i set out to investigate how the food system was sustainable, by better understanding “el buen vivir,” but instead i came to understand how my definition of sustainability was different from the lifestyle meant by “el buen vivir.” though popularly used to describe sustainability, what it truly means does not seem to be fully embraced.

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i’ll admit — i am a bit of a coffee snob. as a seattle-to-d.c. transplant, i am the first among my friends to have an opinion about a coffee shop or a certain roast, and likely am not humble in expressing my opinion. however, a couple of weeks ago i was at a local coffee shop, and stumbled upon a new roast from a new coffee company in town called redeeming grounds. sitting by the bag of beans was a stack of palm cards that said “cutting cocaine for coffee.”

as coffee consumers, we rarely think about how sustainably our coffee is sourced or all that it takes to get from crop to cup. we may know whether or not it is fair trade, and where the beans are from (because it’s often advertised that way), but that’s about it.

a typical supply chain for coffee is as follows: the bean starts with the farmer. they grow and harvest the bean, and then it is sent off to one or maybe multiple cooperatives. from the cooperatives the bean goes to a central exporting collector, who then ships the coffee, an importer picks it up, and it is then taken in many cases to a fair trade certifier. then the bean goes to the commodity traders and hedgers, then to the industrial roaster, then to the labeler and sealer, and finally to the distributor that takes it to the store where you buy it.

at each point in the supply chain, the farmer loses money from his crop because money is going to each other cog in the supply chain. at many of these points, energy is also expended, contributing to further pollution.

redeeming grounds has significantly reduced all the points in the typical supply chain. they buy directly from the farmers, and the beans are shipped to them. they roast them in their own roasting facility, and label and package their coffee themselves. then it is distributed to you.

because redeeming grounds is a nonprofit, they give all their profit from the sale of the coffee directly to the farmers. with less cogs in the supply chain that suck money away from the farmers, and all the money from the sale of the coffee being funneled back to them, the farmers have a greater and more sustainable income that they can invest back into the community to build it up. and these communities do need to be built up, because they are riddled with the violence and destruction of guerrilla warfare.

as i sip from my coffee cup in the morning, i can know that not only are the beans i am drinking sustainably sourced and beyond fair trade, but they are also making a difference in the lives of farmers in colombia who are combating deforestation, guerrilla violence, and the cultivation and sale of cocaine. i may still be labeled a coffee snob, but at least i am now a snob with a cause.