Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Recap: Etelle Higonnet, Founder of Coffee Watch

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Recap: Etelle Higonnet, Founder of Coffee Watch · Coffee People Podcast

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  Hey, coffee drinkers, welcome back to the Coffee People
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  podcast recap show. Thank you for being here and
• 0:31
  being a supporter of our Coffee People platform.
• 0:33
  I'm your host, Ryan Walt. You can follow or subscribe to
• 0:37
  the show wherever you're listening, but you'll only find
• 0:40
  the bonus context links, recaps to the show, and options to
• 0:43
  become a paid supporter on coffeepeoplepodcast.com.
• 0:48
  A lot of great options for paid supporters.
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  If you'd like to help us tell the stories of coffee people, we
• 0:54
  certainly appreciate you. Our recent podcast guest, Atel
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  Igoni is the founder of Coffee Watch, an industry watchdog
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  organization dedicated to the proposition that we should be
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  making the world a better place with every cup of coffee.
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  And after spending an hour with her and some time digging into
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  the reports and content shared on coffeewatch.org regarding
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  deforestation, workplace slavery or indentured servitude, climate
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  impacts due to harmful farming practices.
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  And honestly, I don't know how she does it.
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  I don't know how during our show at least, she continues to laugh
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  so freely and and share optimistic motivation that all
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  of this can get turned around. I really appreciated it.
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  Joy seemed to kind of ooze from ET al, even as she was offering
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  up some devastating statistic about climate philanthropy or
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  the impact poorly produced coffees can have.
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  So to recap this episode with ET al.
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  Igoni of Coffee Watch we're here to kind of give you some bullet
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  points, you know, if you didn't have a chance to listen all the
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  way through or just as a reminder, if you enjoyed the
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  episode, ET al. Spent a dozen years or so
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  working with human rights organizations like Amnesty
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  International and UNICEF after graduating from Yale Law School.
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  Eventually the weight of that work caught up to her.
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  This challenging work to work in nonprofits, mentally,
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  physically, emotionally. It inspired a transition for
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  into work and more environmental and climate challenges with
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  organizations like Greenpeace and Mighty Earth.
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  You'll find links to those on our newsletter.
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  So I was questioning, you know, how it's possible for this
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  version of humanity to maintain the viewpoint that things can
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  get better in the face of our daily barrage of negative news
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  that we seem to get about climate all the time and a
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  seeming lack of control that I personally and the, you know,
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  all of us have toward the whole earth of problems that encompass
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  the topic of climate change. And it's all just acknowledge
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  that it's hard, but having a baby, a son, cemented her
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  resolve to fight with everything she has to make the world a
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  better place for him and, and his future.
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  And I think having something like that to to focus on This is
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  why I'm doing this is really important, especially when
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  you're doing work in the nonprofit space.
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  On to the challenges facing coffee in particular.
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  For starters, supply chains are hard to follow.
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  They're hard to follow, even if you're part of them.
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  I mean, coffee got problems that really isn't debated that much
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  in our industry. Some problems are more obvious
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  than others. And Coffee Watch's goal is to
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  shine a bright, unyielding light on those problems.
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  You know, OfferUp, what they found, push for change.
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  And in the first year of the organization, they just
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  celebrated one year. She's learned that not everyone
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  has been really excited or even willing to hear what they have
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  to say. The reasons why our legion
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  including bandwidth, financial impacts to business, the
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  logistics of changing an established supply chain, even
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  the emotional toll of challenging the status quo.
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  There's a lot you know that that makes it hard to take steps
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  forward toward the type of change that she's asking for.
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  I'd add the simple weight of accepting and staring at
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  something that makes us feel bad when many of us not speaking for
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  for you, but for myself, many of us need all the positive
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  worldview reinforcement we can find, especially right now.
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  During this episode, the term NGO came up several times.
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  NGO is an acronym for Non governmental organization.
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  Ng OS are often, although not exclusively, nonprofits that are
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  funded at least partially by governments, but they operate at
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  least partially independent of said government.
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  I'll link to more information on coffeepeoplepodcast.com because
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  there is a lot, a lot of variances to what constitutes an
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  NGO and how it might impact your community or an industry.
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  It's also used the term deforestation, which is pretty
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  much what it sounds like. I wanted to define it a little
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  bit just because it's not as simple as just cutting a tree
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  down or a bunch of trees down. I mean, it is, but it's the
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  clear cutting of a forest by humans for a land use that isn't
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  planting more forests or replacing them in a responsible
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  way. Only 31% of the earth is
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  currently covered by forest. The introduction of farming and
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  agriculture has drastically put a dent in the tree, the trees,
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  the land area covered by forests which are huge carbon sinks
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  around the world. It's actually the main driver of
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  deforestation is farming and agriculture.
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  You can look for more links on the value of forests and the
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  impact of deforestation on coffeepeoplepodcast.com.
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  I'll also share some of my personal favorite books about
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  trees, The Secret Life of Trees being one of them.
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  I I wish it were easier to break down all the numbers because
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  there are so many and it's easy to glaze over.
