Brief introduction of C.A.F.E practices
The coffee and farmer equity or the C.A.F.E practises were started by the SSC in association with conservation international and Starbucks. These are some of the standards for ensuring that sustainably processed and grown coffee is being sourced by the company Starbucks. Sustainability has been defined by Starbucks as a viable economical model that addresses the environmental and social needs of all the supply chain participants ranging from farmers to consumers. There are more than 200 economical, social and environmental indicators that are encompassed by the smallholder scorecards and the Starbucks C.A.F.E practices. This approach considers all the people of the supply chain including the consumers and the farmers. The verification by third parties of the C.A.F.E practices to ensure the integrity and quality of the same is checked by the SCS global services and Starbucks relies upon them for the same purpose. In order to carry out the verification properly, training and approval of third parties are done for carrying out the C.A.F.E practices.
When were the C.A.F.E Practices started and by whom?
Starbucks started their corporate social responsibility plans in the year 1994. The company has been in association with the conservation international to carry out the audit of the coffees and to draft appropriate plans for the same by the C.A.F.E practices. The C.A.F.E practises of Starbucks are dependent upon the rating system comprising of 249 indicators. Those farmers who get a higher score in the same are paid higher prices as compared to all those farmers who get a lower score in the same. The ratings are done depending upon various factors such as social responsibility, economic accountability, and leadership in the processing and growing coffee beans. Social responsibility indicators have recently involved and there have new indicators such as zero-tolerance has been started and it requires the workers to be paid in cheque, cash, deposits and other and a minimum wages need to pay the workplace has to be free from abuse and harassment, and the workplace has to be non-discriminatory, and there should not be any person below the age of 14years and there are various other conditions.
What is the need for the C.A.F.E practices?
The assistant professor of Washington state university Daniel Jaffee says that the Starbucks practices of C.A.F.E is green was merely in order to improve their goodwill and image. Additionally, rural sociology Renard Professor Marie had written a case study of start bucks. Agro-industries and conservation internationals that show an effort of joint conversation in Mexico and CI-AMSA alliances paid better prices, and it does not allow producers to use the knowledge that is necessary to improve the quality of coffee. The company introduces trade fairs and introduced a line of product for this purpose. Of this production, about 18million pounds was certified for trade fair. Starbucks purchased 180tonns of certified coffee from the trade fair. The company is the largest buyer of coffee as per a survey conducted in the year 2006. All the coffee beans of Espresso are sold in Ireland, UK and others.
What are the uses of C.A.F.E practices?
The Starbucks provides additional assistance for technical services that aims at helping the farmers implement disease and chemical control and the way the farmers understand the same. In case of areas that require specialized expertise needed support for instance in case of living species of farm and plans of management for them need support. There are additional indicators for the purpose of assessing the level of canopy over farms. There are zero tolerance criteria for clearing forest and chemicals of high toxicity. The agrochemicals are handled properly through training and changing the criteria’s. There is also a water quality issue that needs to be improved since many participants were not taking part appropriately.
Criticism of the C.A.F.E practices?
One of the major criticisms is that it is not producing fair trade coffee sufficiently. The requirement of the C.A.F.E practises is so high that very few cooperatives can only cross that. The company is not improving is fair trade rapidly and it is dependent upon buying coffee from farms that is not sufficient. It certifies only the small farmers and therefore the quantity produced is also very less.
Related concepts and topics of C.A.F.E practices?
The companies achieved a lot of accomplishments through the C.A.F.E practices. The number of farmers associated with these practises has increased the company purchases about half of the coffee from these small farmers only. The farms are not clearing any farm areas for the production of coffee in the last 3 years. The farms use pesticides only as the last option. Moreover, the farms did not use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for the production of coffee. The farms also make use of shades.
