(Peruvian) farm to Philly

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

This entry employes an international interpretation of ‘Farm to Philly’, but I hope the topic is still interesting and relevant!  (After all, even in meals made almost completely with locally-produced ingredients, there are usually still spices or oils from other regions or countries.  I’ve heard it called the ‘Marco Polo exception’...)

The Independents Coffee Cooperative is a ‘group of independently owned coffeehouses [in Philadelphia] focused on increasing the sale of fair-trade and organic coffee, while making a positive impact in our communities, on the environment, and in the lives of the people who produce the products we sell’.  You can view a map of the members’ locations here.  (E.g., the Mugshot, Green Line, and Infusion cafés, as well as the West Philly Metropolitan café and joe coffee bar.)

This week—appropriately during October, which is Co-op Month AND Fair Trade Month—a coffee farmer and a farmers’ co-op representative, both from Peru, are visiting Philadelphia!  The farmer lives in the Andes mountains, apparently about 10 hours’ drive from Cusco, and he is one of the grower-owners of the Cooperativa San Fernando, for which the other Peruvian visitor is a representative. 

This afternoon, the farmer and the co-op rep, as well as a representative from Equal Exchange (the cooperatively-owned fair-trade buyer that has facilitated the purchase of San Fernando Cooperative coffee by the ICC), translators, and some ICC store owners, held an informal discussion/Q&A session at my local coffee shop, the (original) Green Line Café @ 43rd & Baltimore.  I stopped by for about half an hour, browsed the display of pictures, and admired the distinctive Mayan clothes worn by the Peruvians.  I couldn’t think of any particular questions about coffee production, although I was happy to observe that the fair-trade model seemed to be effective in providing a fair, beneficial revenue for the coffee farmers.

Instead, I actually spent my time talking with the person from Equal Exchange, then one of the owners of Mugshots, concerning various issues of co-ops, fair trade, middle men, and buying choices—all things that I feel I’m currently studying in a practical, urban-focused way by observing why and how individuals make choices to buy local food.  At any rate, if any of the remaining events happen to be convenient for anybody tomorrow, I’d recommend stopping by.  There’s breakfast (08.30-10.30 am) at the Manayunk joe coffee bar, an afternoon session (03.00-05.00 pm) at the Fairmount Mugshots, then an evening event (07.00-09.00 pm) at...hm...one of the InFusion locations.  I know this entry doesn’t provide much advance warning, and I apologize, but I only found out about this whole visit yesterday!

Other links:
Here is a brief press release, and here is a Daily Pennsylvanian article on the breakfast hosted at the 40th St. Metropolitan Bakery & Café on Tuesday.