DIRTY COFFEE
Documentary Mini Series
Behind each delicious sip of coffee is an industry rooted in colonialism, racism, slave labour and injustice. Dirty Coffee is a five episode documentary mini series highlighting coffee's bloody history, how the industry grew, who holds the power now, and the invisible injustices that still exist today. We explore how a culture of coffee lovers and experts grew a corner of the industry that provides a solution to the dirty world of coffee.
Dirty Coffee is populated by engaging history and interviews from coffee and trade experts from around the world. We follow two local coffee brands from Vancouver, BC, considered the coffee capital of Canada, as they expand into the nuances of fourth wave coffee. We follow their partnerships with small coffee farms around the globe and the struggles they face competing within a saturated industry. Once abroad we unveil the truth behind the world’s favourite drink and the slave and unjust labour that goes into growing the majority of beans. We’re welcomed into a master taster room where only 4000 certified individuals around the world called Q graders, grade all the coffee beans in the world on a scale of 1 – 100 to determine their worth and grade from 1 -5. The solution to most of the labour and human’s rights issues that exist in the industry lies within this grade. Our experts guide us through the complexities of the industry and the overwhelming expansion that has just begun in a drastically changing world of coffee.
Poverty Inc ... Meets ... A Film About Coffee
Research
Slavery & Specialty: Discussing Coffee’s Black History
When you reach for a bag of Brazilian roasted coffee or order a pour over from Colombia, you may consider yourself well-informed about its origins. But how did coffee come to these regions in the first place? And who were the people who established coffee farms and labored in the plantations?
The Dark Side of Coffee
Top bean-producing countries historically were also those with significant slave populations, responsible for the back-breaking labor required to meet coffee's growing global demand. Today, the plight of the average modern coffee farm laborer is better, but barely: little to no benefits, poor working conditions, and wages that add up to even less than a latte would cost at your local cafe.
Hawaii Coffee Companies Charged with Widespread Labor Violations
The U.S. Labor Department has discovered widespread violations among at least seven coffee companies located in the Kailua-Kona region of Hawaii’s big island. Violations include failures to pay workers minimum wage and overtime, exploiting migrant workers, illegally hiring coffee pickers as independent contractors, and exploiting children as young as 5 years old to pick coffee cherries