Inequality Of Coffee Research Paper

Coffee is “a major cash crop of Chagga farmers” (p. xi) and a large portion of the economic profit, but what happens when drought and coffee berry disease hit the Chagga society. Environmental problems such as these became a large problem facing many people of the Chagga. Much of the rich farm land on Mt. Kilimanjaro inhabited coffee trees and therefore leaving less space for individual gardens. When coffee berry disease and drought affected the production of Tanzania’s major export, people such as the Chagga were left with a food shortage, therefore introducing another environmental problem: famine. Although families could maintain home gardens with the small amount of land available, it rarely was enough to satisfy the whole family. Yet Chagga farmers were not permitted to convert coffee farming land into land for personal farming. Another large cause of sickness came from the bacteria ridden water. Women did not boil the water upon giving it to their young. A lot of people have heard “don’t drink the water in Mexico”. Well this was a similar situation

1. Coffee growers in poor rural areas are paid very little for their crop. What strategies are proposed in this clip for changing that situation?

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Coffee was introduced to Nicaragua in the mid 1800’s. Since then it has played a crucial role to both Nicaragua’s economy and its environment. It is currently the nation’s primary sources of foreign exchange. Coffee plantations are the economic backbone for thousands of rural communities. Today coffee also supports the 45,334 families that own and operate small farm. In the late 1990s, coffee annually contributed US$140 million to the national economy and provided the equivalent of 280,000 permanent agricultural jobs. Also, the rural communities who cultivate this golden bean are inadvertently helping in preserving Nicaragua’s precious forests and its threatened biodiversity. However,

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 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

The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe , and the Economist as well as many other media outlets of record were all in consensus when they declared the onset of coffee crisis in October 2001; farmgate prices had sharply dropped reaching a thirty-year low of $0.39 per pound in This price was below the cost of coffee production at the time, listed at USD 0.60 per pound.(Economist 2001) Price declines are not such an uncommon occurrence, but what is more troubling is that the cash market for coffee suffers from high price volatility. For a more detailed look please see Appendix 1: Cash Price Variation. Coffee producers , who are mainly located in developing countries , are highly vulnerable to price risk in the cash market ,

Stephen Quinlan and Jose Gomez-Ibanez describes, in “The Coffee Crisis”, that in 2004 the governments of coffee producing countries were considering how to respond to rapid decline to coffee prices. In 2001, coffee prices hit a forty-year low, which resulted in extreme hardships for the local farming communities. On that note, this decline in coffee prices was considered “the coffee crisis.” The coffee crisis came to be thanks in part to coffees: overproduction, under-consumption and oligopoly market

Poverty, child labour, low wages, long working hours, no employments benefits and illiteracy caused by coffee industries in coffee growing communities due to increased demand of coffee farmer’s children are involved to do work hard with their parents to earn more and also remain illiterate.

As the coffee industry in Brazil grew so did the infrastructure of the country. By the 1900’s coffee made up 70 percent of exports from Brazil. The increased productivity led to an excess in the market that coupled with diminished demand caused a Brazilian depression and created discontent with the current political system that led to dictatorship control (E, 2008) (The Library of Congress, 2010). With the emergence of a more democratic political system and deregulation other crops developed as important exports. This was further encouraged by the government due to a need to have a more diversified economy (The Library of Congress, 2010). Even with shifting production to other crops Brazil remains an important part of the world’s coffee supply as shown in figure 1.

Statistics show that over half of the American population consumes coffee on a daily basis. You may drink coffee hot, cold, mixed, or even in a frappuccino. Individuals are able to make coffee at home, or buy it on the go. Coffee provides people with caffeine, which ultimately gives energy for hardworking people all around the world. The main focus for this paper will cover the following topics, with coffee as the basis: causes for shifts in supply and demand, how coffee supply and demand influence price, quantity,

To improve the economic livelihood of the 6,200 small holder individual coffee farmers registered with peace kawomera in Mbale district through direct export of their coffee to international coffee markets

When I think of Kenya, I think of long distance runners, I think of the beginning of man, I think of its plethora of wildlife, and I think of Barack Obama. What I have never contemplated was Kenya’s agriculture and how it has affected the culture and economics of Kenya. “Tea, coffee, sisal, pyrethrum, corn, and wheat are grown in the fertile highlands, one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa. Production is mainly on small African owned farms formed from the division of formerly European-owned estates.” Coffee in Kenya is big business, but it is grown mainly on small farms by coops of farmers working together. Looking into Kenya’s past will help to clarify how coffee became an agricultural commodity, and give insight into its beginnings.

Changing consumer preferences about traditional coffee products among younger generations is a global challenge to all coffee producers. Coffee price volatility due to lack of coordination between producing countries is another threat that the sector faces. Lastly “Trickle-down” effects of innovative coffee products (like Frappuccino) make the coffee ingredient less important and it may hamper the business more.