I am really charged up driving my new car. I enjoy driving and for the past 15 years have had a wonderful time driving my now 20-year-old Porsche convertible with 125,000 miles on it. But though I loved the Porsche, it was getting on in years and showing its age. In the back of my mind, I had been considering the possibility of another car but didn’t know what to replace the Porsche with. I loved the sports-car aspect of it, loved putting the top down, and, as my daily driver, it served me well. Thus the dilemma: What could I get to replace my beloved Porsche that handled well, was a convertible and I would enjoy driving?

The answer turned out to be a Tesla, a fully electric sports car. I had known about Tesla for several years, having followed the story of Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who started the company, and having heard him speak at an Inc. 500 conference last fall, when he discussed his new car company that he believed was going to revolutionize the automotive industry. Named after Nikola Tesla, the remarkable, prolific inventor known primarily for the invention of alternating-current power systems, the Tesla is a battery-powered sports car. I had read reviews about the car and the company but had never seen one. And then, the company opened a showroom in Boulder. And it was my birthday.  Sometimes, all the signs point in a certain direction, and in this instance it was northwest on the Boulder Turnpike.

The Tesla is tiny, and for someone my size, getting in and out is an adventure. I climbed in and maneuvered into the seat. Once ensconced behind the wheel, I looked around. The dashboard has two dials, one a speedometer and the other a gauge to measure battery life and usage. The car is powered by 6,831 individual lithium-ion batteries and is best charged by plugging into a 220-volt plug. Charging takes about six hours and yields a range of about 180 miles. Acceleration is astonishing, with 0-60 times of less than four seconds. It is the fastest car I’ve ever driven, and is it fun to accelerate!

I have been driving the car since January and love every mile and every kilowatt of electricity I use. I drove past a gas station yesterday and smiled. I haven’t been to one in months. I don’t know how much a gallon of gasoline costs anymore. But I am completely charged up by driving my Tesla.

In the last week, I’ve traveled in Ireland, visiting coffee shops and talking with coffee roasters.  The emphasis throughout the country has been on Fair Trade. There are banners in each city proclaiming that Limerick, for example, is a Fair Trade City.

On the surface, it makes sense to promote Fair Trade products as a way of trying to get more money back to subsistence farmers to help improve their lives and living conditions. And although there has been some success in getting people to consume Fair Trade products, particularly with strong marketing campaigns, the trick is getting people to continue consuming those products on an ongoing basis. However, that can be done only if the quality of the Fair Trade products is equal to or surpasses that of similar products that don’t have a Fair Trade insignia. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

I discussed this situation with one of my customers, a boutique coffee roaster in Belfast who focuses on cupping and roasting the best coffees he can find. He travels to origins to source beans, is an SCAA Cup of Excellence judge and is well respected by his peers.

As we talked about Fair Trade, he became animated. Many of his customers demand Fair Trade-certified coffees, and he is happy to comply. However, he is frustrated by the fact that he can find and source better-tasting coffees that are not certified Fair Trade due to the way Fair Trade works. If a coffee isn’t from a co-op, it can’t be certified Fair Trade, even if the producing farm meets all of the other criteria necessary for approval. These better coffees command a higher price than their Fair Trade counterparts, so more money actually goes back to the farms, and more money can go directly to the growers.

The paradox remains that Fair Trade is only an economic stamp of approval, with a minimum-price guarantee. It says nothing about the quality of the coffee, which can be inconsistent due to the nature of a co-op. And, according to this roaster, although Fair Trade sets a minimum price for coffee, it is very difficult to get a higher price than the minimum because of the inherent quality issues. So although he is willing to buy the Fair Trade coffee for those accounts that demand it, he is happy buying non-Fair Trade-certified coffee for a higher price that makes a better cup. He feels that he is making an even bigger difference in the lives of coffee growers who strive to produce the best beans and who receive an even higher price for their work without the third-party endorsement of Fair Trade.

