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C

Despite these women
receiving unideal land
to grow on, they were
resoundingly eager
and driven.

living on or below the poverty line—it’s meant to be con-
fronting and a jarring contrast to coffee as we know it,”
says Julia Tink, St Remio co-founder. Supporting Rwandans’
coffee means lifting Rwandan farmers, they live and we
have this drink we enjoy all over the world in the future.
Our choices mean something, and, no matter how many
corporate signatures are inked, we cannot forget that we
Curious what the Rwandan government is doing for are the ink in the pen.
this economic sector, Daniel assures that it is always sup- “If we sit in offices and think coffee will come, it
porting farmers. “But the problem is finance,” he says. won’t come like we think. We need to think of the sourc-
There is even a system in place in Rwanda called Nkun- es,” Daniel says. The documentary The Real Cost of Coffee
ganire, roughly translating to “I support you.” It is not is the precise outcry designed to forge this link to the
enough. It can, for instance, discount fertilizer, but it sources. “The title is really a double entendre. The Real
cannot do more because the entire country depends on Cost of Coffee can be seen as what we pay for a cup of
agriculture. The government is just not able to meet all coffee here in Australia, or it can be seen as the human
expectations. Coffee-growing humanity justly needs cof- cost of coffee. You might think of it one way but leave
fee-drinking humanity’s help. thinking about it in the human sense as opposed to the
These women, Martha, Francine, these farmers, these dollar value,” says Julia.
business owners—a transformation made possible by efforts In recent weeks, Kenya and Tanzania, two other glob-
like St Remio’s—face a daunting internal threat. “Some ally recognized coffee sources in Africa, have been hit with
people don’t understand; there is a need to sensitize the disastrous flooding that has not only destroyed crops but
young generation,” Daniel cautions. The owners of coffee has also thrown the livelihood of farmers into chaos. If the
now are aged and the young people, seeing what their world diversifies its coffee sources and demands mainte-
families went through, do not want to grow coffee. The nance and care—of the coffee farms and coffee farmers
Rwandan people, this coffee’s truly exceptional spark, is alike that currently exist—this beloved beverage will be
being suffocated now and in the future. “This challenge, fortified against climate calamities. By investing in Rwan-
the young generation, they like things that bring big mon- dan coffee farmers, coffee will be deliberate, prepared, and
ey, and for coffee you have to wait,” Daniel continues. When protected. Coffee cannot risk its own demise by placing all
the international community bolsters coffee activity in its cherries in one basket, and to permit the abuse of Rwan-
Rwanda, that generational resistance shrinks because dans who produce coffee is to let an unaffordable basket
younger Rwandans are able to see a supported future in the rot or be lost to flood waters. Regarding what things Rwan-
business. When coffee is defined by prosperity and not dan coffee can teach us, what sustainability lessons can be
struggle, waiting the three to four years for a coffee tree extended beyond Rwanda, there exists no more perfect
to bear fruit is no longer irredeemable. encapsulation than Daniel’s choice words to the global
Rwandan cooperatives need investment and support coffee consumer: “If a farmer is well maintained, the source
from companies and the global marketplace, but consumers of coffee is well maintained. If farmers have a good life,
have power too, even if they cannot develop a cupping lab then whatever comes from coffee will be attained.”
or buy goats. For that Rwandan woman, who had—unbe- Listening carefully to Rwandan coffee farmers and
knownst to her—been farming for fifty years the gold of throwing every ounce of ourselves into the people and
the trees that becomes the second most consumed beverage families that make it all possible needs to be a priority, not
in the world, Trent bought her a bed. She had never had a second thought. It is an uphill battle, a thousand that is,
one. “The fact that 80% of the world’s coffee farmers are that we should all be breaking our backs to climb.

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