Black Gold film review
Black Gold was given a special screening at The Duke of Yorks cinema in Brighton this July, with free coffee sampling and presentation before the screening coming from a South American UK distributor of fair trade Nicaragua coffee – cafe NICA.
The film itself discusses the issues around fair trade and non fair trade coffee sold worldwide. Coffee it would appear is indeed ‘liquid gold’ as once suggested by the kid from brooklyn, a right wing nutter who (accurately for once) ranted about Starbucks in an internet viral. One of the most valuable commodities in the world coffee is incredibly expensive when you compare the average cost of a cup to the amount paid to farmers the world over for a bag of beans. The price paid for a bag is many times less than we pay for a cup.
The film focuses on Ethiopian farmers who are paid so little they practically make a loss from selling the beans, they explain that even if they were paid a little more they would be able to improve their lives and afford shoes and schooling for their children. Many of them are unwillingly growing Khat – an addictive narcotic plant – instead in order to make enough money to stay alive.
One man – Tadesse Meskela – has set up a co-operative to try and get a fair price for the farmers in this region and sells coffee direct to the roasters rather than going through the normal process of selling beans to various traders before the roasting. The film follows his efforts to find buyers and looks at the challenges he faces.
One major issue with these co-operatives seems to lie in the distribution and sales of the coffee. Fortunately in Brighton we are lucky enough to have one distributor trying to get the coffee into local shops. Fransico, of cafe NICA in Brighton, who was promoting his coffee at the screening, has so far managed to find two sales outlets. You can purchase packs from the Duke of Yorks cinema, although they do not use it when buying a hot coffee to drink in the cinema as some reports are stating, and as of November 2007 local organic shop Infinity foods will also be stocking the coffee.
Back to the film – its message is key for anyone who consumes coffee or food produced abroad. Thats you. The film is very serious in places, but then this is a serious message. There are some humorous moments in the film, Tadesses’s wife we are informed rather surrealy, has a number of cows because she likes them. For some reason this seems very amusing, most people keep cats because they like them, but cows are an altogether more weighty proposition. Perhaps it was the translation, but why not keep cows if you like them, I think more people should do this. Toward the end of the film we visit the first ever Starbucks, which looks suspiciously like all the others, but with a cheap 70’s twist. The manager is so proud to work there, and babbles gushing nonsense about the place, clearly unaware that viewers of this particular documentary might not be sympathetic to Starbucks. She is delighted they are ‘touching so many lives’. Whilst shes not wrong, I fear the lives they are touching may not be as appreciative as she seems to think.
You must try to see this film – its touring the UK until October, check the screening schedule, sign-up to get an email when its released on DVD or coming to you, or order the DVD from amazon.
In the meantime go to the Black Gold coffee calculator to see where the money you spend on your coffee really goes, then take action.
Trailer
Great post on an important issue. When you think how much we spend on coffee in the west – the fair distribution of the profit would go a long way to solving much inequality.