By Brianna Vitands
Murphy News Service
Peace Coffee was formed by a happy accident, but it tastes delicious in your mug. The local roaster goes back to the 90s, when coffee prices were at an all time low and farmers had a difficult time earning a fair price for their product.
Before 1989, the coffee industry was controlled by the International Coffee Agreement (ICA), which established quotas between coffee exporting and importing countries. This kept the coffee market relatively stable around $1–$1.50 per pound.
In 1989, the ICA collapsed due to lack of support from importing countries, namely the U.S., which was one of the largest importers at the time. The Reagan administration promoted a free market, but under free market prices farmers were unable to get a fair price for their product. In 1992, coffee was at a low 49 cents per pound.
Small farmers are particularly vulnerable and some experienced a 70 percent decline in their income. This forced many to abandon their land or pursue more profitable crops.
In 1996, the Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy (IATP), began meeting with farmers in Mexico to see what could be done to help. The famers said that it was most challenging to get a fair price for their coffee.
Due to a miscommunication, the IATP received a phone call four weeks later from the port authority of Los Angeles, informing them that a container-38,000 pounds-of Mexican coffee had arrived with their name on it.
“We felt bad about sending that coffee back to those folks in Mexico that we had met, that we had talked with, we had seen their farms, and met their kids,” Ryan Brown, an employee for Peace Coffee said. “So we put a second mortgage on the property that IATP is housed in and used that money to pay for that container.”
After that, the first three employees were responsible for finding a roaster, a way to package, and to distribute the coffee.
“We went around on our bicycles with this coffee door-to-door in south Minneapolis for the first year, trying to get people to buy coffee from these crazy hippie people, and it kind of worked, and here we are today,” Brown said.
In 1996, the company purchased coffee from Guatemala, right after the civil war there had ended. They called it “Guatemalan Peace Coffee,” and the name stuck.
“The people who were buying and drinking our coffee thought Peace Coffee sounded a lot better than what we called it at the time, so we adopted Peace Coffee in 1997,” Brown said.
In 2000, Peace Coffee became a fully functional roaster as well, and currently has three roasters for use in its facility.
Beans are roasted anywhere between 13 and 15 minutes and then are released onto a cooling tray at around 400 degrees. The beans are kept in motion until being sucked off the cooling wheel, and at this point foreign objects will drop to the bottom of the hopper. A number of items that had been found during this process were on display, ranging from rocks to plastic dinosaurs, things that could wreak havoc on your coffee grinder.
Peace Coffee buys beans from small farmers who own plots 11 acres or less, and partners with local cooperatives that give farmers access to the market.
“We were formed out of a nonprofit, and we are still part of that nonprofit,” Brown said of IATP. “This company has been fighting since the late 80’s to advocate for small farmers in producing countries all around the world…when they’re small farmers its very hard for them to get their product to the market without the use of a cooperative or some type of organized structure, where they can understand the regulations of that country and how to export their product. IATP was formed to advocate for those small farmers, to give them a voice and to help them understand a little bit of the legality and some of the restrictions and regulations in the trade process.”
This mission means Peace Coffee only purchases 100 percent fair trade and organic beans. Peace Coffee currently employs 12 office and 14 production staff, and including baristas in their three shops they employ over 50.
“My favorite aspect of the job besides bottomless cups of delicious coffee, is the thoughtfulness and dedication that everyone from the farmers, to our bikers, to our baristas brings to their job,” Mel Meegan, an employee of 14 years said. “I am proud to be a member of this very talented, creative, and hardworking crew from crop to cup.”
Reporter Brianna Vitands is studying journalism and Spanish at the University of Minnesota.