Sustainable trade, better product, fairer world

Today I went to an event held by the roaster for the coffee bar that I work at. I learned a lot about coffee: about brew methods, equipment, taste profiles, and farming/importing. It was fun and informative, but most of all it was very encouraging.

Coffee is the second most legally traded commodity in the world. The only thing higher is oil. An incredible amount of that traded coffee ends up in a can on a shelf at Meijer, and brewed at Starbucks or bigby. But there is an amount of it that ends up in the hands of a crafter of sorts. That is my role. I take a product that was planted and raised to be an excellent bean, and roasted to be an excellent coffee, and I do everything I can to ensure it's excellence in the final product.

In the last five years there has been a culture of excellence surrounding specialty coffee. More and more coffee shops and roasters have popped up that invest extreme care into the product, as well as home baristas and roasters. I myself have only entered into this world in the last two years, but after joining this culture of excellence, I have found something that comes with it which may excite me even more: a culture of fair and sustainable trading.

In the world today, the farmer is almost always the little guy. But the same people who come around the product for excellence come around the process for fairness. The roaster I was visiting today has a few partnership farms, where they buy the entire crop of the farm, and after working through the international trade stipulations, almost write a check directly to the farmer. They regularly visit the farmer, and work with the farmer, exploring technology and other means to create a better product and trade in a more fair way.

I also had the opportunity to talk with a guy who works for a micro-loan company that works for coffee farmers. The company works in a way that tries to get the farmer the best deal for the beans. The process is something of a meritocracy, where the farmer with the best quality beans gets the best price. One farmer he worked with told him this year was the first year he was going into next season's crop without already owing money on it.

All of this gets me excited at the effort of many, and makes me want to educate those who do not know. So with my blog comes a challenge: first, next time you buy a cup of coffee, ask the barista about the care that he/she invests in the product and the process and second, feel good about yourself when you spend an extra buck on a cup of coffee that not only tastes great, but is the product of a process that tries to fairly reward all those involved.

Grace and peace,

Ben

A Little Rant About Silly Things.

Politicians play a game: make myself look good and make other people look bad. They are very good at it. People like to play that game too. They take the politician they like the best, and focus on the positives of that person and the negatives of any opposing. Another thing that is sort of funny is this: before ever learning true, unbiassed facts about a politician, almost every voter already knows which politician that they will vote for, and very rarely does their mind change.

It is a game. It shouldn't be, but it is.

Think about this: if there were two football teams taking the field for the Super Bowl this year, and one of them was your favorite team, you would most likely think that they were going to win. Even if the other team had proven itself to be statistically better, and all signs ultimately pointed to them winning the game.

With sports we form a connection with a team that stays strong despite the rise and fall of the team. This is fine for sports, for a game, but should not be the same way for politics.

I cheer for the Packers because I have always cheered for the Packers. I started cheering for the Packers because my next door neighbors cheered for the Packers. Whenever they go into the game, I have a huge bias that they will emerge the victors. Despite numbers, despite statistics. Last season Packers were ranked 32nd (of 32... that's last) in secondary defense, but I still believe that they will have a miraculous turn around and end up with an awesome defense next season.

Do you view politics in the same way you do sports?

Maybe try it differently this time.

Also, please do not tear down people because of their political views. You are not always right (neither am I), and grey areas do exist, and you never know the full story...

I hope that in this upcoming election we can all come to the ballot with a decision that was made based on unbiassed information, and respect the people who disagree with us.

Nice Things

Today I was surprised by two random acts of service and kindness from complete strangers.

First I was at Lake Michigan Credit Union, because I was informed that I had a negative balance on an account that I thought I hadn't used in about 2 years. So I went in to fix the problem. It turns out I had accidentally used the wrong card when I got my hair cut early May. Lake Michigan has a service that they pay for my overdraft, but the service costs $30. The lady there took the $30 off my account, and what I thought was a $35 inconvenience was only a $5 inconvenience. Maybe she does this for a lot of people, but I sure appreciated it.

Then I was in twisted rooster ordering my $3.00 roo-burger to go (their all day Wednesday special). After a bit of a wait, the waitress who had taken my order told me that it was taking longer than usual, and I should just go back over to clique and she would bring my burger when it was done.

Neither of them had to do either of these things for me, but they both did. It just made me smile, so I thought I would share it with all of you.

What nice things have people done for you today? What nice things have you done for people today?

A Tiny Effort.

I am not always a responsible member of my community. I often place my selfish desires - or more often laziness - in front of the interest of my immediate or global community.

