LE T T ER S
“I AM CONFIDENT THAT VERY
SOON, EVEN BY 2008, BOTH
MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES WILL
CONSIDER ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION ONE OF THE
MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL
IDEALS AND GOALS.”
THE PARTY OF
CONSERVATION
Thank you for the interview with
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (“A
Green’s Goodbye,” October/November 2006), and for pointing
out that the Republican Party is
the original party of conservation. It has only been during the
past two and half decades that
conservation has been crowded
off our platform to make room
for a singular form of capitalism. Fortunately, Republicans
who care about the environment
are beginning to remake history
in Washington, D.C., and in
state capitals. Our organization,
Republicans for Environmental
Protection, has a growing membership that is brimming with
community, local, and state leaders who are climbing the party’s
ladder and who will displace our
inattentive or ineffectual leaders.
14 | Feb/Mar/07 plentymag.com
I am confident that very soon,
even by 2008, both major political parties will consider environmental protection one of the
most important national ideals
and goals.
ROBERT C. SISSON
MAYOR, CITY OF STURGIS
STURGIS, MI
CERTIFYING COFFEE
Plenty’s recent story on sustainable
coffee (“Cool Beans,” December/January 2007) is a sign of the
times. Rainforest Alliance, fair
trade, organic, and other sustainable labels have become much
more pervasive recently. In the
U.S., Rainforest Alliance–certified coffee is now sold at large
chain retailers like Wal-Mart and
Sam’s Club, and through major
supermarket brands like Kraft, at
prices competitive with non-certi-
fied brands. Sustainable coffee
has become big business, harnessing global market forces to the
greening of the coffee sector as it
captures new market share.
At first consideration, Juan Valdez or WalMart or Kraft may seem
like questionable purveyors of sustainability, and may lead concerned
consumers to ask the question on
Plenty’s last cover: “Is This Activism?” The answer can be found on
coffee farms here in Colombia and
elsewhere, where the mainstreaming of sustainable certification has
resulted in environmental protection and a better life for millions of
workers and their families.
Scalability is the whole point of
certification, which aims to achieve
market-driven global impact by
transforming the practices of entire
industries. Beans from Rainforest
Alliance–certified farms are sold to
large and small companies, from
small traders and specialty roasters
to giants like Kraft, Lavazza, and
Procter and Gamble. Large companies make up a major portion
of the industry, so the urgency of
the mission to spread best practices
globally absolutely requires their
participation.
ELSA MATILDE ESCOBAR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
FUNDACIÓN NATURA
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA
MAKING ECO
DONATIONS COUNT
Thanks for Liz Galst’s piece on
today’s environmental philanthropy (“The Imperfect Gift,”
December/January 2007). She’s
right: The big environmental
organizations are doing good
things, but are really not a
donor’s best investment. To realize the most change per buck,
both individuals and big donors
must look to the true grassroots
organizations—those whose
annual budgets are slimmer than
even the smallest mentioned in
the article ($2 million). Most
directors of grassroots groups
would faint at the suggestion
of such a budget! Of the 1,000
organizations in the Orion
Grassroots Network, only a
fraction have budgets bigger
than that, yet they make a dollar
go much further than the big
environmental groups. And the
member groups’ issue-areas are
so varied that a donor can aid
very specific causes, from water
quality and urban gardening to
social justice and sustainability.
There’s strength in numbers,
in the great multitude of small
and savvy groups committed to
doing such good work in their
home places. And with more
than 100,000 such grassroots