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Life & Times Transcript
09/05/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- The strange brew of beans and politics that's at the bottom of your next cup of coffee. Frank Lanzas>> If I don't sell my coffee at a good price, then my workers will be unemployed. They wouldn't be able to feed their children, so is it fair? Is that a fair trade really? No. Val Zavala>> And then, the Southern California family that's been giving coffee lovers something to smile about for three generations. Plus, a style of coffee shop architecture that's gone from kitschy to classic. All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> We're coming to you from a place that knows a thing or two about a good cup of coffee. It's Portos Bakery and Café in downtown Glendale and it's owned by a family with a reputation for serving up great pastries and cakes and sandwiches made with homemade bread. To wash it all down, they brew a mean cup of coffee here, everything from a tame little decaf to a hearty cappuccino. And speaking of coffee, we'd like to show you some things you probably don't know about your favorite morning brew. As Saul Gonzalez reports, it starts with the people who harvest the coffee beans. Saul Gonzalez>> Visit any busy upscale coffee house in America where mochas and other drinks sell for three dollars or more a cup and you might think the world's coffee economy would be booming. However, around the globe, twenty-five million small coffee farmers whose livelihoods depend on their crops are getting poorer as prices on the international coffee market plummet, reaching the lowest level in decades. One of the country's hardest hit by the coffee crisis is the Central American nation of Nicaragua. Here it's estimated one in three jobs depends on the coffee economy from harvesting to processing to exporting. Frank Lanzas>> Coffee has been the number one commodity in Nicaragua for many years. Saul Gonzalez>> Frank Lanzas is one of Nicaragua's best-known large coffee producers. Like many in his business, he blames a worldwide coffee glut for his industry's troubles. Frank Lanzas>> Right now, this year coffee production worldwide will be around one hundred twenty million bags and consumption is only going to be one hundred ten million bags, so there is that surplus of ten million bags. Saul Gonzalez>> Lanzas says that over-supply was partly created by international development policies that encouraged other countries to grow coffee, lots of it, thus flooding the market with coffee beans and driving prices down. Frank Lanzas>> The law of -- Saul Gonzalez>> -- supply and demand. Frank Lanzas>> Supply and demand. And if the supply is way over, you know, what the offer is, then coffee prices have fallen to forty dollars per bag and our cost of production is forty-five dollars per bag, so we're losing right now about five dollars per bag. Saul Gonzalez>> The falling price for coffee on the world market translates into greater hardship for thousands of Nicaragua's small coffee farmers. However, they see no other agricultural alternative to growing the crop. Antonin Garcia>> We don't live well. Life is so hard. We get paid so little for our crops that it's hardly possible to survive. We are suffering here. I don't know what it's like for the rich, but here we are trying to make do with so little. Saul Gonzalez>> Those workers who find jobs harvesting beans on large coffee plantations earn only two to three dollars a day. That's less than the price of a large latte in many American coffee bars. And many of the workers in the coffee fields are children, harvesting and sorting the beans to help their family survive. For many organizations that promote social justice, the human misery and despair created by the crisis in the international coffee economy have become too enormous to ignore. In response, they're promoting a new way to buy and sell coffee, one which they say is more ethical and could improve the lives of countless coffee farmers around the world, including here in Nicaragua. It's an idea called fair trade. Heather Putnam>> Fair trade is when the consumer makes a voluntary decision to buy coffee at a higher price to be able to directly support the small producers that produce that coffee. Saul Gonzalez>> Heather Putnam is an adviser to Seco Café. It's a Nicaraguan agricultural cooperative made up of over two thousand coffee farmers who sell their beans exclusively on the fair trade market. Fair trade, Putnam says, has brought tangible benefits to some of this country's poorest coffee-growing communities. Heather Putnam>> They're able to invest in the schools. They're able to invest in community houses, in infrastructure, improving the roads, in transporting the coffee during harvest time. There are lots of advantages. Saul Gonzalez>> Unlike the conventional coffee economy in which farmers sell to the middle men who make most of the profit, growers in the fair trade movement sell their crops directly to foreign importers who pay the farmers more than the current international market price for coffee beans. At present, fair trade coffee is bought for $1.26 a pound. That's more than double the conventional market price. Nicaraguan coffee farmer, Segundo Membreno, father of three who sells his crop on the fair trade market, says fair trade has allowed him and his family to live decent lives. Segundo Membreno>> The importance of fair trade for small producers is, of course, it pays you a better price for your coffee, but that better price brings you so many other benefits. You can fix a leaky roof, improve your home