Tag Archives: sustainability

Building farmer organizations with social capital

2017-02-06 Comments Off on Building farmer organizations with social capital

We are temporary actors in the Coffeelands. Although CRS has been working for years in coffee origin countries (over 50 years of continued presence in Central America), projects are by their nature time bound interventions that are meant to create short and medium term benefits. Yet, our mission and the “big” goals of our work […]

Beyond the hot take on the Starbucks sustainability bond

2016-06-06 Comments Off on Beyond the hot take on the Starbucks sustainability bond

A few weeks ago, Starbucks made an incredible announcement.  They were going to have nitro cold brew in their cafes!! I think this definitively answers the Symposium question, is cold brew a category or craze?  OK, OK.  I’m joking.  The real earth-shaker is that Starbucks has issued the first US corporate bond for sustainability.  The […]

373. Coffee in the Age of Exploration

2013-11-25 Comments Off on 373. Coffee in the Age of Exploration

Ten years ago, almost no one in coffee was talking about hunger in the coffeelands.  Now it seems almost everyone is.  How did the issue of food security in coffee communities move from the margins to the mainstream of the industry’s sustainability agenda in just a few short years?  The answer is both important and […]

115. “The new coffee crisis”

2010-12-21 Comments Off on 115. “The new coffee crisis”

Last week I reflected on the implications of current market prices: the good, the bad and the ugly. This week, more comment on the current state of the market, starting with one Fair Trade roaster’s take on what it is calling “The New Coffee Crisis.”

86. “With coffee, we all win”

2010-08-26 Comments Off on 86. “With coffee, we all win”

I recently heard an agronomist tell a group of farmers in El Salvador: “With coffee, we all win.”  How true.  Shade farming and other sustainable production practices deliver each of the four cardinal environmental services: carbon sequestration, biodiversity, water resource management and scenic beauty.  We have been working for years to help smallholder farmers increase […]

85. Technology for a hot planet

2010-08-23 Comments Off on 85. Technology for a hot planet

Farmers in El Salvador, which has few remaining natural forests, waning water resources and precious little high-altitude terrain, are acutely aware of the impacts of climate change. That’s why many are making short-term changes to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on their farms and adopting water-efficient post-harvesting technology. The coffee sector in El Salvador is also investing in breeding more resistant varieties.

78. “This is not what I fought for”

2010-08-05 Comments Off on 78. “This is not what I fought for”

Fair Trade organizations struggling to keep pace with the changing and increasingly rigorous requirements for Fair Trade Certification may be wondering how concerns over technical compliance have come to compete for their attention with efforts to ensure social impact.

66. Writing the book on coffee and development

2010-06-24 Comments Off on 66. Writing the book on coffee and development

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending a long afternoon with Dean Cycon of Dean’s Beans with no particular agenda other than talking about the coffeelands and drinking some good coffee.  Four hours after he welcomed me into his office, I left with an armful of coffee, some great Dean’s Beans swag, […]

49. More perspectives on Direct Trade

2010-05-27 Comments Off on 49. More perspectives on Direct Trade

The Fair Trade v. Direct Trade debate — to the extent that people are still having it — is fueled by caricatures of each approach that may reflect some grain of truth but ultimately misrepresent the realities of both.