BeanScene Magazine

Children are always a part of the scene at coffee plantations at Origin.  During picking season, when hundreds of men and women are employed as a casual workforce to harvest the cherries, children join their parents in the fields as simply part of their family life.

Coffee picking is casual work. The pickers are not in the income bracket that allows for daycare or babysitters and parents are not prepared to leave their five year old at home while they go to work. It is unrealistic and frankly western-centric, to demand that children not be allowed to join their parents in the fields as has been suggested at times. 

For a brief while, some certifying bodies were insisting on banning children in the fields. This appeals to your coffee drinker from a developed nation who, when presented with the idea of kids in the fields, immediately conjures images of children breaking their backs under 60 kilogram sacks of coffee in the searing heat. They relate this to chimney sweeps of centuries past, or to sweat shops where kids are forced to work on tennis shoes in appalling conditions for little or no wage.  Certifiers knew that the image of a child in the fields had the potential to bring down any coffee company purporting to support ethical farming practices, so they introduced the ban: no kids in the fields.

When the farmers tried to apply this to their migratory picking workforce, there was a serious backlash from the pickers themselves. The women did not want to leave their children behind and refused to pick coffee on farms demanding such unrealistic expectations. The women need the income and so do the families. If the women are forced to stay at home, then the family’s income is halved, so entire families would refuse to do this work.

The certifying bodies quickly scrambled to rectify the problem.

Now, they instead insist on the farm having signs clearly stating that the pickers and workers are allowed to bring their children to the farms, but the children are not allowed to perform any significant labour, and especially not hard labour. These signs basically ask that the children pretty much be allowed to play and hang around. And, that is what you see a lot of when in the fields – you see kids. Kids looking pretty content as kids do when they are with their family. Mum is working, so they amuse themselves by picking coffee into their own little baskets and there is no pressure to get back to work when they wander over to say “Ola” to the foreigners with nifty cameras.

My wife Louise and I travelled with our two kids, five-year-old Dexter and two-year-old Hugo, to Central America this year sourcing coffee for Campos Coffee. Dexter’s primary goal was to be given the chance to pick coffee. He had seen pictures from my previous trips to plantations and decided that was the one thing he wanted to gain from his flight around the world. He wanted to have his own basket and get right into picking some fine red cherries- no greens!  (This kid is specialty raised!)

The dream became a reality in El Salvador when Emilio Lopez Diaz found Dexter a basket and released him into a field of red Bourbon at 1650 metres.  Emilio’s daughter, three-year-old Christinita insisted on joining Dexter, along with Hugo and the three children remained focussed for a whopping 45 minutes as they selectively picked the red cherries from the bulging late harvest trees. 

It was confirmed! Kids enjoy themselves in the coffee fields and it is okay for them to be there with their parents provided they are not forced to work. Kids in growing regions are also very self-sufficient when compared to the average western child, so they tend to occupy themselves while under the watchful eye of their parents while the picking is done. I have never seen any children having tantrums in the fields, or even crying. They just hang out. Parents make their income and all are content.

Having signs about the farm demanding the kids do not “really” work does present somewhat of a grey area though. It is one of the reasons we like to visit the farms and see the situation for ourselves. Of the farms we have visited thus far, it is clear they all follow the condition and the kids are all content, but I am positive some less ethically motivated farms could simply put the signs up, but then not enforce the condition. Many pickers cannot even read and teams of pickers get lost in the fields away from sight, so it is difficult to monitor everything.

There are some farms which present more steadfast solutions. There was one  we visited where the topic of children and coffee was taken to a whole new level. This was Finca Santa Rita in Nicaragua run by the gracious and saint-like Desiree Pereira – a woman whose heart is just so huge and she is so sincere in her philanthropic ways, that she truly gives hope to all humanity. I could never be gushing enough about this wonderful woman.

Desiree grows excellent coffee – third place in the Cup of Excellence program 2002, Finalist COE 2003 and a winner in several other cupping competitions. We had been using their coffee for quite some time e in Australia and our respect was already very high. They also have UTZ certification, which is one of our favourites, so we were expecting to see some solid social responsibility mixed with fine farming practices.

The degree of social responsibility at Finca Santa Rita blew our minds. Desiree sincerely cares for everyone involved in the coffee farm and there is a family atmosphere to everything.  The farm radiates philanthropy. Desiree had recently adopted two young boys whose parents had been working in her fields when they became the victims of genocide. These beautiful kids had been through a lot and Desiree was proud to describe how well they were doing at school now. 

All the workers just adore her. And why wouldn’t they? She gives so much more than what is expected: She provides a free health clinic and is forward thinking enough to offer condoms. There is an on-site variety store which sells anything the worker might need and the profits from the store go towards improving the amenities for the workers. And, there is a big party at the end of the season where awards are given out (for several categories) to incentivise and boost morale. 

What we found most impressive of all was the free daycare she offered to the children of the pickers and workers.  Right by the entrance to the farm, which was quite heavily guarded by gun-toting security officers, was a big open hall. This open sided hall was filled with kids ranging from two to 11 years old and they were all overwhelmingly happy. Whenever we drove by with Desiree, the kids would erupt into joyous waving and well wishing to her. They could not shout any louder. All of them eager to get the attention of the woman who made all this happen to improve their quality of life.

The daycare lasts as long as the pickers are in the fields and is run by Desiree using proceeds from the convenience store, as well, I am sure, from her own pocket. There were adults in charge – perhaps one for every 20 children and the kids were very well occupied. They were watching their educational shows on television, or focused on games – and obviously having a great time. The women in charge appeared to be pickers who were quite pregnant and couldn’t work in the fields themselves, so it even granted an income to them when they usually would not be able to find work. 

The Daycare in Santa Rita does present a clear solution to the certification bodies whose market demands to see not even the slightest chance of children being forced to work in the fields.

Everyone else in the chain benefits as well. The certification bodies have a clear condition which is easily monitored. The children are well cared for and can travel with their parents to work. Even the farmer wins – labour is always difficult to find and this would attract pickers to choose their farm over others. As well, the pickers would be able to focus on their jobs completely while their children are being well cared for by someone else so productivity is boosted.

And the drinkers – they can enjoy their coffee knowing children have definitely not been breaking their backs to deliver that one affordable luxury that starts every day: that cup of specialty coffee.