and buy medicine for your kids when they are sick. Saul Gonzalez>> In recent years, numerous fair trade coffee brands which sell at a slightly higher price than conventional non-fair trade labels have been introduced in the United States, Canada and Europe. They are all identified by the fair trade label. Seeing a market develop, socially conscious consumers, Starbucks and other large coffee retailers, have started selling fair trade coffee in their stores. However, it's churches and their humanitarian arms that are playing an increasingly prominent role in promoting fair trade coffee in the United States. Lutheran World Relief and Catholic Relief Services recently announced campaigns to boost the demand for fair trade coffee in the United States by urging millions of parishioners to buy and drink the coffee during church-sponsored events. Religious charities are also organizing trips to the world's coffee-growing regions so that consumers can learn firsthand where their coffee comes from. Kathleen Rudrud>> "This is maybe how not to do it (laughter)." Saul Gonzalez>> Kathleen Rudrud recently went on such a trip to Nicaragua. She's led efforts to sell fair trade coffee at her Lutheran Church in Southern California. Kathleen Rudrud>> It's a personal coffee, so when I drink a cup of coffee, I know the person behind the coffee. I know the person that created this cup of coffee and it gives me a better feeling that I've contributed maybe to a little bit better well-being for them. Saul Gonzalez>> Larger coffee producers, however, like Frank Lanzas criticize the fair trade movement's emphasis on helping small farmers. They argue that it limits the number of people who benefit. Frank Lanzas>> If I don't sell my coffee at a good price, then my workers will be unemployed. They wouldn't be able to feed their children, so is it fair? Is it a fair trade? Really? No, it's just -- Saul Gonzalez>> -- you can't be part of that. Frank Lanzas>> So it's not fair, you know. It's not really fair. It's just for a specific people, for a specific market. Saul Gonzalez>> In the United States, many in the coffee business say the importance of fair trade has been exaggerated, noting it only accounts for about one percent of the global coffee economy. Its market share, they argue, will always be modest because most consumers don't want to pay extra for anything. Ted Lingle>> People are reluctant to tie social causes to their purchases. Saul Gonzalez>> Ted Lingle is President of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, an industry trade group representing distributors and retailers. Ted Lingle>> While there's a great deal of empathy for the plight of the farmer and many consumers recognize this, when it comes time to part with the dollars in their wallets, that's not a strong enough motivation to get them to actually purchase the product. Saul Gonzalez>> Fair trade advocates acknowledge that paying small farmers more for their crop is only part of the solution. Some of them want to restore international production controls. But until world supply and demand somehow become more balanced, coffee growers such as Segundu Membreno can only appeal for help from American consumers. Segundu Membreno>> We the small farmers produce great quality coffee. I ask them to drink it so they can help the farmers and their families. They have to understand that their support really helps us here. Val Zavala>> Greater awareness about the plight of coffee bean harvesters is having an impact on consumers. More of them are trying to buy so-called fair trade coffee, so you can expect to see more of it show up on supermarket shelves in days to come. Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> You may dream of that perfect cup of Joe, but for one Southern California family, coffee inspired a very different kind of dream and they're living it right now. Philip Bruce shows us what happens when you've got coffee in your blood. Philip Bruce>> From the moment you meet him, there is absolutely no doubt that Pedro Gavina loves his work and he's really got a nose for it. Pedro Gavina>> See, there I am picking up the smell. It's clean, it's fresh, I can sense some acidity to it. Philip Bruce>> This is how he starts the day with a nice steaming cup of coffee. Then he has another and another. A word to the wise, don't try this at home. Pedro is a trained professional. Pedro Gavina>> That's a good cup. Philip Bruce>> Such is life when you're born to the beans. Pedro Gavina has been surrounded by them ever since he was a baby and every bit of coffee the family puts its name on has to first pass muster with him in a hands-on, or make that, lips-on taste test. Pedro Gavina>> The coffee business has got to be a family business or a personal business. You have to be proud of what you're doing to do it well. Philip Bruce>> He's one of the sons in Gavina and Sons, a homegrown California coffee company headquartered in the town of Vernon along Los Angeles's industrial edge. You can smell this place at least a mile before you can see it and, once you get there, you're engulfed in that warm familiar aroma that launches so many mornings in America. Call it a coffee heaven, a place where Pedro is right at home, always making sure that the Gavina's well-oiled machine doesn't miss a beat. Pedro Gavina>> I'm looking for anything that is wrong. You know, whether a guy is sitting and talking or where he's packing coffee wrong or the bags are not coming in the right way or something, something that is not right. I like to see what is coming out. I like to see what people are drinking. Philip Bruce>> When your name is on