Today I was at Costco buying a lot of various fluids. I unloaded my cart of heavy cases of water bottles into my car, and I just did not feel like walking all the way across the parking lot to dump my cart in the cart corral. I paused for a moment, and looked around the parking lot. I saw about 4 carts sitting next to the parking spaces of irresponsible members of this community. I nodded my head, and walked my cart across the parking lot to the cart corral. I took care of my stuff, and now nobody else has to.

Tiny effort. Incredibly significant moment.

Think about all those things that annoy you. When your co-worker doesn't do that little thing that would make a world of difference. When a selfish man spits his gum in the urinal when there is a trash can three steps away. When you turn on your blinker, but nobody lets you in.

Now take a day to be intentional and see how you are impacting your immediate community. How is your community blessed by you? How is your community inconvenienced by you? Then add that tiny effort to make somebody's day that much better.

Blessings,

-Ben

What do You think?

Ok, this blog is not a political blog. This blog is intended to be a source of challenging questions and inspirational messages. But today that question and that message are intertwined with a political event.

Today President Obama did another one of those bold things that he does. Things like authorizing military action in Libya, or says that whoever is responsible for the oil spill is going to get their asses kicked. Well, rather then saying what he said I will just quote him:

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.

Is Obama saying this to get votes? Yes... of course he is. He is a politician. It is a bit of a gamble, because he will certainly lose some votes as well. He has likely done all the math and calculated that it will yield him positive results by making the announcement.

All that said, I think that there is still good that can come from it.

What do you all think about this? Do you think that he is just using this topic to get votes? Is that such a bad thing?

Here's my take: I do not think that this is an issue for the government to decide. Remember this: the separation of state and religion is a good thing. For me it just boils down to people. No matter what I believe about anything, if I cannot love people, then the fault does not lie with them, but with me.

What do you all think?

-Ben

Grace? Maybe.

I am standing on the brink of being done with my junior year of college. That is insane. At the end of every semester I remark about how it was the most difficult semester yet, but this time I will make a different remark: this was the worst semester yet.

Drama, stress, business, etc...

Same story as everyone else.

I am beginning to think that college is just hard, and that is why every semester is really hard. hmmm... novel concept.

Anyway, this semester I held one idea in my head that sort of kept me going no matter what mountain I stood at the foot of. I met with Dr. Shangkuan earlier this semester, and in our conversation she told me this: with every endeavor, we can expect grace. Simple, easy, grace.

Yesterday I was cramming, as I always do at the end of a semester. I was writing a paper, and I worked on the paper from 3:00 PM to 3:00 AM. When I was satisfied with the progress I was making, I decided to take a nap and then keep working after my nap. Well, none of my three alarm clocks were able to pull me from the strong arm of sleep. So I slept until my sister woke me up. Upon waking I had a terrible realization that I would not finish my paper on time.

I e-mailed my professor to ask for an extension. He e-mailed me back soon thereafter to remind me that the paper was due a week from today... not today.

I laughed for a while.

Grace? Maybe. Either way, I embrace today with gratitude and a smile.

-Ben

Strength and Weaknesses, Person to Person

For a while now I have been reflecting on the idea that man-made social structures are not made for people to function in.

This thought began when I was processing through some particularly frustrating requirements that I have to fulfill at Calvin. Would a school function better if it evaluated the needs of its students (educational and otherwise) based on the individual? Would students graduate more equipped for their field, or further education if they were able to create a customized plan that addressed their weaknesses while bolstering their strengths?

In the social structure of an educational institution, students are no longer people. The institution views each student as a piece to be assembled, and each student moves through the production line, no different than an engine block or a plastic doll. The teachers/professors stand by and try to fix the broken, or otherwise disabled pieces, and if they cannot fix them, then they throw them out. The administrators decide what it means to be a functional product, and once a student has passed all of the tests then they are able to move from the factory into use.

This frustrated me because I was an engine block struggling through the tests made for a plastic doll.

Get it?

Then I had this reflection. The problem is larger than school. The entire western world is fixated on this factory line production model. Efficiency is God. If you get in the way of the people's God... well, we all read about the crusades.

This model has been pushed so far that it permeates every aspect of our world.

But this is what I propose: Human beings need to be treated as human beings: micro organisms that have strengths and weaknesses; each unique; each an individual.

Man-made social structures need to be treated in the same way. Nobody is perfect, so nobody’s ideas are perfect. Social structures are macro organisms (they are living, organic beings) that will reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the creators in flux. If we cut out every organism in its moment of failure, we will take away every organism’s ability to thrive. In this model ingenuity can't happen, in this model you will never see the true potential of a human organism.

Strengths need to be bolstered, and weaknesses addressed appropriately for each individual.