PART 1: The Locavore Challenge
One of the interesting challenges faced by advocates of a local first ideology is balancing truly “local” with locally owned. Local First Utah is a network of local business owners because, despite their product, revenue generated from the business is local and stays local.
One might call “locavorism” an extremist wing of Local First, championing food produced within x number of miles because of the environmentally friendly motive of a short supply chain. Food that travels fewer miles, in other words, has less of an environmental impact because of the reduced energy required for transport. It makes sense, but it’s not easy. And without a great deal of knowledge about food and where it comes from, it isn’t achieved without great effort. Not that great effort isn’t rewarded.
Dan Packel recently reported in The New York Times about a visit to Karanataka, India. There, Mr. Packel had the privilege of perambulating about the estate with his wife as part of the plantation’s efforts to stabilize work and revenue during leaner times. The lodging facilities built upon the plantations seem to offer an experience something akin to ecotourism, wherein people are able to visit unique, sometimes relatively remote economies and take part in a local experience. For Mr. Packel and company, that included drinking coffee harvested on the very plantation on which he stayed.
Frequently, locavores are forced to either do the best they can (also true of the Local First “shift,” wherein individuals are empowered to consciously divert a portion of their expenditures to a locally owned business) or focus a specified period of time to consuming solely locally (say, a week, or a month). In Utah, where a drainage basin occupies a major portion of the geography, and the elevation and climate offer additional agricultural limitations, there is a lot that simply cannot be grown here.
Support websites offer an array of viable alternatives for strict or well-meaning locavores, but one of the products that never makes the cut is coffee. Coffee is a tropical plant, a tree that grows only between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. It is inherently embedded in the global market, a once-exotic import from East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that was spread across the world by colonists from the Old World. It is the second leading legal commodity on the planet behind oil, and is even sometimes forced to share oil’s “black gold” label.”
Obviously, coffee is not a necessity (though it is listed among staple commodities). It does not sustain life in any meaningful way, but it is typically among the primary foodstuffs rationed, whether among soldiers abroad at battle, or by pioneers crossing the Great Plains in search of a Zion for their exile.
So, for those coffee drinkers among us, let us call it a staple. And better still, let us call it a necessity. So how do we go about this the right way?
PART 2: Coffee, as Local as it Gets
It occupies a remarkable place in many people’s lives, and in the recent decade became the focus of a sharp divide in several markets, as multi-national coffee corporations went head-to-head with upstart local coffee shops. The wiser of those shops pay due respect to the corporations that paved the way for their passion and their business, because, in simple terms, the market didn’t exist before the major players brought the cultural model from Italy to the U.S., and gradually adapted it for American tastes. Moreover, the larger the buying power, the greater potential for change in the global marketplace. “Potential,” of course, is key here.
The history speaks, in a way, to one of the effects of globalization, and how inextricable it is from the local economy. There is little inherently “local” about local coffee shops outside of the milk, and even that isn’t a given. It is an example of choice, and the recognition of any local first organization of the importance of diversity to communities. Most of the time, these kind of business coexist. The neighbors of the Coffee Garden insist a victory was achieved when Starbucks closed its doors in the 9th and 9th neighborhood of Salt Lake, but there was more to that neighborhood and its dynamic than direct competition. Coffee Garden’s locally sourced Café Ibis is a frontrunner in ethically sourced coffee and Starbucks buys more Fair Trade certified coffee than any other company, and otherwise directly trades for all their other coffee.
Of course, Coffee Garden and Ibis purchases keep more money in the local economy.
So Local First Utah is proud of the success and business ethics of locally owned businesses like the Coffee Garden. And Local First hopes that the global business climate will continue to nurture economic growth of any kind, building markets and brands, and allowing room mom and pop to take an idea, make it their own, share it with their friends and neighbors, and circulate the profits locally.
A recent visit to The Rose, the burgeoning purveyor of Four Barrel Coffee and assorted artisan teas just south of the Gateway mall, produced exactly the results one would hope of an exchange at a local establishment. The pace was relaxed, the coffee made individually and to order in a neat, organized environment. Granted, the latest trend in coffee making is precisely that: abandoning batch drip coffee in favor of single cup, made-to-order brews from a choice of beans. The menu is small and simple. The food offerings are humble, even a work-in-progress. The pastries, I am told, will all eventually be made in house. While the unevenness of the menu is a likely turn-off to the hasty business man or woman, the approachability of the business and passionate dedication to the coffee craft set the experience apart. The same holds true for No Brow, where the proprietor finds order among the hip, urban chaos by remembering the names of his customers and by being committed to his product. They are remarkably different experiences that have the same result: great coffee. These kinds of stories, about coffee alone, could go on and on.
These are examples of the local experiences of local coffee, as local as coffee gets. For locavores, locally available peppermint tea and ephedra (Mormon Tea) are worth the effort, but there is no substitute for coffee, let alone great coffee.
Author: Andrew Dash Gillman
