We ordered coffee this week. The price became quite impressive, so someone could possibly argue that it is cheaper at the local grocery store. However, it is not likely to be true.
Because someone has to pay for my cheap coffee. The coffee farmer in Brazil perhaps, or his employees who hardly receive directors’ salaries, the biological diversity in the lands that are exploited so that we can get our cheap coffee or the planet that is exposed to all kinds of toxins. Naturskyddsföreningen’s report Vem betalar priset för ditt kaffe (in Swedish only), says that it takes 140 liters of water to make one cup of coffee. In addition, large amounts of diesel, firewood, fertilizers and chemical pesticides are used.
Someone has to pay. How come that someone isn’t you or me who actually drink the coffee? Especially as coffee drinking largely takes place in the western world where we can afford to pay. Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark are at the top if you look at the number of cups per person and year.
We contribute to the statistics so to speak. Two out of three goats drink about as much coffee as a normal-sized Swedish village, give or take. Once you realize who pays the price for our coffee sipping, it is difficult to drink that coffee with a clear conscience.
So we placed an order from Lykke Kaffegårdar. Their purpose is:
“Producing coffee with no harm done.”
The question they asked when they started the company was: How do you run a coffee company without injuring anyone or anything in the process? With love for coffee and care throughout the value chain, organically and in harmony with people and nature. Irresistible.
The third goat is a tea drinker, so we bought some tea too.
Of course, that insight does not only apply to coffee. Who pays for the cheap T-shirts, training shoes, bananas and peanuts? UN Secretary-General António Guterres also spoke about this the other week when he referred to the fact that many G20 countries are now investing huge sums of money in fossil fuels to save the economy from the corona effects.
“The trillions of dollars needed for Covid recovery is money that we are borrowing from future generations. This is a moral test. We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden future generations with a mountain of debt on a broken planet.”
Someone has to pay the price.
With that, we want to wish you a happy end to the year 2020!