I just bought my first two cows, and I am pretty excited. Two cows are a great start to a herd. For the last several months, I have been encouraging donations to my page at Heifer International. Heifer is a nonprofit organization that works on the aphorism that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life. To do so, Heifer supplies animals to people around the world to help encourage their self-sufficiency. An astonishing array of livestock can be donated, including bees, chickens, geese, goats, pigs, water buffalo and, of course, heifers. Check out my original blog post on Heifer when I set up the challenge.

At this year’s Coffee Fest in Las Vegas, I was just short of my $1,000 goal. I mentioned my challenge to one of my friends who works for Coffee Fest, and I told her the amount that I needed to put me over the top. She reached into her wallet and gave me the money. I was so excited that we had managed to pull this off. This was the beginning, and I’m proud that we succeeded in raising enough for the two cows. I will set up another goal soon and will post it here and hope that people participate. Next time, I hope we can donate even more.

I just finished my third new business presentation in as many days. Each company is a large, publicly traded, well-known household name. All are considered leaders in food service and are responsible for serving millions of beverages and meals annually. And each meeting had nothing to do with saving money or cutting costs. Instead, the conversations focused on sustainability, Fair Trade and social responsibility.

The buyers at these companies are acutely aware of the importance of their supply chain in ensuring that their stores have an uninterrupted supply of products. None of them wants to face the thought of running out of a popular menu item. And all place a huge burden of responsibility on their vendors to make sure that doesn’t happen. At the same time, they all understand that focusing solely on price is a destructive business tactic. They prefer to focus on longer-term investments by paying higher prices and knowing that a third party certifies where the crops come from. The certifications we discussed include organic, Fair Trade, UTZ and Rainforest Alliance. These buyers know that paying more money for products that are independently certified means the crop is generally better treated than its non-certified counterpart. Fair Trade products mean that farmers receive a premium price; Certified Organic means that the coffee or cocoa was grown without using artificial pesticides; UTZ certifies that all of the growing and processing is subject to strict regulations; and Rainforest Alliance means that the crops were grown to ensure that valuable rain-forest lands are not endangered. Each of these certifications costs the buyer more money, and each company was willing to accept that price premium knowing it would lead to a more sustainable supply.

The discussions I had were focused on how we could help these companies deliver products with these attributes. Now, the fun part — the Research and Development component — begins. The lab is now creating single-origin cocoa mixes, Fair Trade chocolate syrups and organic flavored syrups. And while it is always fun to develop new items, it is especially gratifying doing so and knowing that both farmers and consumers will ultimately benefit from what we make.  

One of the biggest issues facing companies that use coffee and cocoa is sustainability. How can we, as users of a commodity, guarantee a consistent, quality supply of the materials that we use to make our products? There are myriad issues affecting supply-chain sustainability, but many are directly attributable to the welfare of the farmer or grower. This post is an attempt to illuminate a few of the challenges that cacao farmers face.

First of all, the farming itself is basic subsistence agriculture. Essentially, most of the grower’s income is derived from the cash crop that he is growing, and he must use the proceeds from the crop to cover all of the expenses of raising and harvesting the crop, as well as living expenses for a family. With cacao, the average crop is harvested on a plot that is approximately two hectares, or one acre. In West Africa, farmers receive between $30 and $100 per year for their harvests, representing up to 70 percent of their total annual income.  

A second problem the farmers face is a lack of knowledge and skills, preventing them from maximizing their crop yield. Without training and equipment, it is difficult to get the most from the land.  

A third problem is a lack of credit and financial resources that could enable farmers to purchase fertilizers that would increase yields and decrease crop loss. Since the average crop size is so small, even a slight increase in productivity would greatly increase overall income. 

Some of these issues can be addressed by getting farmers more money for their crops. Fair Trade purchasing is one way to generate more income for farmers by getting buyers to commit to paying a premium for a more consistent, higher-quality product. Although some argue about the model, Fair Trade purchases and practices are gaining popularity as customers, like us, are willing to spend more money for a commodity in the beliefs that the end product will be of a more consistent quality and that by paying more, the farmer will benefit. We just introduced two new Fair Trade cocoa mixes, and I hope that our customers see the benefit as well.