Letters
Oxfam defends destroying food
Dear Editors
The report that the article in the Socialist Standard (October)
is referring to Mugged: Poverty in your Coffee Cup, details why
the coffee crisis has become a development disaster, and is available
to download from our Make Trade Fair site (www.maketradefair.com).
It details the causes for the lowest coffee commodity prices in 30
years, one of which is the oversupply of coffee by developing
countries' smallholders. In order to reduce the oversupply the Coffee
Campaign advocates the destruction of least five million bags of coffee
stocks, funded by rich-country governments and roaster companies. Oxfam
is a non-political organisation, as we are monitored by the Charities
Commision on a regular basis and our mandate is to relieve poverty.
There is a crisis destroying the livelihoods of 25 million coffee
producers around the world. The price of coffee has fallen by almost 50
per cent in the past three years to a 30-year low. Long-term prospects
are grim. Developing-country coffee farmers, mostly poor smallholders,
now sell their coffee beans for much less than they cost to
produce—only 60 per cent of production costs in Viet Nam's Dak Lak
Province, for example. Farmers sell at a heavy loss while branded
coffee sells at a hefty profit. The coffee crisis has become a
development disaster whose impacts will be felt for a long time.
Families dependent on the money generated by coffee are pulling their
children, especially girls, out of school. They can no longer afford
basic medicines, and are cutting back on food. Beyond farming families,
coffee traders are going out of business. National economies are
suffering and some banks are collapsing. Government funds are being
squeezed dry, putting pressure on health and education and forcing
governments further into debt.
The scale of the solution needs to be commensurate with the scale of
the crisis. Our Coffee Rescue Plan, which brings together all the major
players in the coffee trade, is needed to make the coffee market
benefit the poor as well as the rich. This is about more than coffee.
It is a key element in the global challenge to make trade fair. The
plan needs to bring together the major players in coffee to overcome
the current crisis and create a more stable market.
Within one year the Rescue Plan, under the auspices of the
International Coffee Organisation, should result in:
1. Roaster companies paying farmers a decent price (above their costs
of production) so that they can send their children to school, afford
medicines, and have enough food.
2. Increasing the price to farmers by reducing supply and stocks of
coffee on the market through:
-Roaster companies trading only in coffee that meets basic quality
standards as proposed by the International Coffee Organisation (ICO).
-The destruction of at least five million bags of coffee stocks, funded
by rich-country governments and roaster companies.
3. The creation of a fund to help poor farmers shift to alternative
livelihoods, making them less reliant on coffee.
4. Roaster companies committing to increase the amount of coffee they
buy under Fair Trade conditions to two per cent of their volumes.
The Rescue Plan should be a pilot for a longer-term Commodity
Management Initiative to improve prices and provide alternative
livelihoods for farmers. The outcomes should include:
1. Producer and consumer country governments establishing mechanisms to
correct the imbalance in supply and demand to ensure reasonable prices
to producers. Farmers should be adequately represented in such schemes.
2. Co-operation between producer governments to stop more commodities
entering the market than can be sold.
3. Support for producer countries to capture more of the value in these
commodities.
4. Financed incentives to reduce small farmers' overwhelming dependence
on agricultural commodities.
5. Companies paying a decent price for all commodities, including
coffee.
LAURA SPENCE, OXFAM (by e-mail)
The seduction of profit, the decadent thrill of destruction...
Reply: Oxfam's interest in the plight of coffee farmers has led
to it advocating the destruction of about million bags of coffee. Our
response is that there can be no justification for destroying any food
when millions of people are starving. To propose this is to accept and
give into the logic of the money-wages-profit system.
Oxfam's opinion that there is an “oversupply” only makes sense from the
point of view of those who benefit most from the coffee industry. For
them a glut may mean a reduction in profit. If coffee is seen as being
oversupplied, then it is as a result of it being a commodity – an item
to be sold and bought at a price. There are millions who cannot afford
coffee because of its (high) price. If it were not for the price tag,
it would not be said to be in excess of supply. Millions among the poor
who cannot drink coffee would have had access to it. Thus, reducing
supply or increasing prices or both as Oxfam suggests does only one
thing – putting coffee out of the reach of more people. The answer lies
not in “Fair Trade” but in No Trade, in coffee along with every other
good or service ceasing to be a commodity traded on a market and being
produced instead solely and directly to satisfy people's needs. No
market can ever be made to work for the poor as well as the rich.
Oxfam seeks to solve the problem of the poor farmers by calling for a
Coffee Rescue Plan; a Commodity Management Initiative; and a Fair Trade
to be overseen by the International Coffee Organization. The “major
players” in the coffee business would be brought together to overcome
the crisis and create a stable market. What Oxfam does not understand
is that the coffee industry is made up of two antagonistic groups – the
owners of the plantations, the factories and the distribution network
(transport, communication, warehousing etc) on the one hand and the
farm labourers and their counterparts in the factories on the other.
The two have diametrically polarized interests. The owners want maximum
profits by squeezing the workers whilst the workers are resisting the
attempts at eroding their already insufficient wages. There can never
be an amicable solution as long as the ownership of the means of
production and distribution remain in the hands of a few. History is
replete with instances of woeful failures of committees and
organizations set up to try to resolve such problems. Such committees
invariably turn out to be made up of the same rich owners or their
cronies and their decisions are always bound to be biased. In short,
there can't possibly be harmony between fire and water.
The capitalist system inevitably breeds corrupt practices as evidenced
by the recent scandals surrounding WorldCom, Xerox, Enron, Arthur
Andersen, Global Crossing, Tyco and Adelphi Communications, etc.
Therefore the owning classes will do anything to thwart any measures
designed to impact negatively on profits. Oxfam views with concern the
inability of coffee farmers' children to have access to education,
health care, etc but then any measures taken to safeguard the interests
of farmers and their families that do not take into consideration the
relationship of the farmers to the means of production and distribution
(of coffee) is a non-starter. If ownership of these major resources
remain in the hands of a few wealthy individuals, no meaningfully
democratic discussions can take place.
SUHUYINI.
Back to Socialist Party home page