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  I know I did just reading them and hearing them that you know,
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  numbers that indicate where we are in this phase of climate
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  change and and how farming of products like coffee cause some
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  of that impact. Just to kind of keep it to a .1
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  of the more surprising numbers that came up during our
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  conversation with the Tel was only a small percentage, like 2
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  to 2 1/2 at the at the outset of philanthropic giving goes
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  towards climate challenges, even less specifically towards
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  agricultural challenges like coffee.
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  That really surprised me because it seems like such a huge issue
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  that we're all focused on at least a little bit or aware of.
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  Federal cuts to programs that were operating under the USAID
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  banner have shined a light a little bit on how sometimes NGOs
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  aren't ineffective because they waste money.
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  Some do, no doubt, but not always.
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  But sometimes they're ineffective because they don't
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  have enough money to pay for solutions or to attract the
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  people with the right skill sets to do the jobs.
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  There's this theory that people that work in nonprofits do it
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  because they're passionate and they love it, but they shouldn't
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  be doing it to get paid, which I disagree with.
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  I think that there's a there's room for both things to to make
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  enough money at a nonprofit where you can feel good about
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  helping and also support your own family.
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  Back to the show, a couple more thoughts.
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  Coffee Watch is based in Denmark, the country hotel calls
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  home. A 2025 study published on
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  kefailey.com indicates that Denmark has a thriving coffee
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  culture, which I've also just heard anecdotally.
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  There's sixth in coffee consumption per capita, quite a
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  bit higher than the US, which comes in at 24th per person.
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  The average Denmarker drinks at least 2 cups of coffee a day,
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  which is pretty impressive considering they're also one of
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  the most expensive places to drink coffee, paying an average
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  of $5.40 per cup in 2025. That doesn't actually seem like
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  a lot for a specialty coffee, but we're talking about the
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  average price is 540, so that means even kind of on the low
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  end they're they're definitely higher.
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  I asked Itel if they were already seeing climate change
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  refugees in Denmark, and she said yes, but cautioned that
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  we're really at the beginning of climate migration.
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  It's a hard statistic to quantify, and the line between
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  people moving because of climate change or moving with an
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  understanding that climate impacts their decisions isn't
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  always clear. For example, my wife and I
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  recently moved to the Pacific Northwest.
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  We didn't move because we were forced out of our home because
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  of climate, but one of the variables we considered when
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  narrowing down, you know, the choices of where we would land
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  was places where there'd be enough water in the future and
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  where weather may not become as extreme in our lifetime.
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  We're not climate refugees, but it's definitely a factor in our
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  decision making. And I hope we're right.
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  It's so, so far beyond, you know, all the science that we
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  can understand, but there's so much that is unknown, which
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  makes it a challenging, a challenging thing for for anyone
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  making a decision on where to live.
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  This all kind of makes my head spin and my natural cynicism
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  soars as they tell how she maintains faith in her mission
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  Coffee watch mission. And she said that we should
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  engage and learn about all the bad stuff only so you can work
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  towards changing and fixing it. You know, don't fall into that
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  doom scrolling trap and start blaming yourself.
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  You do what you can do to make things better, which is a great
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  way to kind of go about every day.
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  It doesn't have to be perfect. You know, buying better coffee,
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  ethical coffee shade grown coffee is a start, according to
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  Intel. Sharing it with others and
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  encouraging that they buy better coffee too is the next step.
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  And, you know, then there's another and another and another.
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  They offer an ethical coffee buying guide on coffeewatch.org,
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  which we'll share in the newsletter.
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  And finally, in two disparate ends of the spectrum, we learned
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  that ET al. Igoni drinks oatmeal lattes and
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  once charmed a pair of hitmen. So you should listen to the show
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  and hear that story. I'll close out our recap today
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  by asking, what's what's your reason for wanting a better
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  future? He tells us your son and his
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  future mine is for some weird intrinsic desire to leave things
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  better than I find them, so that the lovely people in my life
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  that will likely outlive me have a nice place to to play and also
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  dogs. I assume my pup Keto whiskey
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  Lemon thundernuts is immortal and I want to do what I can to
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  make a better future for him and his future siblings.
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  And that includes drinking better coffee.
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  You can watch or listen to the entire episode of the Coffee
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  People podcast featuring ET al Ligonet of Coffee Watch on most
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  podcast platforms and of course, YouTube.
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  We could really use your help in growing our YouTube subscriber
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  list. You can find us there at Coffee
• 11:55
  People Podcasts. All of the important links,
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  including that one, are in the show's notes.
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  Thank you to our friends and partners, including Rostar
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  Coffee Packaging. Find them at rostar.com.
• 12:06
  Civets Roasting machines, the official roasting machine of our
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  show, Asaya Coffee Source or Green Coffee importer, Friends
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  relative coffee company who we produce ya no ya coffee with.
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  And of course, all of you listening to the stories of
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  coffee people and aspiring to make the world a better place.
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  Wherever you are, please tip your baristas.
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  And of course, drink good coffee.
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  Cheers everyone. The climate change thing is
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  wild. There are just so many issues
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  I'm not even aware of and I'm paying attention.
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  I'm drinking coffee.