Category: Farmer Organizations

197. Introducing SROC

2011-09-05 Comments Off on 197. Introducing SROC

Social Return on Investment, or SROI, is a holistic approach to measuring return on investment that goes beyond financial returns to consider also an investment’s social, economic and environmental impacts.  The farmers of the 5 de junio cooperative in Nicaragua, in partnership with the Fabretto Foundation, a local NGO dedicated to promoting food security, seem […]

195. 5 de junio at peregrine espresso

2011-08-23 Comments Off on 195. 5 de junio at peregrine espresso

I managed to get into Peregrine Espresso‘s new 14th Street location today to try some 5 de junio coffee and see how the café is communicating to its customers its commitment to reinvest in development projects in the communities of 5 de junio’s members.  Both — the coffee and the communication — were swell. [slidepress […]

193. Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any better…

2011-08-21 Comments Off on 193. Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any better…

…the 5 de junio cooperative in Nicaragua got even more good news.  Peregrine Espresso, the quality-obsessed Washington, DC, coffeehouse started by Counter Culture émigré Ryan Jensen, announced that it will donate $0.25 per cup and $1 per bag of all sales of its 5 de junio coffees — the pulp-natural espresso and single-variety maragoype microlots […]

191. Still more good news from 5 de junio

2011-08-10 Comments Off on 191. Still more good news from 5 de junio

Still more good news for our friends at 5 de junio: the cooperative’s maragogype microlot from Counter Culture Coffee earned a 91-point rating from Coffee Review. We are delighted by the cooperative’s hard-earned success and proud to support the good folks of 5 de junio through our CAFE Livelihoods project.

190. New microlots from 5 de junio

2011-08-02 Comments Off on 190. New microlots from 5 de junio

Good things continue to come from 5 de junio, a cooperative of determined farmers in the rugged mountains of Madriz in Nicaragua.  Mostly, they are coming via Counter Culture Coffee, which is offering four different coffees from 5 de junio: a special-process single-origin espresso, a single-varietal microlot, an organic lot, and a Swiss Water decaf. […]

188. The CAFE Livelihoods 2010/11 yearbook

2011-07-28 Comments Off on 188. The CAFE Livelihoods 2010/11 yearbook

Our CAFE Livelihoods project publishes a yearbook just before SCAA each year.  This year, we distributed almost all our copies of the 2010/11 yearbook at our booth on the show floor.  Today, we finally get around to publishing a digital version.  Enjoy!   [issuu viewmode=presentation layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml backgroundcolor=FFFFFF showflipbtn=true documentid=110727172534-63b24cc0e9a94321b06c8994a6374c27 docname=cafe-livelihoods-2010-11-yearbook username=catholicreliefservices loadinginfotext=Cafe%20Livelihoods%202010-11%20Yearbook showhtmllink=true tag=coffee width=600 […]

157. SCAA highlights – “Home-field advantage”

2011-05-04 Comments Off on 157. SCAA highlights – “Home-field advantage”

This was the first time since CRS started participating in the SCAA Event back in 2004 that we have had a booth on the show floor.  It was a decidedly modest affair — a 10′ x 20′ booth with five round tables where farmer organizations participating in the CAFE Livelihoods program could meet with current […]

154. CRS (and friends) at SCAA 2011

2011-04-25 Comments Off on 154. CRS (and friends) at SCAA 2011

Tomorrow I travel to Houston for the annual gathering of the SCAA.  CRS has participated in some capacity in every SCAA since 2004, but this year is special.  It marks our first time participating in Symposium, our first time with a booth on the show floor (#441) and the largest CRS delegation ever.  With new […]

150. What makes a cooperative special?

2011-04-15 Comments Off on 150. What makes a cooperative special?

In conversations with roasters and importers, I have often referred to farmer organizations as “special.”  The term is spectacularly imprecise, since the sources of “specialness” can be so diverse.  It is important for cooperatives to articulate clearly just what makes them so special, however, since roasters are not just searching for quality coffee, but quality […]

149. San Antonio – Breaking with tradition

2011-04-14 Comments Off on 149. San Antonio – Breaking with tradition

The San Antonio cooperative is located in amid the peaks of the Cordillera del Bálsamo, high in the mountains above San Salvador.  For more than 30 years, it has had a tradition of producing high-quality shade-grown coffee.  This year, the organization produced 12 containers of quality varietals: Borbon, Catuaí, Pacas and Pacamaras.  Producing high-quality coffee […]