the product -- Pedro Gavina>> -- you're very proud of it. You've got to make sure that it's right. It's very important for us. To the whole family, it's very important. Philip Bruce>> There are three Gavina sons. Pedro is the CEO of the company, but there's also a daughter, Leonor, and she's just as involved in the business as the rest of them, handling marketing and taking her turn with the production lines. In fact, it's rare that some Gavina isn't on the floor here. Leonor Gavina-Valls>> We're very hands-on. Sometimes I think we're too much hands-on. We have to give a little and we don't. We open the mail, we sign checks, we do everything. Philip Bruce>> The Gavinas have a big piece of the American dream and there's not a moment that they take it for granted. How could they, considering that they all arrived here from Cuba just over forty years ago broke and most of them barely speaking English? Leonor Gavina-Valls>> Sometimes I think, gee whiz, I'm dreaming. This is a dream. I see myself as being in a small place. In our previous building, we were cramped into each other at a particular point in time. Therefore, the three brothers and myself shared a room that was our office, so we were literally pushing elbows to get by. Then coming here and looking at this place, you know, it's like a dream come true. Philip Bruce>> They owe it all to their father, Don Francisco Gavina. Back in Cuba, he was the head of a well-off family that owned a coffee plantation, part of a second generation to run the business. Don Francisco grew up with privilege and was educated in the United States. But the Gavinas' world came crashing down when Castro seized power in Cuba. Don Francisco gathered his wife and children and fled the country leaving everything behind. When they eventually arrived in Los Angeles, the Gavinas had nothing and Don Francisco, who was already sixty, had to start over as a dishwasher and a waiter at a local restaurant. Leonor Gavina-Valls>> My dad, in a way, he persevered. You know, he started little by little working very hard and he kept on going. He never had something be a barrier to him. Philip Bruce>> Through it all, Don Francisco still had a dream to get back in the coffee business and he finally got a break, a chance to buy a tiny coffee roasting plant once owned by the Bob's Big Boy Restaurant chain. Pedro Gavina>> It was probably a little bit bigger than this room here. Philip Bruce>> About the size of maybe a good-sized apartment? Pedro Gavina>> Yes, seven hundred square feet. Philip Bruce>> And that's how the business started? Pedro Gavina>> That's how we started, that's how we started. We'd roast a little bit of coffee. We tried to sell then basically to the Cuban community here just espresso coffee. Then the gourmet coffee started coming around and we took that and we were a pioneer in that industry. Philip Bruce>> Today, Gavina coffee isn't exactly a giant, but it's giving the big boys cause to look over their shoulders. The flagship Don Francisco brand is California's top seller and it even beats Starbucks in supermarket sales. You may be buying Gavina coffee even if you don't know it, like the next time you grab a cup of Joe with your Egg McMuffin. Gavina supplies all the McDonald's on the West Coast. At the same time, the company's gourmet coffees have won over even the most sophisticated palates. Wolfgang Puck is also a Gavina customer. Pedro Gavina>> You know, you say this is what I want to do and I will never give up. There's been times, you know, when you say, well, maybe why am I doing this? Then you realize that's your life. You know, this is what we do. That's why we are a coffee company. We're a coffee family. Philip Bruce>> What makes this company special is the family legacy that still inspires everything they do, the story of Don Francisco's dream and how he made it come true. The three sons and Leonor live that story. Their challenge now is passing it on to the next generation of Gavinas, but the ones we met made it clear that they get it. >> I think it's a wonderful story and I'm very proud of where our family came from. I think we have a big responsibility here to continue the tradition and keep those core values alive in our company through us. >> You know, I've always enjoyed coming here ever since I was little. You know, my father always believed we have to start from the very beginning when we were here. So we had our experiences working in the back of the plant, pushing the cans through the canning machine and picking up the bags. Not even running the machines, just making the boxes and putting the bags away and counting them, losing count and starting all over again. You know, it's something that -- you can't escape that kind of, I guess, experience. It's something that will stick with you anywhere you go. Philip Bruce>> Don Francisco never lived to see all this, but his presence is everywhere, and Leonor believes that somehow her dad knows the family is still working hard to keep his dream alive. Leonor Gavina-Valls>> I know he sees us from up there and he sees that we have been a big success and he's very proud. Philip Bruce>> What would he think of this place? Pedro Gavina>> He might get scared of it. I think the technology for -- he would be a hundred years now. Today, it might scare him, but he would be very happy and very proud of it. It was him. Without him, it would never happen. Val Zavala>> The Gavinas got their start by roasting specialty coffees for ethnic cafes in the Los Angeles area. Today one of their oldest customers is Portos Bakery here in Glendale. As it turns out, the Portos are another Cuban family