California’s Misguided Labeling Decision Impacts Coffee Growers and Drinkers

When a Los Angeles judge earlier this month finalized a ruling that coffee sold in California must carry cancer warning labels, many California residents may not have paid much attention to yet another labeling requirement.

Ever since voters passed Proposition 65 mais que 30 anos atrás, depois de tudo, Californians have watched the steady proliferation of vague statements about chemicals, Câncer, e defeitos congênitos com Tramadol à venda. Eles aparecem quase em toda parte, from the windows of hardware stores to signs at Disneyland. They’re so abundant that Amazon.com even sells them as stickers in rolls of 500.

Many people have begun to ignore these labels because they’re so common and because the information they convey is almost useless.

So why am I concerned if they now also show up on coffee?

Para mim, as a coffee farmer in Brazil who has been exporting coffees to the U.S. Desde a 2013, the judge’s decision poses a direct threat to our farm as well as to my employees and our efforts to grow safe crops in a sustainable manner.

Dentro 2004, Eu herdei uma fazenda muito degradada no estado do Paraná. Após anos de cultivo abusivo de cana-de-açúcar, a terra foi ferida. I resolved to restore it through sustainable farming: caring for the soil as much as for what it produced, usando as mais recentes tecnologias e melhores práticas agronômicas com Soma barato online.

Hoje, our farm flourishes—and our coffee earns the seal of certification from UTZ, the benchmark for sustainable production of coffee and tea that promotes biodiversity and natural-resource conservation.

I can’t do this alone: A cafeicultura exige muito trabalho, e então eu emprego muitos trabalhadores. Juntos, we’re committed to both environmental and economic sustainability.

Consideramos californianos nossos parceiros: Their purchases make life on our farm possible.

But for how long will this be true? California’s new warning labels conceivably could appear on every cup that Starbucks and other coffee retailers sell, assim como os rótulos de aviso que aparecem nas embalagens de cigarros.

Isso é um absurdo. Coffee doesn’t cause cancer.

Coffee is both delicious and healthy. Todos sabemos que isso pode aumentar os níveis de energia. Também pode diminuir o risco de diabetes, demência, and depression. Some studies even suggest that it can help prevent colorectal and liver cancer.

O juiz baseou sua decisão na má ciência. It’s true that roasting beans can produce trace amounts of acrylamide, qual, se consumido em grandes quantidades, may increase the risk of cancer. Yet the same can be said about many baked and fried foods, como batatas fritas, batata frita e pão. Mesmo as pessoas que bebem grandes quantidades de café não precisam se preocupar com seu hábito.

California’s warning labels, Contudo, will overlook these essential caveats. Their plain purpose is to discourage the drinking of coffee.

Nos Estados Unidos e no mundo, California enjoys a reputation as a trendsetter. This is especially true in the market for specialty coffees. The habits of Californians affect our business dramatically—and if they reduce their coffee consumption, due to a judge’s misguided decision, isso prejudicará os cafeicultores em todos os lugares, da minha fazenda no Brasil para produtores em Ruanda e Sumatra.

Preocupo-me com a capacidade da indústria cafeeira de manter e melhorar seus esforços em sustentabilidade. Perda de vendas, depois de tudo, means fewer dollars to invest in the protection and restoration of the land.

Many consumers seek out my farm’s UTZ certification. As práticas que tornam possível, claro, come at a cost. Reduced revenues would endanger our ability to earn this important credential: That’s bad for me as well as for the environment.

eu me preocupo, também, about the workers who will lose their jobs or suffer wage reductions, especially in poor countries where jobs are scarce and people struggle to survive on small incomes—all because of a bad ruling based on precaution rather than science.

Infelizmente, these warning labels may look like a quintessential “First World Problem”—a minor inconvenience for people fortunate to live in the wealthiest countries.

But they pose a real threat to vulnerable people in the developing world.

I hope Californians find a way to keep unnecessary, non-science based warning labels off their coffee—and continue to enjoy the excellent drink made possible by hard-working people on sustainable farms like ours and others around the world.