No matter how “Organic” or “Fair Trade” your favorite coffee may seem, the underbelly always seems to reveal exploitation, although nicely hidden between the layers of harvesting, roasting, steamed milk and espresso. But why is this exploitation seemingly inevitable? And why is this article talking about exploitation when it’s called “Coffee Magic”? 

Take Tim Hortons for example. A single medium double double is about $2. There’s approximately 70 beans or 0.022 lbs of beans in a cup of coffee.  

Now let’s switch scenes to the ultimate source: the coffee farmers in Colombia,  Brazil, and other countries in South America. Here, the average farmer harvests approximately 100-200 pounds per day^[2]. Contrast this to our $2 coffee (with 0.022lbs of beans approximately in each cup), while knowing that Tim Hortons was accused of paying farmers and farm workers $2 per DAY in 2022^[1]. If we do the math, a worker was being paid 0.022 CENTS per $2 coffee. They might have harvested ~4500 cups of coffee in an 8 hour day, all to be paid 0.01% of what that coffee is sold for.

Somewhere from harvesting and sorting in farms, through roasting and processing and refining, the coffee beans have gained more than ×1000 in “value.” Now, surely the farmers and workers are being paid exactly what they deserve, and the coffee just gains value due to the “expensive” value addition process in roasting, refining, etc., right? And the capitalist owners of the corporations are compensating themselves fairly for their strenuous task of being owners…right?

The thing is, if everyone in this process was being compensated fairly, the owners would not be called capitalists, because they would not be able to magically make money. The only way for this process to yield more money than was initially put in is for the owner of the means of production and labor-power to extract more from the labor than what they paid for. And we see this clearly in coffee production. It is rare for the average coffee picker to be making enough to even subsist^[2]. In fact, it’s more likely they’re being paid much less, and that international charities have to cover for the exploitative practices of the coffee capitalist. 

The key idea is that in an equal transaction, where a laborer is being paid exactly as their labor is valued, and the means of production (tools, machines, etc.) are paid for as they are valued, the combination of the labor and means of production produces a commodity whose value must equal the sum of value of the means of production and labor. But we know this is not the case. Surplus value can only be created if and only if the worker is exploited.

And this is where the magic happens. This is where the laborer is paid just enough to keep living and nothing more, and the owner accumulates more and more capital, enough to reinvest more and more into systems that maintain the exploited condition of the worker. A certain South American country is nationalising their resources and protecting their workers from exploitation? Let’s use our accumulated capital to forcefully overthrow their government and install a puppet regime. We need to make sure our customers aren’t disillusioned by our imperialism? Let’s use our capital to create massive advertisement campaigns that uphold a culture of coffee consumption to the point that imagining a life without your morning “Cup of Joe” becomes absurd. And so it goes.

Was everyone here always in love with coffee? Coffee doesn’t even grow in North America.  What happened to make us so enamored with coffee? 

Coffee production has always had a history of colonialism and slavery. The same proponents and oppressors of those times, with their accumulated capital, are continuing the system today with an ever advanced control over consumer trends and methods to hide the exploitation behind the commodity. Insert “Organic” and “Fair trade” certifications here.

There’s also the helplessness of the consumer, where consumers themselves are an exploited majority and are easily convinced to turn the other cheek when it comes to the clear nature of exploitation behind almost every common commodity (just throw on a “Fair Trade” label for the hesitant ones). Even this article was churned out over a hot latte and a cookie (or two).

That is the magic of profit-making: find something that exploits the mind of the consumer, the resources of nature and laborers, and simply keep the cycle of exploitation running forever. Cull any real dissent, co-opt and capitulate messaging that may incite revolutionary thought, confuse and collaborate with fellow capitalists, and globalize the exploitation to make it as far removed as possible from the consumer. The more abstraction there is between the consumption and exploitation, the better and easier it is to write, rewrite and hide the truth. Don’t forget to encourage division and hatred within the exploited majority so they fight amongst themselves!

It truly is something magical.