A coalition of 17 human rights organizations, labor leaders, and ethics watchdogs in the coffee industry is demanding that FARM Rio, a Brazilian fashion brand, end its partnership with Starbucks. 

The organizations distilled their calls for FARM Rio to either drop the multinational coffee giant or condition their partnership with Starbucks on the basis of major reforms to the company’s labor practices, in a letter to FARM Rio CEO Fabio Barreto dated June 4. 

FARM Rio, which holds a certified “B” Corporation designation for certain ethical standards, carries a global reputation of being committed to bold environmental goals, advocates say. The Brazilian fashion brand inked a partnership with Starbucks to bring its unique take on prints and designs to Starbucks’ merchandise back in May.

“Starbucks faces serious allegations about child labor and other severe human rights violations in its coffee supply chains in China, Mexico, Guatemala, and numerous other countries,” advocates wrote in the letter. “Furthermore, Starbucks has refused to sign a fair contract with its unionized workers in the United States where thousands of baristas face retaliation for demanding basic rights such as fair wages, breaks and workplace safety.”

FARM Rio did not provide a response via its online contact form, and Prism could not locate other contact information for the company’s media representatives. A representative from Good Culture Inc., a public relations agency working for FARM Rio in the United Kingdom, said it does not handle the company’s U.S. partnerships, including with Starbucks.

Starbucks spokesperson Jay Go Guasch said in an email statement to Prism that the company believes advocates’ allegations are “without merit.”

“We plan to vigorously defend the Starbucks brand,” Go Guasch said. 

In their letter, advocates highlighted a recent lawsuit filed by representatives of eight Brazilian workers who accused Brazilian farms of trafficking them and forcing them to harvest coffee sold to Starbucks through Cooxupé, a large-scale international cooperative considered by Starbucks as a Tier 1 supplier. 

The company’s Tier 1 suppliers are entities that directly provide the coffee, tea, and cocoa used in Starbucks’ products. 

The conditions alleged in the legal complaint depict an environment akin to slavery and reflect rampant use of child labor. 

In the filing, workers and their representatives allege that hellish worker conditions in Starbucks’ supply chain extend beyond Brazil and are pervasive in the coffee operations in China, Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia, Uganda, and Guatemala that supply Starbucks.

Go Guasch told Prism that Starbucks does not purchase coffee from all farms within Cooxupé’s cooperative, which includes more than 19,000 coffee farm members.

The company instead vets suppliers using its Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFE) Practices verification program, Go Guasch said. The program was developed with the oversight of third-party experts in 2004 and, according to Starbucks, has been continuously independently audited and iterated upon through the years. Go Guasch also called the standards the most stringent in the industry, a point some advocates have disagreed with. 

“Starbucks is committed to ethical sourcing of coffee, including helping to protect the rights of people who work on the farms where we purchase coffee from,” Go Guasch added.

Etelle Higonnet, the founder of Coffee Watch, an organization aiming to reform working conditions in the coffee industry, and a signatory to the letter, told Prism that Starbucks should reform its CAFE program or adopt a more stringent and comprehensive set of standards. 

“It is so far beneath the best in class,” Higgonet, who said he has researched best practices in the coffee industry, said of the CAFE program. “They do not pay a living income reference price for farmers, they do not guarantee a living wage for the farmworkers. They are not organic. They’re not even really close to organic.”

The CAFE program, Higonnet added, does not require Starbucks’ transparency with buyers. Products are not traceable back to their farm of origin, Higonnet, a veteran human rights advocate and attorney, said. 

The Smithsonian Bird Friendly coffee certification standards, Higonnet said, should be the coffee company’s north star. According to the Smithsonian website, the organization’s standards ensure that every farm yields an organic, deforestation-free crop. Farms under these standards also prioritize forestry conservation using the best environmental practices. 

“It is the only certification that guarantees every coffee and cocoa bean sold is grown in a way that protects wildlife habitat,” the website reads.

Higonnet said that Starbucks should at least make its supply chain traceable, instead of asking customers to take the company at its word. 

“This is a widespread, systematic, documented pattern and practices of extreme human rights violations in their supply chain. You should not be sourcing from [those farms],” Higonnet said. “You’re just going to tell us that it’s OK, and we’re supposed to trust you? That is crazy.”

Higonnet said that Starbucks should be held accountable for alleged human rights violations in its supply chain.

“They should be shamed, and they should have to deal with their problems in a more meaningful way,” said Higonnet. 

Coffee Watch filed a 307 petition in April with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, asking the agency to ban imports of Brazilian coffee linked to forced labor in the supply chains of companies like Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, and Nestle. 

The letter from advocates also listed the litany of labor law violations American workers have filed against Starbucks since announcing their intentions to unionize the company’s stores in 2021. 

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions found that as of August 2022, Starbucks faced the most unfair labor cases before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of any private employer over the preceding year. 

The number of cases was “30% more than its closest peer UPS, which has nearly twice the number of employees as Starbucks,” according to the U.S. Senate’s report. Media reports estimate that as of 2024, workers and unions have filed 700 unfair labor practice cases with the NLRB.

In the letter, advocates called for FARM Rio to drop the collaboration with Starbucks or make it conditional on the following demands: 

• Uphold the right of all workers to freely unionize.
• Eradicate slavery and child labor from its supply chains.
• Ensure living wages for farmworkers and living income prices for smallholder farmers.
• Commit to full labor rights across its global operations.
• Engage in transparent dialogue with labor, environmental, and human rights organizations.

Higonnet said Starbucks should not be allowed to “launder” its image and track record of alleged labor violations through the reputation of another, more respected brand. 

“It’s an effort to just push the bad news down,” Higonnet said. “But we can’t let that happen, because all the ethical CEOs should be calling Starbucks to say, ‘Hey … get with the program, respect human rights.’”

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor