Field to Cup: Going Beyond Fair Trade (Part 4)

You’ve probably figured out by now, unless you’ve been living in a cave this is your first visit to our blog, that Higher Grounds isn’t your typical business. And we’re not even close to being your typical coffee company.

Most coffee-centered businesses are started by entrepreneurs who happen to like coffee. I can even imagine myself experiencing a thought process that might go something like this:

Wouldn’t it be fun to have my own business? I could be my own boss! That sounds great. Now, what’s something I like enough to sell to other people? Hmm… how about coffee? I love coffee! I think it’d be gnarly to hang out in a coffee shop all day & tell people what to do share my love of coffee with other people. And I could get rich earn a living doing it!

But Higher Grounds was borne out of something else entirely. Here’s the story:

Two Michigan natives spent a year living & working in the coffee-growing region of Chiapas, Mexico. When the year was up, they asked the coffee farmers how they could continue their support, even from as far away as Michigan. “Sell our coffee,” said the farmers. So that’s exactly what they did. They brought that unique relationship they formed with the farmers in Mexico to their coffee-loving friends in Michigan, & coffee beans from Chiapas made their way to the tiny original roastery in Leelanau County.

That close friendship we formed with the farmers in Chiapas serves as a model for our interactions with all our coffee suppliers. The ultimate goal, unlike for most businesses, is not to make a profit. Yes, of course we need to pay our bills & pay our employees, & as we continue to grow, there’s more capital involved. But our motivation lies on higher ground. (Like that pun? I’m so clever.) We don’t just buy beans from around the world: we’re committed to paying farmers not only a fair price for their beans but a premium on top of the global fair-trade standard, so our coffee-growing friends can do more than cover their costs. We want them to come out on top. (The standard import model of Buy Low & Sell High? Not our style.) And they truly are our friends: we meet the farmers face-to-face when annual Higher Grounds delegations visit coffee-growing communities. We also donate our time, money, & coffee to local & global grassroots initiatives.

What’s more, Higher Grounds founded a community-based nonprofit, On the Ground, to partner with organizations & communities to encourage sustainable development in global farming regions. We love providing our customers with opportunities to create social change.

So that’s our philosophy & our mission. But there are other forces at work in our world, forces that often complicate & challenge that mission. As I explained throughout the three other posts in this series, the fair trade movement has recently been bombarded with controversy. Next week, in the final installment, I’ll fill you in on exactly what HG is doing in the face of that controversy in order to stay true to our mission & maintain solidarity with our farming friends around the world.