Christians are mad about Starbucks cups. Really mad, just because Starbucks has moved to plain red cups... and that somehow makes a statement about how the corporation is anti-Jesus and anti-Christmas.
I think this is a ridiculous conversation. For one, I don't go to Starbucks to go to church; that's what the ocean is for.
But more importantly, I think this conversation takes us away from the larger conversation of what is wrong with Starbucks and with all of us.
I've written elsewhere about some of the problems of Starbucks. It's corporate and often disconnected from the neighborhoods around their stores. It's commercialized the coffee shop community space, and while many locations offer composting to neighborhood gardens and their cups are recyclable, there's still so much waste associated with going to get a grande sugar-free vanilla soy latte (and even their blueberries come packaged in plastic).
I know, because I drink Starbucks.
But I also believe in a God who calls us to work for just economic and food systems and to love one another. I also believe in Jesus, who overturned tables in the Temple when people who were poor were swindled. I also believe in the Holy Spirit which moves us to act on behalf of people on the margins.
And while Starbucks has reported some good things about their economic connections with Latin America for the good of their coffee empire, they still don't use their buying power to ensure fair trade practices in an industry that has been ravaged by la roya (coffee rust), a disease that has wiped out 70% of crops in some parts of the Latin America. (To be fair, Starbucks has promised to buy coffee in a program that supports local farmers as they recover from la roya, and to be even more fair, they've created their own system to ensure responsible and ethical coffee growing.)
Last spring, the class I co-teach at Stanford went to Nicaragua to learn about neo-liberalism and liberation theology. We also went to a coffee cooperative and a roastery and a tasting. We saw first hand how the crops had been destroyed by la roya as we walked through the brush and over the hills. We listened to why the cooperative was necessary: so that workers could actually make money, and we talked with them about how if they were paid a fair wage, we would have to spend much, much more for a cup of coffee. More than the $6 I spend on that grande sugar free vanilla soy latte. And we are not willing to pay more.
Those farmers do not get paid fairly to put coffee in those offensive red cups, or any cup really.
Whenever we buy coffee, we buy into a system that does not value the bodies and lives of the farmers who risk their livelihoods to grow a crop that Starbucks has played a huge role in commercializing.
This is not just Starbucks' problem.
It is our problem.
As Christians, we should be pissed off because our purchasing of coffee contributes to poverty and back-breaking work. That's not loving others and it's not seeking justice--and that IS anti-Jesus.
As people, we should be pissed off because we are whining about coffee cups instead of working against neo-liberal policies that allow corporations to continue to impoverish farmers and workers. As people, we should be pissed off that we're talking about disposable cups instead of a system that says that people and planet are disposable. And we should be pissed off that climate change will make coffee harder and harder to grow--no matter how much we pay farmers.
But that's a post for another day.
I think this is a ridiculous conversation. For one, I don't go to Starbucks to go to church; that's what the ocean is for.
But more importantly, I think this conversation takes us away from the larger conversation of what is wrong with Starbucks and with all of us.
I've written elsewhere about some of the problems of Starbucks. It's corporate and often disconnected from the neighborhoods around their stores. It's commercialized the coffee shop community space, and while many locations offer composting to neighborhood gardens and their cups are recyclable, there's still so much waste associated with going to get a grande sugar-free vanilla soy latte (and even their blueberries come packaged in plastic).
I know, because I drink Starbucks.
But I also believe in a God who calls us to work for just economic and food systems and to love one another. I also believe in Jesus, who overturned tables in the Temple when people who were poor were swindled. I also believe in the Holy Spirit which moves us to act on behalf of people on the margins.
And while Starbucks has reported some good things about their economic connections with Latin America for the good of their coffee empire, they still don't use their buying power to ensure fair trade practices in an industry that has been ravaged by la roya (coffee rust), a disease that has wiped out 70% of crops in some parts of the Latin America. (To be fair, Starbucks has promised to buy coffee in a program that supports local farmers as they recover from la roya, and to be even more fair, they've created their own system to ensure responsible and ethical coffee growing.)
Last spring, the class I co-teach at Stanford went to Nicaragua to learn about neo-liberalism and liberation theology. We also went to a coffee cooperative and a roastery and a tasting. We saw first hand how the crops had been destroyed by la roya as we walked through the brush and over the hills. We listened to why the cooperative was necessary: so that workers could actually make money, and we talked with them about how if they were paid a fair wage, we would have to spend much, much more for a cup of coffee. More than the $6 I spend on that grande sugar free vanilla soy latte. And we are not willing to pay more.
Those farmers do not get paid fairly to put coffee in those offensive red cups, or any cup really.
Whenever we buy coffee, we buy into a system that does not value the bodies and lives of the farmers who risk their livelihoods to grow a crop that Starbucks has played a huge role in commercializing.
This is not just Starbucks' problem.
It is our problem.
As Christians, we should be pissed off because our purchasing of coffee contributes to poverty and back-breaking work. That's not loving others and it's not seeking justice--and that IS anti-Jesus.
As people, we should be pissed off because we are whining about coffee cups instead of working against neo-liberal policies that allow corporations to continue to impoverish farmers and workers. As people, we should be pissed off that we're talking about disposable cups instead of a system that says that people and planet are disposable. And we should be pissed off that climate change will make coffee harder and harder to grow--no matter how much we pay farmers.
But that's a post for another day.
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