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Reflections from El Salvador |
By Beth Ann Caspersen, Quality Control Manager
 It was 16 years ago in June that I traveled to El Salvador on an Equal Exchange delegation as a college student from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. I was the lucky recipient of a fellowship that year from Wheaton and Equal Exchange, as part of an educational campaign to inform students about the new Equal Exchange coffee on campus and educate college students about the reality of small coffee farmers in El Salvador.
Our delegation consisted of students and buyers from other universities, as well as a few Equal Exchange staff, including founder Jonathan Rosenthal (now with Just Works) and Hilary Abell (now with Wages). Together we traveled to San Salvador and over the course of 10 days we met with farmers who belonged to coffee co-ops, visited the site of Archbishop Romero’s assassination, and spent three days in the homes of the coffee farmers.
It was the first time I had been to a third world country, and this was a country devastated by a U.S.-backed war that claimed more than 75,000 lives. Upon arrival it was obvious that El Salvador was in ruin. The city of San Salvador was a fragmented, shell of a city with armed police in the streets, broken down buildings and very tired, emotionally drained faces everywhere we went. The brutal and horrific personal stories that were shared by some of the farmers were very sad and difficult to hear. To say it was an emotionally charged experience would be an understatement.
The impact of my trip to El Salvador sent shock waves through my entire life. This experience is where I became part of the social justice movement and slowly began to understand the plight of small farmers. El Salvador helped me to understand some of the social and economic issues that small farmers all around the world face. I wondered how I could make change happen for these farmers. It set my wheels in motion. I knew I wanted to work for the farmers I’d met who were gaining access to information and markets through the co-operative model. I didn’t know that my life would later revolve around coffee or that I would have a morning ritual of cupping coffee in the Equal Exchange Quality Laboratory.
El Salvador was the site of my first ever coffee cupping. I vaguely remember walking into a covered courtyard with a large round table in the middle. The outer edges of the table were lined with small ceramic bowls with ground coffee and rectangular plastic trays of roasted coffee sat next to each coffee sample. I can remember Jonathan picking up a big silver spoon and tasting the coffee with a loud slurp, then spitting it out - as is customary on the cupping table - but I remember thinking, “Why spit it out?” and being a little uncomfortable with the process. When we were all invited to slurp the coffee I followed suit. I sat on a low stool next to the round table and spit into a large spittoon. I remember delicious bright and citric flavors during the tasting until I got to the one that tasted like dirt. As is in my nature, I blurted out something along the lines of “it tastes like dirt” to the group. The dirty sample was clearly defective. It was at that moment that Jonathan says he knew that I could cup coffee.
Sixteen years later, as Quality Control Manager for Equal Exchange, I set out on a very different mission for my trip to El Salvador, one that was inspired by the Sixth Principle of co-operatives, “Cooperation among co-operatives,” and grounded in the quality improvement work that we do with our producer partners, both on the farm and in the cupping laboratory. I went to El Salvador to learn about what they are doing to improve coffee quality and to give some new information I had collected in Peru about quality audits.
I arrived to a city that I did not recognize. San Salvador had paved roads, fluid traffic, fast food restaurants and billboards with café lattes adorned with hearts. The San Salvador I remembered had been transformed into a modern capital with modern conveniences. This was not the San Salvador of my memories, it had become a different place. The only military-like people I saw were in the airport. As I traveled around, visiting farmers, there was a much more relaxed atmosphere than I had remembered. I was happy to be there and bring useful tools and information to our co-op partners. My objective was to share our work in doing quality audits with our producer partners. As soon as I learn something new, I consider it my duty to figure out ways to share the information, both within our own co-operative at Equal Exchange and with farmer co-operatives.
In El Salvador, Equal Exchange buys coffee from two primary-level co-operatives called El Pinal and Las Colinas. Both organizations are the product of the Agrarian Reform of the late 1980s in El Salvador and both have struggled to get out from under enormous debts that were incurred after the restructuring of the coffee sector took place. Unlike many of the small farmer co-ops that we work with where individual farmers work their own pieces of land, growing and processing their coffee to be sold to the co-operative, these two co-operatives are collectively farmed and managed.
Las Colinas and El Pinal reside on the sites of old coffee plantations, where community members and workers on these plantations acquired the land through the Agrarian Reform. All of the coffee is wet processed in a centralized mill. This means that coffee cherries are harvested by the members of the co-op and delivered to one facility on the farm. In contrast, many small farmers around the world that are organized into co-operatives own their land and many are required to purchase and maintain their own processing equipment. Basic tools are needed to produce great coffee properly and consistently, and tools cost money. For example, farmers need the capital to buy and maintain equipment like a depulper to remove the coffee seed from the fleshy pulp, fermentation tanks, washing canals to halt the fermentation process and patios or raised drying surfaces to dry the coffee. Not to mention the clean water necessary to process the coffee, producing organic compost and a whole host of processes used to run their small businesses.
However, a centralized mill is operated differently; producers harvest the coffee cherries and sell them to the mill to then be processed under tight scrutiny of the coffee mill managers. The collective systems on these farms ensure consistency and accountability. I went there to evaluate the condition of the equipment and share a few key issues I learned about while visiting coffee farmers in Peru. I was able to formally evaluate the condition of the equipment, the cleanliness of the processing, and through the maintenance records understand what is really going on.
Evaluations can be scary, so the first thing I did with both managers of the wet mills was to sit down and explain my objective, to pinpoint any and all ways to improve the quality of the coffee - from the condition of the camisa inside the depulper to the resting place for honey water. Each piece of the processing was important to understand. I believe this work in auditing our producer partners is a way to share information and learn from one another.
To prepare the co-ops for the Quality Audit, we had a one-day quality seminar in San Salvador. The day began with a hands-on, flavor basics seminar to explain the complex nature of coffee tasting. I introduced the group to taste and the perception of flavor. Many people can relate to universal flavors like orange juice, but what about the distinct flavor of a fresh blueberry? Or the complex flavor of a dried mission fig? To build a common vocabulary, we started with the basics and everyone had the opportunity to taste different nut and fruit flavors that we find in specialty coffee.
The exercise was extended through to a coffee tasting where I presented delicious coffees from El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico that were prepared in French presses. Our afternoon session focused on the upcoming quality audit through to our quality procedures here in the West Bridgewater, Mass. warehouse and roastery. The 20 participants who attended the seminar were pleased to have real tools to bring back to their co-ops. It was useful for them to see that co-ops in other countries like Peru have similar challenges and successes in their own processing mills.
We spent the next two days walking around El Pinal and Las Colinas to evaluate their systems and machinery. What did we find? Simple improvements that could dramatically affect the coffee they will process during the next harvest. Our quality audit highlighted some of the great things they are doing as well. For example, Las Colinas and El Pinal both have eco-pulpers that reduce the amount of water used to process the coffee. This is definitely good for the environment and future generations – and is something for which to be proud. (Check out this blog post by Todd Caspersen.)
I believe in the value of sharing information. There have been countless cuppers, agronomists and coffee farmers within and outside of the cooperative movement who have shared their thoughts and opinions with me. As they say, knowledge is power. Having access to information is crucial and I believe the co-operative movement – and Equal Exchange – plays a strong role in providing small farmers with that access to information. And for that, I am happy to share what I’ve learned for as long as anyone is willing to listen.
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