For many of us, coffee isn’t just what we look forward to drinking each morning. It is the reason for our business to exist and therefore what makes possible the living of many people: staff, suppliers, importers, farmers… As you can imagine, a whole global industry and diverse communities depend on coffee, literally and figurative speaking.
The good news is that the supply of coffee (for us) is probably at its best right now: fast communications, cheap transport and logistics, the ability to trade with the most isolated regions of the world… Pretty much any coffee shop in town offers a range of single origins from different countries at affordable prices all year round.
The not so good news is that, unfortunately, we can’t take this for granted. Like many other agricultural goods and processes, the future of coffee is at risk. Climate change, new plant diseases, intensive and destructive agricultural practices, overpopulation and land dispute, fuel price increase… These and many more factors are challenging the sustainability of our relationship with coffee the way we know it today.
Luckily, some people are leading the path to find solutions to this problem. World Coffee Research is a global organisation using scientific research, education and development towards a brighter future for the whole industry and coffee lovers. Their mission is to “grow, protect, and enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihoods of the families who produce it”.
Their current work is deployed over 21 countries through collaborative projects with scientific organisations, local governments and NGOs. The goal is to achieve a sustainable production of higher quality coffee introducing more efficient and environmentally friendly methods. This should go hand in hand with improvements on wages and working conditions for farmers and producers.
And who finances all this? The organisation relies heavily on donations from the global coffee industry because, as you can imagine, is on our best interest to support those who take seriously the survival of our trade.
Sample Coffee recently joined the World Coffee Research Check-Off Program, one of their funding streams where coffee importers and roasters work together to donate part of their purchasing value to the cause.
Reuben Mardan says: “We joined WCR Check-Off Program because we care about coffee and we want to keep drinking and serving it every single day. Being part of this means that we are supporting research and work towards a sustainable future for our business, stakeholders, customers and our life the way we know it. Because we couldn’t imagine a world without coffee.”
As part of this program, 1 cent per each kg of green beans we buy will be put towards the WCR projects. So please know and share the fact that whenever you drink Sample or purchase a bag from our shelves, you are supporting the research for a future full of coffee.
You can learn more about this initiative on the WCR website and the Washington Post article “The race to save coffee”.
Love from the team at Sample