Pictor

Continuous war in combination with rampant drug trafficking has caused the coffee industry in Colombia to struggle for many years, though Colombia’s long history with coffee predates that struggle. The coffee plant first reached Colombia sometime in the late 1700s (Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present) and Colombia entered the coffee trade in the 1830s (Wikipedia, Coffee Production in Colombia). The geography of Colombia lends itself well to coffee production. Located in southern South America, Colombia is home to the Andes Mountains, which provides an optimal altitude for coffee (and coca) to grow. The Andes have three sets of mountain ranges, the Western Cordillera, the Central Cordillera, and the Eastern Cordillera. The majority of the coffee plantations in Colombia are on the western side of the Eastern Cordillera (Philip’s World Factbook 2008-2009).

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

Coffee production in India is dominated in the hill tracts of South Indian states, also including the state Karnataka which accounts to 53% followed by Kerala 28% and Tamil Nadu 11% of production of around 8,200 tonnes. The Indian coffee is the very finest coffee grown in the shade rather than direct sunlight anywhere in and around the world. There is approximate 250000 coffee growers in India; 98% of them are the small growers. As 2009, the production of coffee in India was only about 4.4% to 4.5% of the total production in the world. About 80% of country's productions is been exported of the which is exported, about 70% bound for Russian federation, Germany, Spain, United States, Belgium, France, Slovenia, Japan, Netherlands and Greece, and Italy accounts for 29% of the total export. It deals with the different functions of cost parameter and identifies the excessive costs to maximize the profit in future on Tata coffee Limited.

However, some believe, that a shift in the way we produce food may have some unintended consequences. They contend that poverty in nations such as Africa and Asia, is caused by the low productivity of the unindustrialized farm labor. The U.S. Agriculture Department projects, without reform, there will be over a thirty percent increase in the numbers of the ‘food insecure’ people in those nations over the next decade (Paarlberg 179).

I watched the video “The Coffee Go-Round” which talks about how the cost of coffee seems to be dropping and as a result this has a negative impact on coffee producing countries. One of the strategies mentioned in the video is to grow different crops, this strategy isn’t so great since many of these farmers don’t have enough money to grow different crops. Another strategy mentioned is to move out of the land and go into the city, this is a good and bad option. It’s a good option since in cities there are more jobs being offered. However, it’s not such a great option because many of these farmers have lived their whole lives on their land, and moving to the city is a drastic change especially if they have a family. Lastly, another option is fair

Sometimes they only pack one tortilla for lunch because that’s all they can afford. One of the men in the film took ten years to pay back the loan he received to purchase the land. Guatemala farmers work really hard and sometimes, they are paid whatever the buyer wants to give them for it. Their children has to work after school to help out, they live in poverty, and they don’t rest until the end of the work day at 10 or 11 at night. I never knew that buying one cup of coffee has this effect on the farmers. This is common with globalization because, “for instance, multinational corporations sometimes continue to invest only enough in poorer countries to efficiently extract the resources they produce or to benefit from the low costs of labor obtained there” (Chapter 10.5, para. 5).

1. Coffee is one of the most common breakfast items found on any table in the morning and now sold all throughout the day. Coffee is grown and exported from places like Columbia and the Asian Pacific, to anywhere like Hawaii and the biggest producer, Brazil. 1/3 of the world 's coffee supply comes from Brazil, because of the nations tropical climate it is able to grow coffee very easily and plentiful. Brazil had many other types of climates but the hot and tropical one is great for the production of coffee.

The issue of hunger in africa has caused major chaos around the world. The fact that families and children are left to die because there is insufficient food; therefore, families are separated and left to suffer. For example, on page 1 of “Why Africa Is Still Starving”, by Alex Perry, it states that, “From January to May, the fields were parched and brown. And one failed harvest is enough to turn Ethiopia, a nation of 66 million farmers, a humanitarian catastrophe”. Alex Perry explains how the soil of Africa is not rich enough to grow any goods or rich crops.

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.

Coffee beans vary from different countries to regions they can usually be characterized by their differences in aroma, acidity, body, and aroma. Coffee history embellishes the culture of not only one country but basically different cultures and histories worldwide. Coffee is both produced by small farmers and large plantations, one-thousand to three-thousands pounds of

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”.

It is a globalised world. Being a part of this progressive society, growth is a key indicator of success. Global Trade is one such benchmark that differentiate nations and economies. Every nation has some policies to promote the strengths of their trade globally. Likewise, Colombia has been known to be the third-largest producer of coffee after Brazil and Vietnam (in terms of volumes produced) from a long-time. Coffee is the world’s most traded commodity and most of it is produced by the small-scale farmers. Hence, globalisation has had a great impact on its production as well as trade. Therefore, Colombia’s strength lies in the production of coffee but also promoting their strengths and honing them globally to their benefit. Coffee is not just a cash crop for the Colombians but it’s a way of life for them. The farmers associated with the credulous society of small scale coffee growers called National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (NFC) (1) was founded in the year 1927.

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?

Coffee is an important source of income, and it is produced in more than fifty developing countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia . Moreover, requiring the labor to be intensive is the reason behind the initial production of coffee beans that includes farming, collecting, and processing, being performed in developing countries.The labor in the developing countries is more abundant to the circumstances necessary for the initial production of coffee. However, The roasting and branding of coffee is more capital intensive, and therefore is it is done in northern industrialized countries( COFFEE VALUE CHAIN & P3G ANALYSIS, n.d).

The last but not the least, high food prices make the situation even worse. According to FAO ' s data, the population of undernourishment increased by 75 million, which is higher than it in 2003 to 2005. The scientists analyzed it is caused by the rising food price (FAO, 2008). Additionally, in some countries in African, South American and Asia where average income is very low, to achieve the food security is almost impossible. For instance, Afghanistan is one of the most food-insecure countries. In Afghanistan, with 80% of the population living in rural place, the agricultural industry is most significant to this country. However, the households in Afghanistan still need to spend over 60 percent of their budgets on food. In 2008, it can be easily found in the chart, the wheat flour price experienced a sharp increase from 15 per kg to 45 per kg, which greatly increased the burden of the inhabitants (D’Souza, 2011). When the flour price rises, the local people will certainly spend more percentage of their incomes on wheat flour rather than some high-quality vegetables and meat. Unreasonable diet structure can directly contribute to lacking nutrition and influence their healthy. As a result, a vicious circle is created and makes the