Bulletin Board of Bad Behavior

Hey Marky, if you are awake call me (or are you just logged on?)

I got your message. For the rest of you, we were having a chat about coffee houses ages ago. It went something like this. I have a friend who always uses independent coffee/shops and record stores... I understand the sentiment. It would be tragic if you could only ever get starbucks coffee etc. Yet I had to point out that often the "alternative stores" didn't bother with medical benefits, vacations or sick days and the like, and were often owned and operated by people who were passionate about the music but hideous in their treatment of the staff. I would much rather take starbucks than this shit.

Heheh. Okay I will call you here in a sec. At first I thought "What? Are you kidding? At this hour?" But then I realized it's actually 6:30 AM here now which means it's probably quite a reasonable hour where you are. I won't say I've been up all night but I have been drinking, obviously. It's also still dark here.

Fantastic conversation Tommy, I hope we can do it again soon. I consider it rather a miracle we managed to hook up at all because usually I'm on the computer on dial up so even if you had called I wouldn't have got the message til much later.

You still have to tell me all about your new girlfriend! Good for you!

this is an interesting conversation. i am not a coffee drinker at all. i have enough vices and fortunately that is one less i've had to give up while pregnant, but here's the thing. independent or not are they selling fair trade coffee? the foundation i went to honduras with sells the coffee that these honduran farmers grow. they grow it through sustainable farming and it is a great GREAT job for hondurans who do not want to work sweatshop jobs for tyco (which btw this week i had my infant cpr classes and our instructor said DO NOT BUY TOYS that are not made in the USA -- other countries do not have the same regulations that we do about choking hazards and they will stick a safety sticker on there regardless of the actual safety of the product) back to "independent" coffee. buy your own from a sustainable fair trade company . . . then you are good people.

and i drank coffee while i was in honduras. it was delicious. i was very grateful for it.

one of adam's honduran pictures is here, which is why you go to independent coffee houses and drink fair trade coffee . . . right?!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... id=2959864

The United States consumes one-fifth of all the world's coffee, making it the largest consumer in the world. But few Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as "sweatshops in the fields." Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt.

Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis, assuring consumers that the coffee we drink was purchased under fair conditions. To become Fair Trade certified, an importer must meet stringent international criteria; paying a minimum price per pound of $1.26, providing much needed credit to farmers, and providing technical assistance such as help transitioning to organic farming. Fair Trade for coffee farmers means community development, health, education, and


http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns ... de/coffee/

Where to find fair trade coffee while your online:

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns ... ilers.html

AND JUST IN CASE YOU'RE INTERESTED IN BEING A PART OF THIS CHANGE THAT YOU MAY WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD . . . HERE are some things you can do TO CHANGE STARBUCKS A LITTLE BIT. If you're not interested you're not, and that's your business.

Starbucks Campaign
Coffee farmers are becoming even more impoverished, going further into debt and losing their land due to extremely low world coffee prices. Meanwhile coffee companies such as Starbucks have not lowered consumer prices but are pocketing the difference, even taking into account the quality premiums in the specialty industry.
According to Fair Trade Labeling Organizations International, Fair Trade farmers sell only about 20% of their coffee at a Fair Trade price. The rest is sold at the world price, due to lack of demand. Demand can be created by large corporations selling Fair Trade.
Since 2000, consumers have been demanding that Starbucks offer BREWED Fair Trade coffee as well as whole bean. Many Starbucks cafes will brew a pot of Fair Trade - but only if specifically asked. Meanwhile Fair Trade Coffee has yet to be promoted as the brewed Coffee of the Day, which is the only way to ensure real volume for Fair Trade Farmers.
Read Global Exchange's statement on Starbucks recently introduced "CAFE Program."

What you can do:
Participate in OCA's ongoing campaign to pressure Starbucks to offer rBGH-free milk, ban GMOs, and offer BREWED Fair Trade Certified as Coffee of the Day once a week.
Download our new Starbucks flyer here (PDF 1.6mb).
Demand that Starbucks offer brewed Fair Trade Coffee of the Day -- every week!! Write or fax a letter to Starbucks.
If you are a Starbucks customer, always buy Fair Trade! Tell the Starbucks workers and customers -- our potential allies -- about your commitment to buy only Fair Trade, and keep asking for Fair Trade brewed coffee.
Gather petitions asking Starbucks to sell Fair Trade brewed coffee.
Starbucks will offer Fair Trade coffee only at universities where students demand it. Let your voice be heard!
Get connected with the Fair Trade coffee campaign moderated listserve!
Read more about Starbucks and Fair Trade in the news.


http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns ... bucks.html

I tend to use the local independent lesbian coffee house here - but that's because I know they actually do have benefits, treat their staff well... and all around are a great place. And there are girls there who might kiss me; that's always good.
(And yes - they do sell fair trade coffee. They also do on my campus, but coffee is really expensive here.)
Unfortunately, when I'm in a new place I go for starfuckers - just because it's easy and theoretically I know what I'm getting. My coffee in the morning (or whenever I happen to be starting my day) is NOT something I can mess with, otherwise I will be super-bitchy and mostly not awake.

Lesbian coffee houses?

Sign me up!

"Unfortunately, when I'm in a new place I go for starfuckers - just because it's easy and theoretically I know what I'm getting. My coffee in the morning (or whenever I happen to be starting my day) is NOT something I can mess with, otherwise I will be super-bitchy and mostly not awake."

starfuckers is a good name, although starBUCK$ fits them pretty well. that sounds like one cool cafe, the independent lesbian owned one. imo, independently owned stuff is always cooler. i didn't really get this part of the original post, but thought it was just me:

"were often owned and operated by people who were passionate about the music but hideous in their treatment of the staff. I would much rather take starbucks than this shit."

it may just be me, but i know the owner of an independent movie house, the owner of an independent theatre, the owner of an independent record store, the owner of an independent restaraunt they are all cool. i don't know anyone who owns a business who is not cooler to work for than some asshole manager of a chain who thinks he/she deserves the power trip of managing people who are pretty desperate for jobs.

about the bitchiness, i was that way about smokes so i understand. now it's no smokes. i'm over the addiction part. i don't care but i still want a big fat marlboro, probably red, full of tar -- i'd like a big honking serving of something unhealthy, and that would do nicely. five weeks and counting! caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, what else? i don't know. you get to write out your labor and delivery plan, mine's going to be fuck the epidural i will take a carton of marlboro reds, two bottles of tequilla and a tub of caffeine, thanks! (i can only be good for so long, plus this chick i went to the lake with this summer clued me in on something called pump and dump . . . the healthy way to breastfeed and still indulge. that really made seeing the destruction of nature and staying in the waste of an overpriced shit house that folks don't even live in year round and pay an ungodly amount for because it is on a golf course, not ridiculous. . . almost )

Paging Tony/Tommy:
starBUCK$ and the likes are not good business folks . . . not in the grand scheme, not when we think about the folks who grow the coffee who get the shaft b/c of them, not when we think about the bad practices involved in farming that ruins the earth. my students and i watch this movie every year about this time. it is called tall tale. and oliver platt is in it. i love oliver platt. i would marry oliver platt if i weren't already married. but he plays paul bunyan, and while we watched it this year, i just totally got all of it. the kids' character -- watch it with your kids one day, tommy, watch it with henry and you will see what i mean about starBUCK$