Humanities - Action Plan - The Coffee Industry by Virginia LU [07FG]

Assessment Checklist

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Step 1

Read the assessment criteria and in your own words, make a list of objectives that will help you finish this project ✅

Step 2

Design an Action Plan that you will use to help design your project and record all your research information ✅

Step 3

Start researching your commodity, citing all the sources you use, and recording everything on your Action Plan using the I&S Citations template

Before you start: download the 'MyBib' extension and add it to your chrome browser. Make sure you are using the APA (6) format. ✅

Step 4

Have you included research on your commodity, and the issues and problems involved in its trade? ✅

Step 5

Have you included research on fairtrade solutions to those problems, and how these solutions help achieve 1 or 2 SDGs? Choose from SDG 1 , 4, 8 or 10. ✅

Step 6

Finish your Action Plan by double checking each section, making sure you have enough information to write the brochure. ✅

Step 7

Use your Action Plan to help create your brochure outcome, using this writing frame to help you. ✅

Step 8

Include a reference list of the sources you have used at the end of your brochure. ✅

Step 9

Download the finished brochure and upload to the Evidencer along with your Action Plan. ✅

Step 10

Complete your student reflection on your inquiry and use this to complete the Student Comment.

The Commodity

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A description of what the commodity is and where the commodity grown (include a map)

The Issue

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Description of why the trade in your commodity can be seen as currently unfair at some stages of the supply chain - find examples of how growers/farmers are treated unfairly.

The Solutions

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Through your research identify how different real companies are attempting to make trade fairer for this commodity. Apply these ideas to your chosen commodity and farming community.

The SDGs 1,4,8 & 10

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Describe and explain how these strategies help achieve one or two Sustainable Development Goals and empower farmers to improve their communities.

Citations & Reference list

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You must include APA citations and a complete reference list (bibliography) in your brochure. The

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Explain how purchasing fair trade products can help local farmer
Clear this as a social justice issue
Developed and accurate explanations
Find and use appropriate and relevant information
Detailed analysis and explanation of the issues
Make consistent and well supported arguments
Include the commodity, the issue, the solutions, SDGs 1, 4, 8, and 10, and citations list

To what extent can fairtrade strategies improve inequalities in the coffee industry?

virginialu1 — 2024-01-13 02:23:22 UTC

This question is relevant because there are quite a lot of inequalities and issues in the coffee industry that could be improved, such as farmers not being able to earn enough money while the companies and large scale roasters earn much more. The question helps find ways to reduce inequalities in the coffee industry and ways that everyone has decent work.

Coffee

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Coffee is a beverage prepared from roasted coffee beans. It is one of the world's most popular drinks.

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Where?

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Coffee beans are traditionally grown along the “coffee belt” which is between the tropics of Cancer and the tropics of Capricorn. Countries such as Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, Honduras, Ethiopia, Peru, India, Guatemala, etc produce coffee. However, the largest coffee producer is Brazil, who produce over one third of the world’s coffee.

Supply Chain

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The process of making coffee starts from growing the beans, harvesting, hulling, drying, packing, bulking, blending and ends with roasting.

People involved in the supply chain: coffee farmers, processors, roasters, retailers, and consumers.

The Commodity

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Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, February 6). Coffee. Retrieved from Wikipedia website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee

Where Is Coffee From? | Cafe Du

Monde. (n.d.). Retrieved from

www.cafedumonde.co.uk website: https://www.cafedumonde.co.uk/academie/guides/where-is-coffee-

from/#:~:text=It%20is%20traditionally%20grown%20along

Inequality

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Around 125 million people in the world depend on coffee for their livelihoods. It is one of the most valuable and widely traded tropical agricultural products. However many coffee farmers are unable to earn a reliable living from the coffee they produce. Coffee farmers typically earn only 7-10% of the retail price but in Brazil, they earn less than 2% of the retail price. By paying prices too low, the coffee industry is also partly responsible for human rights issues such as poverty, child labour, and poor working conditions.

Issues

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Fairtrade. (2018, September 12).

Is the Coffee Industry Guilty of Exploitation? Retrieved from

Fairtrade Foundation website:

https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/media-centre/blog/is-the-coffee-industry-guilty-of-exploitation/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Food-Empowerment-Project/915180

1106. (n.d.). Bitter Brew: The Stirring Reality of Coffee - Food

Empowerment Project. Retrieved from

https://foodispower.org/our-food-ch oices/coffee/#:~:text=Unfortunately%2C%20coffee%20is%20tied%20to

Child Labour and Labor Exploitation in Coffee Production.

(n.d.). Retrieved from The Borgen Project website:

https://borgenproject.org/tag/child-labour-and-labor-exploitation-in-coffee-production/#:~:text=About%202

0%25%20of%20children%20in

Fairtrade Foundation. (2022).

