Keith Lemnios, the CEO of Sun Coffee Roasters, visited the Rose Cafe this week and talked about his business and “mission-driven coffee.” It is something that I have not heard of before but it is actually a brilliant idea. Given the relative obscurity for consumers of where exactly we get our food, “mission-driven” products can be something we should try to favor since they specifically go out of their way to give fair conditions to workers and take an active interest in enriching their lives. Lemnios did dedicate a portion of his talk on how coffee was made but the main theme was the vision of his company and what he works for. I appreciated his insight on why companies like Apple were so successful when titans of old failed to succeed where they dominated, e.g., iPod and iPhone. Unlike most, Apple works backwards and establishes their vision and purpose before the actual product. The product they would be selling is the result of their relentless drive and pursuit of that vision and that causes consumers to become attracted to said product if they can see why Apple is doing what it is. Similarly, Lemnios saw that coffee farmers weren’t necessarily getting a fair price for what they were selling and set out to make sure he had a company and supply chain that would allow him to achieve that goal of ensuring fair wages, safe workplace conditions and more.

It was interesting to see how his company affected each part of the typical and well-established coffee manufacturing process in a way that was advantageous to the farmers and the community from which the production of coffee is ensured. He built a preschool for little children so their older siblings could go to school themselves and created opportunities from which the next generation could pursue outside of farming coffee beans. Sustainability was also a key focus according to Lemnios in that parts of the coffee were recycled to serve as fertilizer when combining with earthworms. It was fascinating to hear how a Professor from a university was connected to someone from his coffee farms to collaborate on creating earthworm-based fertilizer and such.

Being an informed buyer was something I took away from this discussion and I appreciated the various things he pointed out I could do to achieve that, such as looking for the Rainforest Alliance logo with a frog. I plan on looking for ways to improve the selection of goods and see if I can’t opt for a product that has guaranteed safe working conditions, fair wages to its workforce and more. Consumers hold a great deal of power in dictating how business is done and favoring products that promote such conditions would inevitably drive the entire industry towards them.