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What it Is
Thirty traditional coffee farmers in the highlands of Chiapas,
Mexico are now members of a cooperative that was organized by Frontera de
Cristo
Presbyterian Border Ministry (Arizona). Started three years ago as a
response to the life-threatening desert crossing by coffee farmers in search
of a job in the US because they could not command a fair price for their
coffee beans, the farmers in the cooperative now own the whole operation of
bringing coffee-- from the tree to your coffee cup. This is “Fair Trade
Plus”: the farmers not only get paid a fair price for the beans, all
profits return to the people and the land that provide the product.
Twenty-five more
families in the neighboring community of Aguila were added in May, 2006.
Pueblos Hermanos Border Ministry will supervise the
roaster-grinder-packaging expansion in Tijuana as well as create a network
of Churches to help sell JUST COFFEE to their members. As a longtime and
cherished partner of Pueblos Hermanos, we ask you now to pray for this
mission project, and to become such a church. You may be distributing Fair
Trade/Equal Exchange coffee--a for-profit, US based company. We still ask
you to consider supporting JUST COFFEE also, remembering that all its
profits go back to the traditional peasant farmer.
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How to Get Involved
By
consignment, order the appropriate number of pounds of coffee. JUST COFFEE,
organic shade grown Arabica coffee is available in regular and decaffeinated
whole beans or grounds and retails for $8.00 per 1 lb. bag (16 ounces,
bigger than the normal package or can at the market) plus shipping ($6 per
10 pound increment). Wholesale price (100 lbs or more) is $6.75 plus
shipping. (Decaffeinated costs $1 more per pound.) If you order wholesale, the difference in your retail price
(determined by you for your market) will more than pay for shipping. Some
churches even raise mission funds through their retail price. A group in
the church such as the youth, the women, the men, etc. could be put in
charge of the JUST COFFEE mission. They keep a list of their customers and
determine with us the appropriate interval for sending a continuous supply
of fresh coffee.
The
website
http://www.justcoffee.org/ will give you the choices of blends and roasts
including decaf as well as the corresponding prices. Soon they hope to
have a sales and roasting center in Tijuana/San Diego.
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Why Get Involved
Isaiah
65:21-25 gives us God’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth:
They
shall build homes and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
They shall not plant and another eat …They shall not labor in vain or bear
children for calamity;
The plight of coffee farmers in Central America was painstakingly chronicled
by Nobel Prize awardee Rigoberta Menchu in her book. Instead of going to
school, children work picking coffee. They live so poorly that they sicken
and die early. The farmer is paid so little that future harvests are
already in hock to the companies (whose representatives come to the
community to buy the dried beans.) They could barely construct a house of
their own. Many homes in Mexico are bereft of employable men. They have
left their wives and children , migrating northward for jobs. The crossing
is so expensive (up to $3,000 paid to the human trafficker) and risky
(300+/year die crossing the
Arizona
dessert alone ) that it takes years for them to come back. The community
pays a price in broken homes, lost leadership, and a weakened social fabric.
For they shall be offspring
blessed by the Lord…
Before they call I will answer,
While they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
The lion shall eat straw like the ox…
They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
-Isaiah
65:23b-25 |
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Just Coffee Aguila
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What exactly is Just Coffee?
Just Coffee is a coffee cooperative
dedicated to addressing the immigration crisis by providing coffee farmers a
fair price for their crops.
2. How was it started?
The Just Coffee cooperative began to form
in 2001 with the ideas and dreams of several members of the Lily of the Valley
Church in Agua Prieta, Mexico facilitated by Frontera de Cristo Presbyterian
Border Ministry. The first pound of coffee was roasted, ground,
packaged, and then sold to the market in November of 2002.
3. How is buying coffee helping the immigration crisis?
The coffee we sell comes directly from
coffee farmers in the Salvador Urbina and El Aguila communities of Chiapas, Mexico who are
struggling to support their families. Although these families have been selling
their coffee for many years, it is difficult for them to support themselves
because they are forced to sell their coffee to “coyotes,” who are the
intermediaries, or “middlemen,” in the market. These coyotes sell the farmers’
coffee to the American market, without properly reimbursing the families who
grew the coffee. Because the families cannot support themselves, they are
compelled to flee to the north to places like Agua Prieta in the hope of
illegally crossing the border to the United States to find jobs. In the last
decade, over 3,000 people, many of them farmers from Chiapas, have died in the
desert trying to cross into the United States. Just Coffee strongly believes
that by helping the coffee farmers to receive a fair price for their crops, they
will not be forced to leave their land and attempt such a dangerous thing as
crossing the border into the United States.
