Womxn Powered Stories: Working Towards a Thriving and Transparent Coffee Industry
A Conversation with Simran Sethi
In 2019, we’re speaking to and learning from womxn in the industry who have touched our hearts and minds with their relentless dedication and contribution to the sustainable development of the industry and the world.
The first awe-inspiring person that we spoke to was Simran Sethi, a journalist, activist and author focused on food as a lens through which to explore the world. She wrote one of our favorite books, “Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love” that highlighted the transformation of food told through bread, wine, chocolate, coffee, and beer. The book was named one of the Best Food Books of 2016 by Smithsonian. She was also the host of The Slow Melt chocolate podcast, which was named Best Food Podcast of 2017 by SAVEUR. She’s a contributor to NPR’s Good Food and has written for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and VICE. And most importantly, she is overall a kind, down-to-earth and lovely person.
We were lucky to connect with Simran last year and spoke to her about her experience as an advocate for sustainable consumption and her book, Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love. Here are our favorite snippets from a riveting conversation:
Abhinav: In the book, you mention how often we speak of the producers, but never directly talk to them. How can coffee professionals talk to the farmers, instead of only speaking of them?
Simran: Coffee professionals will speak of farmers in the cloud forest in certain countries. You often see marketing materials or names of origins on bags of coffee, but most coffee people have never spoken to a farmer in an actual place. And consumers, including myself, hadn’t really asked about them. I had never considered the deep origin of coffee — the place, the soil, the land, the hands that really makes my morning cup possible. Everyone can’t do what I did and spend 5 weeks in Ethiopia, but they can read up on the stories that are revealed in the cup.
Sunghee: You talk about issues of race and class and its connection to food. As a womxn of color, I’m curious to know what the public’s reaction to this approach was?
Simran: I would love to say there was one.
[Long silence]
Simran: Notice the long, sad silence here. It wasn’t addressed. You’re the first person to address that this book was written by a womxn of color. Some people have touched upon gender, but no one has ever mentioned that until this moment.
My book was a very deliberate attempt to talk about these issues but also to navigate what I find to be a little bit tricky terrain. I did research for this book until mid-2015, and it came out in late 2015. We’re having much more focused conversations about cultural appropriation in food and racism, ethnicity, and class than we were back then.
I wrote for a mainstream audience through the lens of my experience as an immigrant. But food is a place where we can often find a surprising connection. My book was a careful, heartfelt, accessible and also unapologetic attempt to address problems and highlight injustices.
Abhinav: You dive into the concept of direct trade in the book. You mention the risk of direct trade potentially being a trend for the market without really impacting the producers. Have you noticed that direct-trade is becoming another form of a trend like the fair-trade?
Simran: I won’t use the word trend, but will use the word continuum. There’s this halo around the idea of farmers and origin, but, as I mentioned, many involved in the coffee sector have never gone to an origin or met with producers. Of course, these things cost money and time, and I know that because I did it.
We will see small makers and roasters pull information off broker sheets or maybe even spend one or two days and speak from a place of deep knowing that concerns me. In coffee, there’s a strong body of research so consumers can really educate themselves, but in cocoa, for example, the conversation is relatively new. Consumers put their faith in these makers, brewers, roasters and they become trusted guides whether they have a lot of experience or knowledge or not.
Abhinav: You write a lot about traveling. Which was one of your most transformative trips?
Simran: I spent five years traveling to six continents. I think to go to Ethiopia — for coffee — was the most transformative trip of my life. That chapter in the book is my favorite chapter. In Ethiopia, I understood in a completely different way, and I was humbled by how hard it is to get the coffee cherry from the places where it’s grown and processed to my cup. I really had no idea.
Sunghee: Where do you see the biggest challenge on the coffee value chain? Where is the impact which needs to be strengthened?
Simran: What I see you doing around storytelling really moves me because it is an attempt to understand and share the life story of someone who is producing our coffee. They’re not just farmers, and fields, or workers and factories, they’re people like us. That intimacy is everything. To me, the biggest concern is, are producers being paid, not a living wage, but a thriving wage. A wage in which they can not only feed their kids and buy medicine but have deep, wonderful, rich lives where they can move beyond merely growing coffee, but actually being able to actualize some of the things which we get to actualize. To think beyond subsistence.
I think at this point of the game, we need to look at what specialty coffee is doing to move producers up in the Maslow’s hierarchy, because food, shelter and healthcare, we should have. We need to move towards a model where people can go beyond subsistence.
In the limited places where I’ve seen coffee production, I can say that such a model has not been actualized. In Ethiopia, for example, farmers are turning to crops like that because, quite simply, they need money. It saves them from hunger.
Yet, at the same time, people on the other side of the cup are paying premium prices for their coffee and thinking that a bigger portion has gone back to the producers and they’re having a wonderful life.
That is what I think needs to fundamentally change. The spotlight needs to move from baristas and roasters back to the producers. More respect and money need to go to the people whose hands are in the dirt, who are assuming so much of the risk when it comes to getting us coffee.
Abhinav: Do you have some advice for someone getting started in food activism?
Simran: Don’t play it safe. This is a different time, but when I was getting started, I was one of the few people of color having these conversations in a very public forum. My one regret is that I didn’t take stronger stances. I wasn’t confident enough in my voice and didn’t want to alienate people. Speaking out about injustice is the most powerful thing you can do. Be honest and fearless. Speak loudly, and also speak compassionately.
Abhinav: How do you deal with imposter syndrome?
Simran: I am 48-years-old, and I still experience imposter syndrome. But many people have never heard of real, on-the-ground stories. When they do — whoever they are — they actually welcome them. So I try to touch people’s hearts while being rock solid of the data. Story and intimacy are what will change people’s hearts and minds. And that’s why I try to center the stories of people — beyond issues and stuff — in my work.
We’re truly grateful to Simran for her thoughts and advice. If you’re inspired by her work, we’re giving away 3 books of Simran’s book, ‘Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love.’ Simply sign up, and we’ll select three lucky winners to receive this incredible book which has influenced our work at Bean Voyage.
