All our products come from a radius within 200km. We made an exception with coffee only. Why?
Thousands of farmers today fully depend on coffee (or tea, banana, cocoa..) production to survive. They are forced to turn their diverse fields of local plants into monocultures of coffee, cocoa, bananas, etc. to earn a more decent wage. This results in loss of agricultural biodiversity. Coffee, like many other exotic products, travels extremely long distances by various means of transport which cause pollution and finally climate change. Coffee and cocoa trees are very sensitive trees that might not be able to adapt to the climate change. If the economies of Global South are too dependant on coffee production, they might very likely experience a disastrous crisis. As the climate change is mainly caused by the industrialized countries of the Global North and the increase of coffee farming is a result of “Northern” demand (rooted from colonization), it is extremely unfair that the South would pay for the consequences. Moreover, human working conditions and salaries in this industry are often dictated by Northern corporations that have little consideration for justice and human dignity.
Consuming exotic products at the current scale (even if Bio and Fairtrade) contributes to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and often social injustice.
Sudden cutoff of exotic trade would be a disaster for small farmers. Therefore we are rather proponent of a progressive de-globalisation.
Changing habits, especially with coffee, may seem almost impossible. Instead of no coffee policy in Bystro, we invite you to reduce the consumption of coffee, as well as any exotic products.
This is why we offer a selection of the best coffee, and we inspire you to drink Melta instead. Hopefully, we can show you that life without exotic can also be desirable and enjoyable.
After all, the mass consumption of exotic products in Slovakia is not older than 3 or 4 generations 🙂