Tuesday, November 19, 2002

On November 19, the Wall Street Journal examined how low-quality coffee has flooded the international market and contributed to the global coffee crisis. The story mentions a bill, House Resolution 604, I cosponsored in the House of Representatives that expresses congressional concern over this humanitarian crisis and reaffirms our determination to do something about it. As a follow-up to this story, my colleagues and I sent a letter to the Wall Street Journal emphasizing that the current crisis is much more than a problem of over-supply; our nation's leading corporate roasters exacerbate this situation by continuing to purchase the cheapest and lowest-quality coffee available.

I led the movement to get fair trade coffee served in dining locations on Capitol Hill because I understood that returning more profit to the coffee farmer was necessary to alleviate this global crisis. While I am glad the Wall Street Journal reported on the crisis, I hope we don't think the problem is a simple, one-dimensional matter of economics. It is more accurately seen as a greater problem that requires consumers, buyers, producers, and legislators working together to find a solution.

Wall Street Journal letter

Dear Editor:

We are writing in response to Katy McLaughlin’s November 19, 2002, article entitled “Coffee That’s Good to the Last Twig”. We applaud the Wall Street Journal for drawing attention to the consumer quality aspects of the global crisis that endangers the livelihood of 25 million coffee farmers in more than 50 countries.

As Members of Congress who closely follow the global coffee crisis, we would like to underline that the low price of coffee is due not only to oversupply, but also to current import regulations which allow rotten beans, insects, twigs, and the like to be sold in the United States as coffee. We are concerned that the "Big Four" coffee companies are giving the impression that the precipitous decline in producer prices (not retail prices) is only the result of a cyclical imbalance between supply and demand, which will be rectified through market adjustments. These companies must come to terms with the fact that their business practices are fueling a global coffee crisis with serious and lasting effects on much of the developing world.

The coffee crisis has to be seen in a broader global context that goes beyond the simple calculus of commercial profit. When families in developing countries depend on coffee earnings that have dried up, they will pull their children from school, forego health care, go hungry, and search for employment in other regions or countries. All of these factors contribute to regional instability. The decline in coffee prices also contributes to the trade in illegal drugs. In a July 24, 2002, hearing of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, witnesses testified that some coffee farmers in South America harvest illicit crops such as coca and opium because they are unable to make a living from coffee. As a nation, we have committed hundreds of millions of dollars in economic assistance to Colombia, yet our efforts have been marginalized by that country’s lost export earnings from coffee, which total more than $600 million a year. The good work of our foreign assistance programs in coffee producing countries around the world is being undermined by low-quality, low-price coffee purchased and sold by the major U.S. coffee companies.

Because of our concern for American coffee consumers, the stability of coffee producing countries, and the welfare of subsistence coffee farmers, it is our hope that we can work with all interested parties - producers, regulatory agencies, industry, and consumers - to find a lasting solution to the coffee crisis. In fact, both the Senate and the House of Representatives recently passed coffee resolutions which express congressional determination to alleviate the global coffee crisis. We appreciate your increasing the awareness of this serious issue.

Sincerely,

GEORGE MILLER
Member of Congress

Sam Farr
Member of Congress

Eddie Bernice Johnson
Member of Congress

James McGovern
Member of Congress

Barbara Lee
Member of Congress

Carolyn Kilpatrick
Member of Congress

William Delahunt
Member of Congress

Sherrod Brown
Member of Congress

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