Monthly Archives: February 2014

394. From due diligence to performance management

2014-02-27 Comments Off on 394. From due diligence to performance management

This week I am writing about a Root Capital issue brief that describes how the pioneering social lender is using information on the social and environmental performance of its clients to improve its own financial performance.  In the foreword, Root calls for the creation of a community of practice among financial institutions committed to marrying social and […]

393. What we miss when we take care of the business

2014-02-26 Comments Off on 393. What we miss when we take care of the business

Root Capital’s issue brief on social and environmental due diligence is lousy with insight.  But one phrase in particular jumped off the page for me: the one in which it notes that lenders “typically interact only with the business.” I think the same can be fairly said of most of the supply chain actors downstream […]

392. Root Capital doing business unconventionally, again.

2014-02-25 Comments Off on 392. Root Capital doing business unconventionally, again.

Root Capital is the most important organization in the coffee trade that most coffee drinkers have never heard of.  The commercial finance it extends to coffee cooperatives in the “missing middle” of credit markets makes the trade work for smallholders; its innovations in financial advisory services, internal credit funds, clean technology and income diversification are […]

391. Coffee leaf rust update: Nicaragua

2014-02-21 Comments Off on 391. Coffee leaf rust update: Nicaragua

Today we hear from my colleagues in Nicaragua in the final installment in a week-long series of comments by CRS field staff on the FEWS NET coffee rust shock report for Central America.

390. Coffee leaf rust update: El Salvador

2014-02-20 Comments Off on 390. Coffee leaf rust update: El Salvador

This week my colleagues and I have been sharing perspectives on the FEWS NET Special Report on coffee leaf rust and food insecurity in Central America. Today: El Salvador.    

389. Coffee leaf rust update: Honduras

2014-02-19 Comments Off on 389. Coffee leaf rust update: Honduras

Last week FEWS NET issued a Special Report on coffee leaf rust and food security in Central America. This week I am asking colleagues working in Central America for their perspectives on the report and the current CLR situation in the region.  Today: Honduras.

388. Coffee leaf rust update: Guatemala

2014-02-18 Comments Off on 388. Coffee leaf rust update: Guatemala

On Friday, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) released a Special Report on coffee leaf rust and food security in Central America. Yesterday, I published this comment on the report and its (troubling) content. Beginning today, I will ask colleagues working in the coffelands in Central America to weigh in on the report […]

387. Coffee leaf rust update: Stressed acute food insecurity

2014-02-17 Comments Off on 387. Coffee leaf rust update: Stressed acute food insecurity

Editor’s Note: This post has been revised to include additonal detail about the “stressed acute food insecurity” classification applied to Guatemala and Honduras by FEWS NET. – – – – – The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET), a USAID-funded initiative that monitors hunger in chronically food insecure countries around the world, late last week […]

386. Mind the (quality) gap

2014-02-12 Comments Off on 386. Mind the (quality) gap

This post is a featured comment from Thomas Oberthur, a Ph.D. who has been involved in ground-breaking research on a broad range of issues in coffee.  He was part of the research team at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) that worked with Green Mountain to reveal the scope of seasonal hunger in the […]

385. Microroasters of the Year: Move farm-facing cupping closer to the farm

2014-02-11 Comments Off on 385. Microroasters of the Year: Move farm-facing cupping closer to the farm

This post is a featured comment submitted in response to my recent post on the farm-facing cupping form. It combines comments by three people: TJ Semanchin and Caleb Nicholes of  Kickapoo Coffee in Viroqua, WI and Mark Glenn of Conscious Coffees in Boulder, CO. Both roasters are recent winners of the Roast Magazine Microroaster-of-the-Year award.  […]