hi I am just back from Colombia it was a
super super quick trip crazy quick trip
in fact so I still feel a little woozy
Jeff McGee I want to talk about why I
went to Colombia I go I went to give a
talk what I'll do now by way of an intro
is pass you through my my travel day to
a very tired version of me in
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it is late and I am in Cartagena in
Colombia a probable day at Lydda
Amsterdam I flew to Panama and then on
to here because I'm here to talk in an
event called let's talk coffee run by
sustainable harvest and I choose to stop
coming and talking at events I made this
decision maybe a couple of years ago for
two reasons one I kind of just felt a
little overexposed at those kind of
events I'd done a lot of emceeing I'd
done a lot of talking and I kind of felt
like everyone deserved to break from me
and secondly I had nothing to say you
know like I didn't want to just stand up
and give some sort of vague talk about
something that wasn't particularly
interesting or important so now I think
I have something to say I hope I have
something to say and I'm quite nervous
to say it tomorrow I don't know if these
talks are going to be recorded or not
I'll try and capture it if it isn't
otherwise I'll just try and talk you
through some of the key ideas behind
what it is but I want to talk about that
I've been sort of fixated on four months
now actually but as of right now I've
been awake for about 24 hours and I've
got to get up early and I need to go to
bed so the event I was at was called
let's talk coffee and it was an
interesting event for a few different
reasons it's organized by a sustainable
harvest and importer in the US and I'd
known about it for a number of years
I've never been before what makes it
interesting to me is that the audience
is very heavily made up of producers
along with NGOs nonprofits that operate
in producing countries you know Miller's
exporters importers some Roasters but
not that many even a few banks finance
years they did record the talk and
actually they put it out on Facebook
live pretty much and I'll link to the
talk below and also give you an idea of
where
in that particular video you need to
head to to get to my talk I'm not
unhappy with the talk that I gave I
think I did an okay job with it but I do
think the idea is perhaps merit being
taken out of that particular context at
that particular stage and and talked
about a little bit more and at its root
I would explain it this way if you look
at equitable trade trade that you might
describe as fair outside of a brand name
there's more to it than just price now
right now the see market see the kind of
the global price for coffee if you will
is incredibly low inflation adjusted it
may never have been lower but it's it's
super low it's under $1 it's insane
now specialty coffee feels insulated
from that because we pay a lot more for
coffee but if you look at trade through
the dynamics of power and risk then I
think specialty coffee still has a great
deal of problems with its trading model
in terms of it being a truly equitable
way to trade and I wanted to go and talk
about these things I wanted to talk
about how by a large Roasters do a great
job of mitigating risk and pushing it
actually in the either direction on to
potentially their customers sometimes
and certainly on to producers in other
times and you know when it comes to
power specialty coffee all of the power
lies with the buyer right we tend to
arrive pick the thing that tastes
amazing pay great money for it but
that's not really about a long term
long-standing partnership in a way so I
want to talk about contracts and
contracts I know already exist but I
wanted to reimagine contracts because
writing our contracts exists to serve
the needs of the buyer they specify
quality they're specifying you know
delivery time quantity and price right
and they may be multi-year but in
specialty that's extremely rare I wanted
to go to a roomful of producers and say
let's start fresh what would it look
like if you decided the terms of the
contract more than just the things that
we already know about but what else is
on the table what else could you build
into a contract that you might ascribe
is perhaps a more social contract that
would mean the trade is more equitable
right there's a greater distribution
risk up chain rather than being pushed
constantly back on to producers for me
it's kind of a beginning I want to go
into this perhaps in a separate video
and a little bit more detail but you
know it was an interesting experience
for me now
the conference itself was pretty great
the bits that I saw sadly I gave a talk
and then was on a panel and then enjoyed
the rest of that day I got a brief
glimpse into the old town of Cartagena
that night and then the next day was a
complete write-off I was in bed unwell
curled up in a ball feeling like death
the entirety of that day through to the
next morning and then I caught a little
bit of the conference even though I
still felt a little bit weird and then I
was on a flight out that afternoon so it
was really that short of a trip which is
frustrating but it was definitely an
interesting event it was definitely an
honest event where people presented
perspectives and ideas that were raw and
difficult and much needed I think so I'm
very glad I got to take part in it and I
really just wanted to highlight that
this was I think an important talk for
me but really an idea that I want to get
going right like the power shouldn't lie
solely in the hands of Roasters when it
comes to deciding what should be in a
good social contract which would be in a
more round holistic contract that might
last multiple years with a producer or a
group of producers you know all our
ideas are inherently self-serving and
I'm interested in shutting up and
listening and there was a ton of
feedback from the event and I think
sustainable harvest are going to be
working with it so if you're interested
in this do pay attention do talk to them
and I'll be posting more about that in
the future too so just a little video
about a short trip be interested in your
feedback in your thoughts even though I
know I haven't presented the idea as
coherently as perhaps I tried to on
stage if you really want to get into it
please watch that talk and I'd love to
continue this discussion thank you so
much for watching
have a great day
you
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