America 's Growing Coffee Since Colonial Times

The inoculate Fair Trade coffee beans which satiate consumers ' morning desire for a pick-me-up as well as bettering the lives of the growers begin their journey in the Northern highlands of Sumatra in the Indonesian Island chain. Trader Joe’s Fair Trade Organic Sumatra Coffee beans are grown on the small Indonesian island of Sumatra in the tropical South Pacific. Rather than being produced on large Multinational Corporation owned-and-operated plantation style coffee farms, this global commodity begins its journey from creation to consumption on small, several acre large plots owned, operated, and harvested by small-scale farmers in the

Coffee has not only impacted the world socially, but it provides financial means for many countries who export their coffee beans.

Ever since the first coffee bean tree was discovered in Ethiopia, the bean became a pleasurable commodity that spread quickly to Yemen and other Asian countries. It wasn’t long before it came to Brazil, becoming one of the largest coffee producing countries in the world today. Throughout time, people came up with brewing systems and coffee-making machines that made it easy to manufacture coffee but it wasn’t like that in the early 1800’s. Slaves came into Brazil and were forced to work in difficult labor conditions to collect and roast coffee beans.

The documentary Black Gold, is about the world coffee market and an Ethiopian fair trade cooperative. Ethiopia being the birthplace of coffee is the largest producer of coffee in the world, producing some of the highest quality of coffee beans in the world, like Harar, Yuban and Sidamo types of coffee. The significant problems pointed out in this documentary show what is wrong in the global trading system. Mainly, while most of us continue have our lattes and specialty coffees, the amount paid to the Ethiopian coffee farmers is so low that a lot of them have been forced to chop down some of their coffee fields and rely on other crops to help them survive. The Ethiopian people are malnourished; they have no clean water, no healthcare, and no schools for their families. As quoted in the film, “They are living hand to mouth”.

This is a system aimed at encouraging farmers not to give up on coffee planting by providing a better and stable life for small scale farmers who were also initially dependent on the income from coffee plantations (Mendez et al., 241; Bacon, Mendez, Gomez, Stuart, and Flores 263). In as much as globalization is a significant and inevitable move towards development, it has caused an increase in the gap between the farmer and the consumer in relation to the consumption of coffee. The small scale farmers in Central America are now left to compete with other coffee producers from regions such as East Africa and this leads to low prices of the product (Sick 194). This has been a source of discouragement for small scale farmers. In as much as the government has taken initiatives such as the introduction of Fair Trade, it seems like the statistics of this system being successful are still at an all time

In many U.S homes, as is the custom in most western cultures, the first beverage consumed at the start of every day is coffee. From its origins in Ethiopia, the strong black liquid has evolved from its modest beginnings to become an art form, a gourmet luxury, and the addiction of millions. The documentary Black Gold directed by Nic and Marc Francis addresses issues that rarely cross the minds of its consumers: who produces the coffee, and how does the coffee we drink directly affect the livelihood of those farmers who grow it? The documentary highlights the poverty that plagues Ethiopian coffee farmers by contrasting the impoverished African cities with the wealth of the western countries that control the market in order to gain the

The first thing I actually learned from the article “Coffee From California” was actually the fact that there are coffee plantations in California. As mentioned in the article, the production of coffee from that region is not an enormous as in other parts of the world, like Hawaii or Indonesia, but the quality of the Californian product is quite impressive. 91 out of 100 quality rating, indicates that the product is worth it’s price, which is anywhere from $8 to $12 dollars per cup. To use an example from my life, I love a cup of hot chocolate for cold mornings. Even though there is a coffee machine at my job, that can make the hot chocolate – for free, I choose to go to Dunkin Donuts in the morning to grab myself a cup of hot chocolate that

There are four types of coffee in Togo such as, forest coffee, garden coffee, semi forest coffee and plantation coffee. They are all different in their unique ways.First the coffee is handpicked and fertilized with organic wastes.The coffee farmer then transports his coffee to the second process by hoof or by foot.The red coffee bean cherries are placed into a large, cement hopper.Workers pick out any leaves, sticks and debris.Special equipment is used to rub the layer of cherry off of the coffee bean. Then the beans are processed through a machine that separates the light colored beans and the denser beans, the beans are then sorted and set into separate bags and the light beans are sold to locals. After a good wash the beans are laid out on flat screens to drip dry. the beans are then put into large bags and left for several weeks to thaw and ripen, they are then graded according to its weight and the best quality goes on to the international market. These beans are transported internationaly through large boats and kept under a persise tempeture and is taken care of extreamly.One of the positive things about Togo coffee is that all of it is organically produced. In Dilla and Kafa Sheka state for example,

Caffeine is often harvested in large coffee plantations where working conditions are poor and workers aren’t treated ethically. The working conditions are not up to code, as many workers, bath and prepare food from the same water, the men often sleep in temporary shelters, and many work with inadequate health care and education. Economically, coffee production in unfair, as many farmers have to sell their coffee for less money than it costs to produce it, and family farmers can sometimes only make an income of $300-$1000 annually.

The first link in the coffee commodity chain is at the producer, in this case, that's the farmer. Coffee farms have a wide range of sizes varying from five acres to one thousand acres. Smaller operation farmers collectively produce more than half of the supply of global coffee; although in some occasions, large coffee farming operations will supply a nation’s entire coffee output. Much of the coffee industry’s infrastructure (producing, processing, marketing) caters to the needs of larger coffee farmers in a large number of instances. These large operations typically have growing and processing facilities on one property and are owned by one person or small group of people. Many small operation farmers and workers are at the mercy of the

The people who invested their labor in the production of coffee comprises of indigenous groups and poor working families. Having visions of a better life plays a crucial role in these

Finally, global economic issues have an immense influence on the world of coffee. Throughout history there has been a pattern that coffee producing countries are economically worse off than those that are consuming the coffee. Pendergrast mentions that “in 1950 the average income in consuming countries was three times that of coffee-growing nations. By the late 1960s it was five times great” (270). With that said, many producing coffee countries were facing endemics and malnourished peoples because workers were receiving absurdly low wages thus placing them into poverty and human suffering (271). Specifically, although 90 percent of El Salvador’s exports consisted of coffee in the 1930s, they agonized from “‘low wages, incredible filth…[under] conditions in fact not far removed from slavery’” (168). Global economic issues of these producing countries lead to dictators easily gaining power such as those in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras (170). Not only was politics a matter that resulted from global economic issues, “the high interest rates from financial institutions and price [squeezes]” lead to the economic struggle of farmers like those from Colombia due to

coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow.” The six guiding

For almost 3 years now we have been putting our money where our mouth is…since the summer of 2012 until April 2014 as consultants to a developing coffee farming enterprise in Colombia, and since June of 2014 as Principals in our own specialty coffee farms here in Boquete, Panama.

The film highlights the fact that coffee is the most valued word commodity, second to oil. The beginning of the film shows the process in which coffee is made- from bean harvesting by workers in Ethiopia who make next to nothing, through several intermediated stages, and into the market. Although we spend countless amounts of money on coffee without thinking twice, the price that coffee farmers who produce this commodity are getting paid, is disgustingly low. Some of them have even been forced to walk away from their fields. There is no better place to see this