M.S. Research Paper by Jennifer McLean
University of Maryland, December 1997
What conclusions can be drawn concerning the efficacy of coffee certification as a tool for conservation and social reform? Certification is a valuable tool for reforming coffee. However, independent and progressive certification programs are increasingly jeopardized as governments harmonize national product standards to facilitate globalized free trade. Even if non-governmental agendas for coffee managed to survive this harmonization, certification has certain inherent problems that limit its value for conservation and sustainable development. The underlying principles for coffee certification should and can be examined apart from the various institutional scenarios. From this conceptual base the different systems be tested for their feasibility or desirability in the local, regional, or world market. Current certification of coffee is grouped into organic standards, which historically have focused on consumer health but not ecological health, and the �fair trade� movement, which is principled on a fair price for the farmer but which has also not addressed ecological issues or land tenure. Neither have these systems attempted to address the underlying causes of farm chemification and debt peonage - government policies (promulgated by the establishments of both North and South) that have the effect of supporting money lenders and speculators by rendering agriculture dependent on industrial technology and farmers dependent on loans and/or wages. Any certification system for sustainable or equitable agriculture must begin with 1) questions concerning individual choice - of both the consumer and the coffee producer, and 2) basic principles of ecological economics. A new set of standards for coffee can draw from the progress made in fitting organic or fair trade standards to coffee. However, standards that are truly for coffee that is ecologically and economically sustainable and socially progressive - what is here called 'connected coffee' - must go beyond the existing criteria. Ways to concretize and test a new certification system are proposed.
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