Category: Coffee Research

302. The water footprint of your coffee

2012-09-11 Comments Off on 302. The water footprint of your coffee

Since early August, I have published at least one post per week on the relationship between coffee and water resources.  In several of those posts I have made mention of coffee’s “water footprint” without much exploration of the concept.  According to this excellent study, coffee’s water footprint is 140 liters (or 37 gallons) per cup. […]

301. Borderlands coffee quality, by the numbers

2012-09-10 Comments Off on 301. Borderlands coffee quality, by the numbers

The intensive baseline survey for our Borderlands project in Colombia and Ecuador will give us a detailed understanding the demographic, social and economic conditions in which participating farmers are living.  What it won’t tell us is anything about the quality of the coffee that they grow.  So we conducted a separate baseline process in Colombia […]

292. The coffee and water learning agenda

2012-08-10 Comments Off on 292. The coffee and water learning agenda

Earlier this week, I suggested that there is a coffee-water paradox in the coffeelands.  Any effort to foster a sustainable solution must begin by answering the following four questions: How much does coffee wastewater contribute to water pollution in Central America? What are the best technologies available to reduce coffee’s water footprint? What are they […]

288. What we know (and don’t) about the impact of Fair Trade

2012-07-09 Comments Off on 288. What we know (and don’t) about the impact of Fair Trade

As readers of this blog will know, recently we decided to get involved in a Fair Trade for All pilot project in Colombia, in part because we want to understand and document the impacts of Fair Trade on independent smallholder farmers.  As part of our effort to design a strong impact assessment, I have been […]

286. Guest post: Ed Canty explains Green Mountain’s approach to FT4All pilots

2012-07-02 Comments Off on 286. Guest post: Ed Canty explains Green Mountain’s approach to FT4All pilots

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters became the world’s largest Fair Trade coffee buyer in 2010, when it purchased over 26 million pounds of Fair Trade Certified coffee.  The person responsible for all those purchases is Ed Canty, the company’s certified coffee buyer.  But Ed isn’t only in charge of Fair Trade coffee buying for GMCR.  He […]

282. CRS, FT4All and pilots

2012-06-11 Comments Off on 282. CRS, FT4All and pilots

This blog has been dominated in recent days by discussion of our involvement with one Fair Trade for All pilot project in Colombia.  But the FT4All pilot is just one of countless new ideas CRS field-tests each year in its work around the world.

275. The FT4All Pilots: How to measure success

2012-05-23 Comments Off on 275. The FT4All Pilots: How to measure success

In yesterday’s post, I suggested that measuring the success of FTUSA’s FT4All coffee innovation pilots could be a complicated affair.  The best imaginable scenario, in my mind, is an impact assessment process that is transparent, system-wide, longitudinal and conducted by an independent third party with no skin in the game.  Hitting all four of those […]

271. Counter Culture microlot research update

2012-05-16 Comments Off on 271. Counter Culture microlot research update

With apologies for the delay: Counter Culture Coffee has published the full report from its groundbreaking study “The Social Impact of Microlots.” Milestones and more related content from the CRS Coffeelands Blog: November 2010.  Counter Culture Coffee Director Peter Giuliano discusses the potential perils of microlots with Matt Earley of Just Coffee, a Fair Trade […]

263. Research review: Counter Culture’s case study on the social impact of microlots

2012-04-21 Comments Off on 263. Research review: Counter Culture’s case study on the social impact of microlots

Counter Culture Coffee Buyer and Sustainability Manager Kim Elena Ionescu was scheduled to present the company’s brilliant case study on the social impact of microlots to the 2012 SCAA Expo today.  She was unable to attend, so Counter Culture’s Coffee Director Peter Giuliano stood in for her — arguably one of the more notable understudies […]