People in other cities, San Leandro would be one example, occasionally get a good chuckle about some Only-in-Berkeley antic. Easy for them: they don't have to live here. These kinds of things piss me off, and an intiative to force me to overpay for coffee tops the list.

A petition-driven initiative that would ban the sale of nonfair trade, shade-grown or organic coffee in the city of Berkeley will likely be on the November ballot, city officials said.

'Nonfair trade?' For one thing, that isn't even the best term: Unfair Trade sounds much better. For another thing, the only precise way to define what is a 'Fair Trade' is if both parties agree on a price and a quantity. If it was too low, the seller wouldn't sell, too high and the buyer wouldn't pay.

Politics-wise: this sort of law goes straight into the worst kind of Big Brother government. Even the City Council feels this way.

“If we begin to regulate the many details of so many people’s lives we are either going to be a nanny government or big brother, I don’t know which,” said City Councilmember Miriam Hawley, District 5.

Hawley said another smart thing on the unintended consequences of this, so I'm gonna quote her twice.

“For instance, how do we balance the needs of low-income people against the needs of people who are working in the fields and growing the coffee?” Hawley said. “And why are we starting here and not closer to home?”

The Initiative's writer, Rick Young, has made a classic mistake by confusing typical buying practices with market oversupply.

“People are being driven off their land because of the actions of corporate coffee companies like Starbucks,” said Simon Harris, the campaign director of the Organic Consumers Association, which supports of the initiative. “Coffee prices are coming in at 40 cents a pound, which is less than what it cost to produce it.”

People are being driven off the land because they're trying to grow coffee in a horribly glutted market. Too many people are trying to grow coffee. That's why foreign governments are dealing with the price shock by either attempting to hold back production and raise International demand. If Rick really wanted to help prices, he should ban Vietnamese coffee; the rising exports from there are much more a reason for low prices then any pennies Starbucks can squeeze out of Johnny Columbian.

But, instead, a real problem is being dealt with by the most roundabout and economically bankrupt method available. It's not even necessary to imagine a world where the Rick Youngs of the world are successful. Simply examine the European Olive market. Greece and other Mediterranean countries were suffering from low prices thanks to oversupply. Instead of cutting supply or increasing demand, the EU just tried to subsidize the problem away. It didn't work; overpaying for olives simply meant more olive growers, not richer ones. Now the EU is flooded with unwanted olives, Greek growers are no better off, and the EU's taxpayers are being screwed.

Lets not do that again.Email This Post!