Foods from Far Away: Spices, Coffee, Tea, Chocolate

What is this doing in a Locavore blog? Aren't you supposed to be eating only what grows locally? Yes, but.....

1. Many people won't eat locally if it means that they lose their spices, their morning coffee or tea, their chocolate. For example, in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" Barbara Kingsolver's wonderful book, she allowed spices, and allowed her husband's coffee.

2. Spices, in particular, are very lightweight, and have been traded extensively for at least 1500 years. An ounce of cloves will last you for years. If you can get a few ounces of spices, to season up many many pounds of 100-mile meats, fruits, and vegetables, it's worth it. Spices are also important in lactofermented vegetables, a wonderful healthy way to preserve vegetables for long-term use.

3. Coffee, tea, chocolate, and tropical spices really can't be grown in the U.S. (with the exception of a single tea plantation in South Carolina). These items come mainly from less-wealthy countries, and if properly imported, are an important source of income for local farmers.

However, many times these items contribute to poverty and misery instead of relieving it. I have recently read the book "Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Free-Trade Coffee" by Dean Cycon (of Dean's Beans). He has traveled to many of the countries that produce our coffee and spices. Some of the stories are horrific; the local producers are taken advantage of by everyone along the way, and get pennies per pound for their hard work.

Children in some areas work as virtual slaves in chocolate plantations. Herbicides and insecticides are required by many large companies, and poison the workers and their families who cannot read the instructions which are in English. It's really hair-raising to think about the suffering which can be embedded in our innocent purchase of these foods.

The solution is "Fair Trade". Fair Trade is an international certification, which determines what farmers in a particular area would need to earn to feed their families, send their children to school, and improve their villages. It is always higher than the world price of these commodities.

The Fair Trade buyers agree on the bonus price, which is generally paid in a lump sum each season, above the usual price the farmers get. Lump sums allow coffee villages to build their own coffee bean processing plants, or build a school, or improve their source of potable water. It is difficult for an impoverished village to accumulate enough capital to make these simple changes in their lives without the Fair Trade bonus.

We have exceptions for coffee (Jim's call) and spices (my call) by which I mean tropical spices that really can't be grown in this country: nutmeg, allspice, mace, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, cardamon, and vanilla (well, not exactly a spice, but vanilla is also a fair-trade item). Chocolate was a holiday exception for two weeks, off now. And I'm saving a spot for black and green tea. When I buy any of these items, I will look for organic and fair-trade sources. We are citizens of the world, after all, and bear a responsibility for the impact of our purchases.