berkeley to make coffee a little more palatable...maybe

[Guest guest]

Initiative to Test Berkeley Voters' Coffee Conscience

 

by Evelyn Nieves

 

BERKELEY, Calif. — In a city of one cafe after another —

three to four to a block on some streets — Rick Young

chooses his coffee houses carefully. He takes his java

strong, fresh and Fair Trade.

 

The way he sees it, the world, or at least Berkeley, would

be closer to perfect if every cafe, every diner, every

restaurant, every 7-Eleven and every bake sale served only

Fair Trade certified coffee — coffee that guarantees a

so-called living wage for small farmers in developing

countries. Or the coffee would be shade-grown, protecting

rain forests and other sensitive environments. Or it would

be grown without pesticides.

 

Mr. Young, 36, a rookie lawyer out of the University of

California at Berkeley law school, has made it a mission to

make this happen.

 

After gathering 3,000 signatures, Mr. Young's voter

initiative requiring that all cups of coffee sold in

Berkeley be Fair Trade, shade-grown or organic has qualified

for the November ballot. If it passes, it would make this

the only city in the nation with an official coffee policy.

 

" If there's an alternative to harming the environment and

the coffee tastes just as great, why not? " he said the other

morning, sitting in a chair outside A Cuppa Tea, which

serves only Fair Trade brews.

 

The naysayers are already saying things like, " Only in

Berserkeley. " But Transfair USA (http://www.transfair.org/

), which is the only Fair Trade certifying organization in

the United States — and which happens to be based next door

to Berkeley, in Oakland — is thrilled.

 

" We are very excited that the ballot initiative is gaining

so much momentum, " said Kenya Lewis, the public relations

manager.

 

" Fair Trade certified coffee is such an easy way for any

coffee drinker to effect change on critical global issues

such as immigration, starvation, drug trade and the

environment — and more immediately, it really offers a

simply way to make a real and measurable difference in the

lives of farmers. "

 

Even in Berkeley, however, Mr. Young's initiative is not

guaranteed success. The City Council, which once banned a

Boy Scout troop from Japan from City Hall because the Boy

Scouts in the United States ban gay leaders, has been

mumbling about the ordinance being too oppressive.

 

Letters in the local newspapers complain that the initiative

is ridiculous. Even the mayor, Shirley Dean, who wrote a

1999 regulation requiring that all coffee purchased by the

city be Fair Trade — the first such law in the country for a

municipality — is skeptical.

 

" People feel torn, " Ms. Dean said. " They like the idea of

drinking an environmentally safe and socially responsible

coffee. But there are questions over the restraint of

trade. "

 

Ms. Dean was clearly torn herself. She pushed for the rule

on Fair Trade coffee in city government after watching a

documentary about South American growers, who were underpaid

and exploited, she said.

 

" But how can we enforce such a law? " she said, in a city

with more than 300 establishments that would be affected.

" How will we tell which coffee is certified? You can't do a

taste test. What would this law mean for our business

inspectors? How do you balance the socially responsible

against the practical? "

 

So far, specialty coffee chains, like Peet's (which was born

in Berkeley) and Starbucks (whose founders learned the ropes

at Peet's) have demurred from commenting on the initiative.

Both offer Fair Trade coffee beans to customers as options.

 

Other cafe owners in Berkeley are annoyed, if not downright

incensed, at Mr. Young's idea.

 

" The proposal seems fascist, " said Darryl Ross, owner of

several cafes, including one, across from the law school at

Berkeley, which serves only Fair Trade coffee.

 

" No business wants to be forced to carry a specific brand, "

said Mr. Ross, who remembered when Mr. Young as a student,

threatened a boycott of his cafe if he did not go the Fair

Trade-only route. That worked, but Mr. Ross said few people

seem to think the initiative is a good idea.

 

" I don't even see much support for it among the professional

Fair Trade lovers, " he said, " or the card-carrying radicals

and Berkeley liberals. "

 

Samir Nassar, owner of Brewed Awakening, a family-run cafe

that offers organic and Fair Trade coffee as an option, said

restricting the business would cost customers more because

the coffee itself is more expensive.

 

" I would say 99.9 percent of my customers are making fun of

the petitioner, " he said. " They think he has too much time

on his hands. "

 

Mr. Young, a native of Scranton, Pa., who has lived and

traveled all over the world, teaching English and skiing and

leading cycling tours, does happen to be underemployed at

the moment. He was recently laid off from a small law firm.

 

He said he is devoting quite a bit of time to his initiative

and is surprised at the attention and vitriol it is

generating. He said he had received hate e-mail on his Web

site (http://www.geocities.com/coffeelawinfo/ ).

 

Still, more than a few people in Berkeley, and elsewhere,

are also championing his cause. I've gotten a lot of " way to

go's " ' he said.

 

As if scripted, he was approached by a passerby. " You're the

coffee man, " the middle-age, bearded man said. " I saw you on

CNN. I want to applaud what you're doing. "

 

" That's never happened before, " Mr. Young said, looking very

much like a winning campaign was brewing.