Monthly Archives: May 2013

362. Coffee rust and farmworkers

2013-05-29 Comments Off on 362. Coffee rust and farmworkers

Our work in the coffeelands over the past 10 years has focused on small-scale family farmers, but we recognize that the seasonal laborers who pick coffee, often migrants, are arguably the most vulnerable actors in the coffee chain.  And there are a lot of them.  According to PROMECAFE data, more than 1.7 million people work […]

361. What to do about coffee rust?

2013-05-28 Comments Off on 361. What to do about coffee rust?

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about coffee leaf rust in Central America, including plenty here on this blog.  After months of talking with farmers, collecting data in the field, participating in international events, conferring with leaders in the coffee, government and research sectors, and investing private resources in a small-scale […]

360. Coffee rust: It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

2013-05-27 Comments Off on 360. Coffee rust: It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

With apologies to my doppelganger Michael Stipe for the title of this post, I cannot get this R.E.M. lyric out of my head after huddling in El Salvador for a week with colleagues from Central America to plan a response to the coffee rust epidemic. During the final day of the First International Coffee Rust […]

359. Coffee rust: Your tax dollars at work

2013-05-15 Comments Off on 359. Coffee rust: Your tax dollars at work

Three years ago during the 2010 SCAA Expo, I gave this presentation on hunger in the coffeelands.  At that time, the issue did not have the kind of traction in the industry it does now.  Many people in the audience were still struggling to reconcile the extraordinary success of “sustainable coffees” in the marketplace with […]

358. Diversify, diversify, diversify.

2013-05-14 Comments Off on 358. Diversify, diversify, diversify.

The coffee leaf rust crisis in Central America has gotten people talking about diversification.  At the First International Coffee Rust Summit in Guatemala last month, participants advocated passionately (and persuasively) for diversification of coffee genetics and coffee farms.  There is a third type of diversification that wasn’t discussed in depth but remains critical to the […]

357. Help wanted in Central America: Lead the response to coffee rust

2013-05-07 Comments Off on 357. Help wanted in Central America: Lead the response to coffee rust

At the conclusions of the First International Coffee Rust Summit in Guatemala last month, the noted coffee agronomist Peter Baker confided to me that he did not think the event answered the most important question: “The Beyoncé Question.” I was confused. He elaborated: “It’s a line from one of her songs: ‘Who run this mother?’” […]

356. Coffee rust: An inconvenient truth

2013-05-06 Comments Off on 356. Coffee rust: An inconvenient truth

The application of climate science to coffee has generated an inconvenient truth: the map of the coffeelands in Mesoamerica will be redrawn over the next 40 years, and by 2050 the specialty coffee map will likely be much smaller than it is today.  Against the backdrop of the current coffee rust epidemic in Central America, […]