4. Where is Chiapas anyway?
Chiapas is the southern-most state in
Mexico. It is a lush, green land rich with coffee, fruits, plants, and other
natural resources, but very poor in economic terms.
5. How is Just Coffee giving a fair price to the coffee
farmers in Chiapas?
Just Coffee, unlike many other coffee
companies, does not use intermediaries. Our coffee comes directly from the
farms themselves, to Agua Prieta, where it is roasted, ground, and packaged, and
then is shipped anywhere in the United States to our customers. Fair Trade
Principles (in 2007) require that a minimum of $1.26 per lb. is given back to the
farmers. Just Coffee (i 2007) gives $1.30 per lb. back to the coffee farmers, instead of
a mere $.25 per lb. that coffee farmers receive from some other major coffee
companies.
6. What exactly are Fair Trade Principles?
Fair Trade principles say that a minimum of
$1.26 per lb. is returned to the cooperative (Just Coffee pays $1.30), a long
term relationship must be established, the cooperative must be democratically
run, there must be environmentally sustainable practices, and they must have
credits of advanced payment for coffee. Just Coffee has been in compliance with
these principles since its formation.
7. So what is Fair Trade PLUS that Just Coffee is involved
with?
Fair Trade PLUS helps keep the
manufacturing process within the coffee growing cooperative itself. This means
that green coffee beans are not transported to the United States to be roasted,
but rather are roasted in Agua Prieta, Mexico. This allows Just Coffee to own
the roasted process as well as foster job creation and profits in the extended
community of Agua Prieta. Therefore, all of the money that comes from an order
of Just Coffee stays in Mexico and promotes economic development.
8. How much is this all really helping?
So far in less than 3 years of existence,
Just Coffee has purchased 45 tons of coffee from the members of the
cooperative, which means $117, 000 ($1.30 per pound) of capital has been
given back to the families in Chiapas, in comparison to $31,500 ($.35 per pound)
they would have received in another market. In addition, Just Coffee has
created seven jobs in Mexico at double the market wage.
9. “Who” is Just Coffee?
Currently there are 26 families from
Chiapas in our cooperative, and others are waiting to join. In Agua Prieta, the
coffee is roasted, ground, and packaged by Hermano Daniel and Hermana Vicki, who
are from the Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, community and have lived in Agua Prieta
since 1996. The other employees include Adrian Gonzalez, Director of Customer
Relations, Deysi Garcia, Director of Data Entry, and Eva Perez, Director of
Communications in Chiapas.
10. So what is so great about the actual coffee?
Our coffee is certified 100% organic,
shade-grown coffee. When roasted, it retains the more volatile aromatics that
provide a fresh taste high in the palate with very little of the baser
aftertaste of other coffees.
11. What kinds are offered?
Currently, Just Coffee offers 100% Arabica
coffee, 100% Robusta (a slightly stronger) coffee, a blend of the two, or our
new decaffeinated Arabica coffee. Darker roasts, as well as green, unroasted
beans of each kind are also available. The coffee comes in 1 lb. packages of
either ground or whole bean.
12. How much does it cost?
Just Coffee prides itself in maintaining a
fair, competitive price to it’s customers as well. Retail price is $9 per pound
roasted, and $5(?) per pound green. Decaffeinated coffee costs $1 a pound
more. Wholesale (100+ lbs). is $7.75 per pound.
13. Are there any other products besides coffee?
Yes. Just Coffee now offers logo t-shirts,
pens, and coffee mugs in which to enjoy our delicious gourmet coffee.
14. How can I place an order?
Soon there will be a sales office on the west coast. Presently one can order by
internet att
the website at www.justcoffee.org or
call toll free at 1-866-545-6406.
Revised September 1, 2009
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We in
the USA are included in this vision. We have the opportunity to hear and
answer God’s call and have a right relationship with God. Because of the
support of the Churches, the JUST COFFEE cooperative is able to enroll the
farmers in the Social Security System of Mexico which means universal health
care for them and their families. Young men are coming back from their
undocumented jobs in the USA. Children are studying. The fathers and
mothers are constructing their homes out of lasting materials. The local
churches are strengthened by the continuing presence of its leaders; robust
tithes from coffee profits are funding local missions. Since the
cooperative is open to all, the Protestant-Roman Catholic enmity in Chiapas
is being bridged! And, traditional farmers are learning to be their own
masters, learning to make decisions and run a business! A weekly meeting
between the members in Chiapas and the plant at the border is conducted via
instant messaging.)
The people in the US
Churches who hear and answer will have a right relationship of love and
justice with their neighbor, the coffee farmer in Chiapas. We may not all
eat tortillas or potatoes, but our children and ourselves will be equally
filled from God’s provenance. Neither one shall destroy the other. Not by
threatening national security, nor by keeping the other in poverty.
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