Well, just when you think the Irish Catholic Church doesn't have the backbone to talk about sin they come out with a whole new list of sins, including buying brand name coffee.
I can see it now. Father Boyle from the pulpit on Sunday, "Mrs. Murphy I saw you buying Nescafé last week. The shame you've brought on our parish". It would be amusing, anyway.
Whenever the Bishops get involved in this sort of argument they make me cringe. When an enthusiast explains "Fair Trade" it sounds great, but I can't see how it can make any real impact on the world's poor. Even the case cited by the Bishops of a company helping Fair Trade – Bewleys selling Fair Trade coffee – is just a marketing ploy. Bewleys is (a) tweaking the consumer's conscience to get him to pay more for a cup of coffee and/or (b) sacrificing a little in profit for the good press.
When you buy Fair Trade coffee you are rewarding inefficient production and distribution for the sake of feeling good about yourself. You are also denying the sale to those third world farmers who are more efficient and earning a living by selling to the big corporations. The simple problem for the third world coffee producers is that the supply is outstripping the demand and Fair Trade cannot do anything about that.
The Church would be better off trying to help grow the world coffee market, thus increasing demand. Maybe the Bishops could publish a pastoral letter asking Catholics to double their coffee consumption. Or they could encourage innovation among producers. Either of those options is better than than endorsing the inadequate, feel-good efforts of Fair Trade.
