P&G to provide Dunkin' Donuts coffee

Big corporate coffee monger Procter & Gamble has partnered with Dunkin’ Donuts to offer a Dunkin’ Donuts branded coffee for sale at retail outlets including Wal-Mart, Costco, CVS, and Kroger. Although some articles say that P&G will "produce" the coffee, and others note that P&G will "distribute" the coffee, it sounds like P&G will roast the coffee to DD specifications. It will not, therefore, be exactly the same coffee sold at Dunkin’ Donuts outlets. Regardless, neither Dunkin’ Donuts nor P&G will reveal where they source their coffee, if it is sustainably grown, or whether they pay farmers anything near a living wage. (Hint: who knows, no, and no.)

Recall that I mentioned this deal when I wrote about the purchase of Dunkin’ Donuts by a private equity firm. These entities are concerned with one thing: making profits, a situation not conducive to sustainable coffee growing. Nor is P&G concerned with offering good-tasting quality coffee. For more on why this is completely bad news for sustainable coffee, you can take a look at my recent post on the connection between quality, price, and sustainability.