Sara Lee to Source More Sustainable Coffee

Sara Lee announced it plans to double the amount of sustainable coffee used in its brands to 20,000 tons, a move the company says will make it the market leader in this area.

Sara Lee's coffee brands include the popular Senseo single serve coffee pods.  According to published reports Sara Lee' focus on sustainable coffee sourcing, will account for five percent of its total worldwide coffee procurement. 

A driving force behind the move is the increased demand for certified sustainable products in markets like Denmark and the Netherlands.  A Sara Lee spokesman estimated 25-30 percent of their coffee sold in those two markets is from sustainable sources.

Northern European markets in particular had a much stronger demand for Sara Lee's sustainable coffee brands.  The United States has a much larger and more diverse coffee market and as a result did not have as strong a demand for Sara re Lee sustainable coffee products.

Sara Lee coffee brands include Douwe Egberts (Senseo), Merrild, Maison du Cafe and Marcilla.

Sara Lee coffee and tea CEO, Frank van Oers said his company's move is vital in safeguarding sustainable supply chains for his company and the coffee industry as a whole.

The company has been working through the UTZ global coffee certification program and says its purchases of coffee through the program have increased eight times since 2004 when it bought 2,500 tons of UTZ certified coffee.  UTZ is a certification used by Wal-Mart as well as other major retailers.

UTZ insures strict social and environmental criteria are being met by participating coffee farms and co-ops.  In return the program provides coffee growers with knowledge of improved agricultural techniques and the global marketplace insuring they get better prices for their coffee.Sara Lee announced it plans to double the amount of sustainable coffee used in its brands to 20,000 tons, a move the company says will make it the market leader in this area.

Comments

[Sara]

Coffee puts the system under the strain of metabolizing a deadly acid-forming drug, depositing its insoluble cellulose, which cements the wall of the liver, causing this vital organ to swell to twice its proper size. In addition, coffee is heavily sprayed. (Ninety-two pesticides are applied to its leaves.) Diuretic properties of caffeine cause potassium and other minerals to be flushed from the body.

All this fear went away when I quit, and it was a book that inspired me to do it called The Truth About Caffeine by Marina Kushner. There are five things I liked about this book:

1) It details--thoroughly--the ways in which caffeine may damage your health.

2) It reveals the damage that coffee does to the environment. Specifically, coffee was once grown in the shade, so that trees were left in place. Then sun coffee was introduced, allowing greater yields but contributing to the destruction of rain forests. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else.

3) It explains how best to go off coffee. This is important. If you try cold turkey, as most people probably do, the withdrawal symptoms will likely drive you right back to coffee.

4) Helped me find a great resource for the latest studies at CaffeineAwareness.org

5) Also, if you drink decaf you won’t want to miss this special free report on the dangers of decaf available at www.soyfee.com

[BirdBarista]

The only thing "sustainable" means for Sara Lee is "we have a constant supply of cheap, low-quality coffee that degrades the environment."

Utz certification has the LEAST stringent environmental criteria of any of the leading certifiers. Only one of the 21 environmental criteria is a requirement for certification, and it states that deforestation is prohibited without "compensation to plant new fields." Shade of any type is not required, and if it is used it is "preferable" that native trees are used. Chemical use is allowed, with a "recommendation" that those used are the least toxic to people and wildlife. I have written about this here:
http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2007/02/utz_kapeh.html

This is just corporate greenwashing.