Coffee farmers. Retrieved from Fairtrade Foundation website:

https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/farm ers-and-workers/coffee/

Grant, T. (2022, January 31). How does improving gender equity benefit coffee production? Retrieved January 13, 2024, from Perfect Daily Grind website:

https://perfectdailygrind.com/2022/01/how-does-improving-gender-equity-benefit-coffee-production/#:~:t ext=In%20many%20cases%2C%20women%20in

Child Labour

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Since the farmers earn so little, many parents pull their children from school to work on the plantations. Additionally, some children can’t even go to school because they don’t have enough money. Child labour is quite common in coffee cultivation. About 20% of children in coffee growing countries fall victim to labor exploitation in coffee cultivation. A study in Brazil found that child labour rates are approximately 37% higher than average regions where coffee is produced and school enrollment is 3% lower. Children as young as six years old often work eight to ten hours a day and are exposed to many health and safety hazards of coffee harvesting, including dangerous levels of sun exposure, injuries, poisoning from contact with agrochemicals. During coffee harvesting season in Honduras, up to 40% of the workers are children. Children and women hired as temporary workers are paid even less than adult male workers. Regulations against child labour do exist in coffee producing countries but economic pressures make the authorities in these regions hesitant to enforce this law.

Slavery

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Many coffee workers are enslaved through debt peonage. They can be pushed into debts by the cost of renting land or interest on loans for emergency healthcare. The conditions of work in coffee production are also unjust and usually illegal. A study of workers in Guatemala found that a lot of them didn’t receive overtime pay or employee benefits required by law, and nearly 50% of them were paid less than Guatemala’s minimum wage.

Gender Inequality

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According to a 2018 report from the International Coffee Organisation, only 20-30% of coffee farms are operated by women and approximately 70% of labor on these farms is carried out by women or girls. In most cases, women in coffee cultivation are significantly less likely to have access to land, decision making, finance, and coffee knowledge than men. As a result of these inequalities, average coffee yields for women can be 25% lower than ones operated by men.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rGfWLjiOxYKgiXXAs6oJDG7-HAJ_KS1CDHsMOzjPbvM/edit

FairTrade

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Fairtrade guarantees farmers and workers the Fairtrade Minimum Price Protection: companies pay an agreed-upon minimum price for the coffee and an additional Fairtrade Premium (an additional sum of money) for farmers to invest in their communities and businesses. Fairtrade also cares about improving quality so Fairtrade farmers need to use at least 25% of the Fairtrade Premium to improve productivity and quality, such as investing in processing facilities. Fairtrade coffee farmers commit to following a strict set of rules, this means child labour and slavery is strictly prohibited. Fairtrade also has a project, encouraging the transfer of coffee bushes to women coffee farmers in Kenya, letting them earn an independent income for the first time.

Solutions

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Foundation, F. (2023, September 21). Meet some of the farmers behind your Fairtrade cup of coffee. Retrieved January 11, 2024, from Fairtrade Foundation website:

https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/medi a-centre/blog/farmers-behind-your-fairtrade-coffee/#:~:text=Fairtrade%20is%20the%20only%20global

Fairtrade Foundation. (2022). Coffee farmers. Retrieved from

Fairtrade Foundation website:

https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/farmers-and-workers/coffee/

The power of coffee. (n.d.). Retrieved from Nestlé Global website:

https://www.nestle.com/stories/nescaf e-plan-coffee-sustainability-equality

Coffee Sustainability | Starbucks® At Home. (n.d.). Retrieved January 12, 2024, from

www.starbucksathome.com website:

https://www.starbucksathome.com/hk /en-hk/story/coffee-sustainability#:~:text=Loans%20for%20farmers.

Supporting Farmer Livelihood for the Future of Coffee. (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2024, from

www.mcdonalds.com website:

https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/farmer_livelihood.html

Fairtrade Coffee - Ethically Sourced Coffee | Caffe Society. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.caffesociety.co.uk website: https://www.caffesociety.co.uk/coffee/fairtrade#:~:text=Fairtrade%20coffee%20is%20certified%20coffee

Gender equality. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2024, from Fairtrade International website: https://www.fairtrade.net/issue/gender-equality#:~:text=Fairtrade

Nestle

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The Nescafe Plan was started in the 1960s to help farmers adopt the best practices and increase quality. The plan was first launched in Mexico. From countries like Brazil, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya to the Philippines and Vietnam, a broad array of initiatives have helped improve farmer’s income.

Starbucks

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Starbucks has sustainable sourcing and growing. Starbucks coffee is 99% ethically sourced which means there is no child labour or exploitation involved. The company is trying to make coffee the world’s first sustainably sourced agricultural product. Starbucks also has loans for farmers. They have invested $49 million in coffee producing countries around the world. These funds can help farmers renovate and strengthen their farms and farming practices to be more productive and sustainable.

McCafe

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McDonald’s is helping farmers who are integral to their supply chain learn and implement more sustainable farming practices. McDonald’s launched a partnership with Conservation International and they have invested millions of dollars to train nearly 20,000 farmers on sustainable practices so they can ensure a sustainable supply of coffee.

SDG 1: No Poverty

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Fairtrade certified companies pay a agreed upon minimum price for the coffee so that the coffee farmers can be paid fairly. Some companies and organisations also offer funds or an additional sum of money to help farmers invest in their communities or businesses. These strategies can help coffee farmers earn more and with the money they earn, they are able to afford more basic necessities and be above the poverty line.

SDG 4: Quality Education

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With all of these strategies offered by companies and Fairtrade, farmers are able to earn higher income so their children don't need to work on the plantations where they can be exposed to many safety hazards. This can reduce child labour. Farmers can finally send their children to school or to get better education.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

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Since these strategies are helping farmers get paid more, they will have decent work.

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

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Since companies are agreeing to pay coffee farmers more, there is not as much inequalities between the workers. Fairtrade's Growing Women in Coffee project enables women to earn an independent income for the first time in the coffee industry, this reduces gender inequality in the coffee industry.