Triple grande nonfat caramel macchiato.

Environmental scientist and sister-in-law extraordinaire will be very proud of her brother and me, for yesterday we purchased very fancy Starbucks travel mugs in which to put our oft-bought Starbucks coffee (or caramel apple cider). Although both the paper cup and the sleeve are made of a percentage of post-consumer waste, a reusable mug has a far less negative effect on the environment, requiring only the small amount of heat and water to wash it. And your coffee (or caramel apple cider) stays much, much warmer.

Question 1: Wouldn’t your environmental scientist sister-in-law prefer it if you didn’t support a huge national chain? Perhaps. But I love Starbucks. And you can’t choose love. In defense of my love, as far as big bad machines go, Starbucks isn’t so, so bad. A successful company with a good product is not obligated in a capitalist society to support any cause but itself. Starbucks actually takes the initiative to set positive examples in social and environmental practices (http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csr.asp).

Question 2: Why are you telling me this? I’m glad you asked. I’m telling you for three reasons: (1) because I think you should buy a sweet travel mug to use at your favorite coffee place, (2) because I want you to know that Starbucks tries, and (3) because I want you to help some Ethiopians.

Question 3: How is buying a travel mug going to help Ethiopians? Well, I can’t give you a direct correlation, but indirectly, reducing waste helps the entire planet. So buy a travel mug to help the Uzbekistanis too.

Question 4: How is knowing that Starbucks tries going to help Ethiopians? Well, for this I can give you a direct correlation. Oxfam is campaigning for Starbucks to allow Ethiopian farmers to maintain the copyright on their popular coffee names. If the Ethiopian farmers control the use of the names, then they get paid for the use of the names. It is more eloquently explained on the Oxfam site: http://www.oxfam.org/en/news/pressreleases2006/pr061103_starbucks

Here is an excerpt from the news release:
Last year the Ethiopian government filed applications to trademark its most famous coffee names, Sidamo, Harar, and Yirgacheffe. Securing the rights to these names would enable Ethiopia to capture more value from the trade, by controlling their use in the market and thereby enabling farmers to receive a greater share of the retail price. Ethiopia’s coffee industry and farmers could earn an estimated $88 million (USD) extra per year.

Oxfam wants you to send a fax to the Starbucks CEO telling him to let the Ethiopians have the names cuz you have enough money, dude. Or something similar. All you have to do is put in your name and e-mail, then press send, and a fax is sent. Because Starbucks is a more socially responsible company than most, they may actually listen.

Even baby steps eventually get you to where you want to be.

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