By Father James E. Flynn
Around 2004, while I was serving a parish in Park City, Utah, I organized a delegation of about 12 people to go to Nicaragua to learn how coffee is produced, and to learn about fair trade coffee specifically.
We went to a mountainous area with volcanic soil. Coffee grows best in such soil and under shaded areas and only above about 4,000 feet.
We learned from some coffee farmers how difficult, long and labor-intensive their work is. Between November and January, each coffee tree produces red-covered beans that are then ready to be picked, each carefully with index finger and thumb. Picking demands that stems are not broken to produce in subsequent years.
The red pulp is removed, exposing the tan coffee bean. Beans are laid out on concrete slabs to dry under the hot sun, while laborers rake the beans, turning them to the warm sun. Once dried, they are bagged for shipping to markets.
After returning from Nicaragua, a reporter from the Park City Record wrote an article about our experience in coffee production. Shortly after that article appeared, I had a call from a man who identified himself as the CEO of Sundance Ski Resort (close to Park City) — I had skied there several times. The CEO invited me to his Sundance office to talk more about fair trade coffee.
He listened to my story about the value of fair trade coffee, where hard-working coffee producers like those in Nicaragua would receive a fair price from consumers for their labor.
He then told me that Bob (as in Robert Redford) had read the article about our delegation to Nicaragua and directed him to serve only fair trade coffee at Sundance Ski Resort. Furthermore, only fair trade coffee would be served at the annual Sundance Film Festival held in Park City.
As it turned out, two of my friends in Park City operated Park City Roasters, who subsequently provided the fair trade coffee to Sundance Ski Resort and to the annual Sundance Film Festival.
Likewise, one of the food buyers at Deer Valley Ski Resort read the article, invited me to share the meaning of fair trade coffee. She told me they would then serve only fair trade coffee at Deer Valley Ski Resort.
One never knows how things can evolve.
Father James Flynn is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville.