that came to California with a dream and, like the Gavinas, they've found it. To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> Before the days of Starbucks and the coffee beans, Southern California's landscape was known for a very different kind of coffee shop. They stood out not so much because of the coffee, but because of the architecture and, as Saul Gonzalez reports, the style even had a nickname: Googies. [Film Clip] Saul Gonzalez>> Southern California in the 1950's. From new-fangled freeways to newly-built subdivisions, signs of progress and prosperity are everywhere and people are enjoying the post-war good life with gusto. And it's in this promised land of fun and frolic that a new style of architecture is born, at the neighborhood coffee shop. Nicknamed "Googies" after one restaurant chain, it's a design movement that celebrates flamboyance and embraces exuberance, turning humble hamburger joints into architectural showpieces that still capture the eye and imagination half a century later. Chris Nichols>> It's Frank Lloyd Wright meets science fiction meets World's Fair. They're so unlike anything else and they just demand that you stop and pay attention. John English>> They are more Los Angeles in some ways than almost any other buildings. They are quintessentially Los Angeles. The Googie architects knew what needed to happen in a building, what would work for the American public, for the families, for working class families, middle-class families. They knew that they needed to make them comfortable, make them warm, make them inviting. Saul Gonzalez>> Inglewood's Pann's Restaurant is a gem of Googie-style architecture. Its lush landscaping, bold abstract shapes and pavilion-like interior are all hallmarks of coffee shop modern. Chris Nichols>> Here, everything's in motion, everything's moving around, everything's alive and organic. The rock walls and the terrazzo floors, and it feels like it's just naturally grown out of this island like a turtle mushroom or something, you know? It kind of appears here and yet it's not just organic, but it's dynamic and modern. Saul Gonzalez>> Pann's also showcases how coffee shop architecture of the 1950's married form and function, beauty and utility. John English>> They were thoroughly thought out. Nothing was left to chance in these buildings. Every bit of space was really measured out and thought how can we get a maximum amount of seating? Technologically and aesthetically, they are designed to be extremely efficient to work twenty-four hours a day. Saul Gonzalez>> Other Googies masterpieces include Norm's Restaurant on La Cienega. Its allures are a striking cantilevered roof and lavish use of glass that invites you to look at the parade of people within. In Toluca Lake, Bob's Big Boy gets attention with its towering signs, its soft curves and neon glow. Coffee shops like these were built, of course, not to be admired like a work of art. They were made to capture the attention and cash of potential customers speeding by. John English>> These buildings sitting out on the commercial strip needed to stand out. The building as sign, the building as billboard. It wasn't enough just to have a neon sign. The building itself had to catch the motorists traveling thirty-five to forty miles per hour, traveling down the boulevards of greater Los Angeles. Saul Gonzalez>> Louie Armet and Eldon Davis keenly understood that coffee shop design was as much about advertising as aesthetics. They were the architects who created some of Los Angeles's most striking and successful Googie-style restaurants. One of their masterpieces was Pann's. Eldon Davis>> First of all, it had to be commercially successful. I mean, you have a client. He needs something to sell and that would be not high architecture. In fact, a lot of the other architects called the things we did "Googie" architecture and that was meant as an insult (laughter). John English>> Now remember, these are criticisms coming from the high art architecture establishment which was very one-sided and was looking down at anything that didn't fit into their picture of high art, of pure artistic expression. Anything commercial, for the most part, was suspect. Saul Gonzalez>> The Googie style might have survived the slings and arrows of architectural critics, but not the wrecking ball. Many of Southern California's most memorable coffee shops are gone for good. Coffee shop aficionados say it's important to preserve those restaurants that still stand and not just out of respect for architectural history. To their fans, these restaurants are profoundly democratic places where people from different backgrounds and communities can come together for food and fellowship. Chris Nichols>> People have been coming into this place for fifty years and they know their sons and their grandchildren and they know the family histories and they've built relationships here that have lasted for decades. I understand that churches and civic centers serve their purpose and they draw people to them. You know, that's been that way forever. But a coffee shop or a bowling alley is an authentic crossroads. Everybody can come here. Everybody can get together here and try to find common ground. Saul Gonzalez>> The Googies phenomenon shows that, at its best, architecture can satisfy a craving for community as well as style. Val Zavala>> We hope you've enjoyed this special Life and Times blend of coffee stories. We'd like to thank all the folks at Portos Bakery in downtown Glendale for all their help. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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