Can Great Coffee Save the Jungle?
Persuaded that guilt alone won't get Americans to pay more for environmentally friendly coffee, importers are trying a market approach by giving farmers the tools to grow better beans
The goals of a better cup of joe, social justice and a healthier environment are nowhere more tightly entwined these days than in the small Central American nation of Nicaragua, with its turbulent history of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, revolution and U.S. intervention. Coffee buyers say Nicaragua has recently become the "hot origin" for gourmet coffee, with its beans winning taste awards and its decent wages for many small farmers a hopeful beacon for a global coffee market under siege. "Nicaragua is where you see the future of socially responsible coffee," says California-based importer Paul Katzeff.
Katzeff believes that good coffee, sweetened with social justice, has the power to change the world, offering dignity to the downtrodden and protecting the forests that provide their income. He has invested much of the past 17 years in caffeinated nation-building in these rolling northern hills. The work of Katzeff and others are a last-ditch attempt to avert the effects of a coffee crisis that has pushed prices in some parts of the world below production costs. Between 1999 and 2002, the price of coffee was halved in a race to the bottom that has trampled many of the world's 25 million small coffee farmers, throwing millions out of work and off their land and leaving families impoverished and malnourished. And as farmers have despaired, the quality of coffee has suffered.
But what does gourmet coffee have to do with rescuing the forest, or the families who tend it? It's all about shade: today's crisis stems mostly from an overflow of cheap, sun-loving, easy-to-grow robusta beans from chemically fertilized plantations in Brazil and Vietnam. The best-quality coffee, most traders agree, comes from delicate, sun-intolerant arabica plants, which tend to be grown on small farms. In Nicaragua, arabica is grown in rain forests more than 3,000 feet above sea level, sheltered by orange, mango, mahogany, rosewood and inga trees. The rich soil nurtures the coffee plants, while the forest canopy shelters both the berries and a host of bats and birds
The goals of a better cup of joe, social justice and a healthier environment are nowhere more tightly entwined these days than in the small Central American nation of Nicaragua, with its turbulent history of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, revolution and U.S. intervention. Coffee buyers say Nicaragua has recently become the "hot origin" for gourmet coffee, with its beans winning taste awards and its decent wages for many small farmers a hopeful beacon for a global coffee market under siege. "Nicaragua is where you see the future of socially responsible coffee," says California-based importer Paul Katzeff.
Katzeff believes that good coffee, sweetened with social justice, has the power to change the world, offering dignity to the downtrodden and protecting the forests that provide their income. He has invested much of the past 17 years in caffeinated nation-building in these rolling northern hills. The work of Katzeff and others are a last-ditch attempt to avert the effects of a coffee crisis that has pushed prices in some parts of the world below production costs. Between 1999 and 2002, the price of coffee was halved in a race to the bottom that has trampled many of the world's 25 million small coffee farmers, throwing millions out of work and off their land and leaving families impoverished and malnourished. And as farmers have despaired, the quality of coffee has suffered.
But what does gourmet coffee have to do with rescuing the forest, or the families who tend it? It's all about shade: today's crisis stems mostly from an overflow of cheap, sun-loving, easy-to-grow robusta beans from chemically fertilized plantations in Brazil and Vietnam. The best-quality coffee, most traders agree, comes from delicate, sun-intolerant arabica plants, which tend to be grown on small farms. In Nicaragua, arabica is grown in rain forests more than 3,000 feet above sea level, sheltered by orange, mango, mahogany, rosewood and inga trees. The rich soil nurtures the coffee plants, while the forest canopy shelters both the berries and a host of bats and birds
posted by Colin & Donna-Lee | 8:44 AM
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