For 18 months, the coffee industry has remained mostly silent about the ongoing destruction of Gaza. A new fundraiser hopes to raise money—and jolt the industry awake.
The coffee news never stops (literally—I had to leave several stories for next week because they kept being announced after I'd finished drafting my piece).
A big announcement at the Specialty Coffee Association's Expo conference in Houston: the SCA is taking over management of the Q Grader program—often described as coffee's version of wine's sommelier training—from its current administrator, the Coffee Quality Institute. The Q program (there's a Star Trek joke in there somewhere) has trained thousands of coffee tasting professionals over two decades, and there has been much confusion and consternation over what the program's "evolution" means for the industry.
Advocacy groups have filed a pair of legal challenges, alleging that some of the Brazilian coffee purchased by large U.S. brands is produced using forced labour and human trafficking. A federal lawsuit alleges that farms within Starbucks' supply chain use "slavery-like conditions", while a petition asks U.S. Customs and Border Protection to halt coffee imports from Brazil from a series of major brands including Starbucks and Nestlé due to links to forced labour. "Companies making billions in profits have had decades to fix this problem but have chosen profit over people", said Coffee Watch's Etelle Higonnet in a statement.
Last week, workers at Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. in Milwaukee announced their plans to unionise. Organisers sent a letter to Fairwave Holdings, the private equity-backed investment firm that bought Anodyne in 2023, asking for voluntary recognition. Fairwave declined to bargain, saying that the union didn't represent a majority of Anodyne's workers, despite a supermajority of workers signing union membership cards. (In my piece on Fairwave from last year, representatives from the company were keen to point out how beneficial being part of the "collective" was for employees.)
For more on all these stories, plus how a new cooperative is hoping to improve access to skilled local coffee equipment technicians, check out the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:
In case you missed it, you can read my article on how the Coffee People for Palestine fundraiser is raising money for the people of Gaza—and trying to jolt the industry out of its moral slumber:
Paid subscribers will receive a bonus article—or possibly a new interview—on Friday (you can upgrade here if you'd like to be included) but until then it's goodbye from Jane-boy and Sal, who took a minute out of their busy day to pose for my friend Nick:
I'm the creator and writer of The Pourover. Based in Scotland, I have over a decade of experience in the specialty coffee industry as a barista, roaster, and writer. Ask me about coffeewashing.
Fionn Pooler
Fionn Pooler
