Monthly Archives: March 2013

343. Coffee rust: Deja vu all over again?

2013-03-26 Comments Off on 343. Coffee rust: Deja vu all over again?

Last week, agricultural authorities and coffee organizations from Central America holed up in Panama for two days with research institutes, regional banks and UN agencies to try to hammer out a plan for responding to the coffee leaf rust outbreak.  As I trolled the web for news of the meeting’s results, I came across this […]

342. Mirror, mirror on the wall

2013-03-18 Comments Off on 342. Mirror, mirror on the wall

Stephen Macatonia directs Union Hand Roasted in London, one of the UK’s leading Direct Trade roasters.  Last week he published this thoughtful piece in the Guardian — the latest contribution to the ongoing debate between advocates and practitioners of Fair Trade and Direct Trade over whose trade is fairest of them all. For our part, we […]

341. A closer look at Colombia’s coffee strike

2013-03-14 Comments Off on 341. A closer look at Colombia’s coffee strike

Last week, Colombia’s government and disgruntled coffee growers reached agreement to end a strike in the coffeelands that was brief but messy, including clashes between coffee growers and Colombian security forces, expressions of solidarity by actors ranging from FARC guerrillas to an ex-president, official allegations of external agitation, and blockades of major highways that led […]

340. Pathological collaboration in a time of rust

2013-03-05 Comments Off on 340. Pathological collaboration in a time of rust

During last year’s SCAA Symposium, Liam Brody of Root Capital urged participants to be “pathologically collaborative” in addressing the ills that continue to ail specialty coffee.  Peter Giuliano suggested soon afterward that Liam had “blown up the Twitterverse” with the memorable call to cooperation.  But the full echo of that call may only be sounding […]

339. The Coffeelands Portrait Project, #2

2013-03-04 Comments Off on 339. The Coffeelands Portrait Project, #2

On our Borderlands Coffee Project, we are working with more than 3,000 smallholder coffee farmers in the Andean highlands of Nariño in Colombia and the steamy Amazon lowlands of northern Ecuador.  The area in Ecuador where the project is working is a source of endless cultural fascination for me, home to three distinct groups of […]