It’s International Workers’ Day today, which means it’s a good time to reflect on the labor that is contributed by people all over the world to support our lives, our economies, and our aspirations. And so it is for us in coffee- today is a day for honoring workers in coffee. Because coffee is so international and complex, it’s a bit complicated to identify all the laborers in the miraculous chain of coffee. I’m going to touch on a few of these, as a part of my own reflection on labor today.
The small farmer- Many of those who work in coffee are people who own a small parcel of land, and produce coffee from it as their main livelihood. These people- or, rather, families, as coffee growing of this kind is really a family occupation- are often responsible for a huge and diverse amount of labor that goes into coffee agriculture: grading the land, planting coffee, fertilizing the soil, dealing with disease, pruning, picking coffee cherries, depulping, fermenting, drying, and all the various transportation between these stages. The family that runs a small farm has to be all things- which is a big challenge, especially in the height of coffee season. I’ve known small farmers who rise before dawn to begin picking, who gather fruit all day in baskets, and who begin the task of running the hand-cranked depulper and fermenting the coffee at sunset, a task which can run into the early hours of morning. A few hours later, they rise again and start all over. Health care and social support are often difficult for the small farmer to access, and of course the life of every small farmer is at the mercy of weather, crop disease, and pests. A small harvest can mean hunger later in the year.
The farmworker- on larger farms, labor comes from farmworkers, who engage in the various tasks of running the farm as employees. These workers have to shift between jobs- one day carrying compost on their backs to remote parcels of the coffee farm, the next day pulling up old trees and replacing them with seedlings, the next day pruning and clearing weeds. During harvest season the main activity is picking, and pickers (sometimes permanent workers, often temporary workers) spend their days in the tricky pursuit of perfectly ripe cherries, inconveniently nestled right against unripe and overripe ones. Pickers are usually paid by volume rather than by the day or hour, which means that speed is of the essence, difficult to achieve on steep and remote coffee farms. Practices vary around the world, but always picking becomes more difficult as workers age and hands become less nimble. A great resource on this topic from the SCA is here.
The wet-mill worker- coffee-processing mills exist all over the world, and their purpose is to remove the layers of coffee skin and fruit from the bean before drying. Cherries are loaded with water, and are therefore heavy- wet-mill working requires hours of shoveling cherries, skins, decomposing waste, and drying seeds. In Africa, the last of the fermenting mucilage is often removed by agitation using a paddle or even the feet, in Latin America wet-mill workers often push fermented coffee through channels to clean it. Equipment must be cleaned and repaired constantly, the water and the decomposing mucilage are corrosive to the equipment and the smallest bit of day-old rotting mucilage can show up on the cupping table, precipitating the worst possible outcome- the rejection of a promised lot of coffee.
The dry-mill worker- Coffee is brought to other mills to dry and be husked before shipment, and patio-drying and table-drying are often labor-intensive activities requiring raking, turning, and sorting under the hot sun. Once dry, the coffee is husked in mills that are packed with heavy equipment, which can be dangerous and loud. Finished coffee is loaded into heavy bags (always over 100 pounds), which are carried on the backs of people- stacked in warehouses or loaded into containers for shipping. I have watched as people load heavy sacks on their backs, run at full speed up a narrow plank into a container, drop the sack, and return at full speed to gather up another sack. This is literally backbreaking work, and takes a heavy toll on the body. In other parts of the dry mill, sorters- often women- comb through finished coffee on a table, floor, or conveyor belt to pick out discolored, broken, or damaged beans. Hour upon hour is spent picking, sorting, and removing those distasteful ‘defects’.
The transport worker- Coffee’s story is about distance. Coffee is grown at a farm that is distant from a port, which is distant from another port, which is usually distant from a roaster, which is usually distant from the coffee shop or consumer. Coffee travels between these places on trucks and boats and pallets and lifts, which are run by transport workers: truckers, ships crews, port workers and warehouse workers. Containers which are loaded on people’s backs are often unloaded on people’s backs too, and this can happen 3 or 4 times in a coffee’s journey. Moving a sack of coffee is dead weight- which can wear on arms and backs and legs.
The roaster- Roasting is skilled, solitary work. Loading sacks of coffee into roaring, moving, turning, 400 degree ovens is daunting, but the real challenge of roasting (at least to me) is the solitude- roaster noise and hearing protection create a cocoon for the roaster, and they might never speak a word to another person for an entire shift. They are responsible for the revelation of coffee- using their skills and senses to transform a coffee into that which we recognize as ready to be brewed- but this entails risk: a burned batch is ruined, and an under-roasted one is a waste of potential. Roasters are constantly anxious about the risk of fire, and are managing hoppers and roasters and cooling trays and bins and warehouses, which is challenging work indeed. A small mistake can mean a loss of thousands of dollars for the business, and roasters are held to high standards of accuracy and efficiency.
The packer- coffee is put into bags and bins and cans and boxes by people, who often use scoops and scales and other equipment to achieve their task. This process is sometimes automated- but mostly it’s hand work: labeling and filling and sealing and loading and labeling and filling again, rushing to meet shipping deadlines and production schedules. This can be hard on hands and eyes and backs, as anyone who has ever worked in a warehouse can attest.
The barista- the final step is when coffee is presented to the consumer, either as a beverage or as an ingredient to be taken home. Either way, the barista is there to protect and prepare the coffee, using the skills of brewing or espresso making or milk preparation or beverage assembly. This can take a physical toll on the worker- standing for long periods of time behind a counter, or using one’s wrists and hands to prepare coffee and keep things clean. But there is another whole category of barista labor- the emotional labor that goes into practicing compassion for the consumer (who, after all, generally hasn’t had their coffee yet) and creating an atmosphere of comfort and happiness for the guest. Sadly, as service workers, baristas are sometimes subjected to harassment and conflict, and have to deal with it all with equanimity and grace.
The above is only a small sample of the laborers in coffee: I have neglected many occupations and workers who are necessary in making coffee possible. The point is only that every single cup of coffee represents hour upon hour of physical, mental, and emotional labor by many people in many places and of many kinds. It’s almost impossible to conceive of, and even harder to express our respect for and our solidarity with these workers. But today is the day that we try. Happy international workers’ day everyone.
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