Big News about Bad Coffee
Whooohoooo! A small step forward in the fight against deceitful labeling on Kona 10% Blends was achieved this week. Our Hawaii County Council passed Resolution 18-06 stating that coffee blends should have at least 75% Kona in the bag to wear the Kona label. That's a nice step up from the 10% currently mandated by the State Legislature.
Many of you have read my discussions on blends before. They are a blight to Kona coffee name and a ripoff to the consumer. In the long run, they harm the farmer because they devalue the Kona brand. The only way we can compete against third world coffee practices (cheap land and labor) is by maintaining the excellent name and quality of Kona coffee. Blends of 10% Kona and 90% mystery beans labeled as "Kona Coffee" put out a bad cup and tarnish our image.
The Resolution will be passed on to the State Legislature, which will hopefully provide more ammunition for the next level. We need a law, not just a resolution. We have lost in the Legislature before because of the lobby money that flows from the Big Blenders. We're not going to stop fighting this issue though. For the farmers, our survival depends on it. The Big Blenders and their Mainland money don't seem to care if they devalue our brand to the point of economic collapse. They will go back to the Mainland. For the hundreds of farmers who live and eat on coffee, this issue is vital.
A big MAHALO NUI LOA to the County Council!
News on this issue:
Kona Coffee Farmers press release
Honolulu Advertiser
Pacific Business News
Many of you have read my discussions on blends before. They are a blight to Kona coffee name and a ripoff to the consumer. In the long run, they harm the farmer because they devalue the Kona brand. The only way we can compete against third world coffee practices (cheap land and labor) is by maintaining the excellent name and quality of Kona coffee. Blends of 10% Kona and 90% mystery beans labeled as "Kona Coffee" put out a bad cup and tarnish our image.
The Resolution will be passed on to the State Legislature, which will hopefully provide more ammunition for the next level. We need a law, not just a resolution. We have lost in the Legislature before because of the lobby money that flows from the Big Blenders. We're not going to stop fighting this issue though. For the farmers, our survival depends on it. The Big Blenders and their Mainland money don't seem to care if they devalue our brand to the point of economic collapse. They will go back to the Mainland. For the hundreds of farmers who live and eat on coffee, this issue is vital.
A big MAHALO NUI LOA to the County Council!
News on this issue:
Kona Coffee Farmers press release
Honolulu Advertiser
Pacific Business News
1 Comments:
Hi Suzanne,
I wrote a blog post in support of the Kona coffee farmers called, "Kona Coffee Sucks."
http://doublebrush.wordpress.com/2007/05/15/kona-coffee-sucks/
I also wrote a post about wild pigs, I remember reading yours last year about how they messed up your road! I love reading what you write and I wish you would blog more often, but I totally understand your time constraints.
I spoke with you on the phone last year and you were super nice. It was about some guy's coffee blog who totally didn't write about Kona coffee correctly. We both left him comments but he never changed his post!
Anyway, I recently started a Hawaii blog to go with my site www.DoubleBrush.com
Please take a look see when you have a minute, and PLEASE leave comments:)
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