Associated Press Canada
Covers Starbucks Campaign

Protesters demand Starbucks pay fair prices for beans
Associated Press Canada

TORONTO, Ontario 2/23/02

A mix of chatty, hipster teens, new media types and yuppies sunning
themselves on a downtown Starbucks patio were interrupted Saturday by
placard-wielding protesters demanding the coffee giant pay farmers fair
prices for their coffee beans.

The demonstration was part of a weeklong global campaign against the
international coffee company, culminating with a rally outside the company's
annual shareholder meeting in Seattle on Tuesday.

"Starbucks paints themselves as being a socially responsible company,"
Suresh Tumkur, a volunteer with Oxfam, Canada, said as he handed out
leaflets to passers-by. "We are calling on them to back that up." Tumkur
says he wants Starbucks to start brewing coffee certified by the Fair Trade
network. It sells for a minimum of $1.29 per pound, whereas farmers selling
to middlemen, who then sell to multinational companies, get about 40 cents
per for their coffee.

Money from sales of Fair Trade coffee goes directly to coffee farmers to
help them build cooperatives, with no middlemen involved.
Starbucks sells Fair Trade coffee in bulk, but does not brew it on a regular
basis.

Simon Harris of the Organic Consumers Association, the group organizing the
protests, said Starbucks is starting to bend, responding to demonstrations
and consumer pressure.

"We've seen significant movement," Harris said. "Starbucks bought one
million pounds of Fair Trade coffee this year, and that's an important first
step. We have been calling on them to brew and offer it once week as their
coffee of the day. But they've only bought enough to do that once a month."
Harris said most Starbucks customers are sympathetic to the plight of coffee
farmers. Many drinking lattes on the downtown Toronto patio admitted feeling
guilty about it but said they didn't feel they had much choice in the
matter.

"I hate Starbucks," said Christina Foster. "It's just that it's everywhere
and it's convenient. It's not realistic to say I'm going to boycott it, but
that doesn't mean we can't pressure them to be responsible."
Helga Ruiterman, who hands out leaflets in Whistler, B.C., urging Starbucks
to better promote Fair Trade coffee, said people, especially Canadians, are
too complacent.

"The protests in the U.S. and Europe are very big," she said in a telephone
interview from British Columbia. "We need to wake up over here and stop
being so lenient."

Starbucks officials maintain the company is doing its part and say
protesters are smearing the company for publicity.
"Since October 2000, we have offered our stores as a platform for the
promotion of Fair Trade Certified coffee and the education of customers
about the coffee and its benefits to coffee farmers and their families,"
Starbucks president Orin Smith said in a statement responding to the
protests.

"We are concerned that (the Organic Consumers Association) continues to
share inaccurate and incomplete information that is grossly misleading to
the public," Smith said.

But Harris and other protesters insist the company is moving too slowly.
"If they want to put out glossy brochures stating their commitment to
farmers, that's fine, but they better be ready for us to call them on it
when they drag their heels delivering."

Canadian protests are planned outside Starbucks stores in Vancouver and
Whistler, British Columbia; Guelph and London, Ontario; Calgary, Alberta.
People will also be demonstrating in England, Japan, Israel, Austria and
other countries.