Category: Resilience

452. The SCAA Event: The annual Coffeelands preview

2015-03-09 Comments Off on 452. The SCAA Event: The annual Coffeelands preview

The 27th SCAA Event opens one month from today, which means it’s time for my annual SCAA preview and picks for the show’s best origin content. This year’s preview, which ran a little longer than last year’s, is thematic in focus.  If you are in a hurry, or prefer a chronological format that presents the […]

440. Revisiting our 2014 New Year’s resolutions

2015-01-06 Comments Off on 440. Revisiting our 2014 New Year’s resolutions

A year ago we made three New Year’s resolutions on this blog: Generate more results-based evidence. Help the coffee sector navigate uncharted waters. Borrow a page from the microfinance playbook. Today we revisit those resolutions to see how we did on each one in 2014.

419. Coffee leaf rust update: Get the humanitarian aid ready

2014-08-25 Comments Off on 419. Coffee leaf rust update: Get the humanitarian aid ready

Back in May, FEWS NET predicted that coffee leaf rust would create a food security Crisis in coffee-growing regions in eastern and western Guatemala between July and September.  It did. Two weeks ago, FEWS NET issued this update on coffee leaf rust and food security in Central America that delivered more bad news: poor rainfall has […]

414. CONPES 3763

2014-07-07 Comments Off on 414. CONPES 3763

CONPES 3763 may sound like the name of a coffee variety, but it’s not. (It’s not a Star Wars character, either.) CONPES is the Spanish-language acronym for Colombia’s National Council of Economic and Social Policy.  It is part of the country’s National Planning Department and advises the government on issues related to economic and social […]

410. What generation gap?

2014-06-09 Comments Off on 410. What generation gap?

In my travels in the coffeelands, I hear a familiar concern echoed by coffee growers: relevo generacional. All over the Americas, aging farmers are watching their children leave the farm for the city to pursue higher education and employment opportunities.  With the coffee leaf rust epidemic, volatile market prices, a changing climate, low productivity, limited […]

409. The coming crisis in the coffeelands

2014-06-05 Comments Off on 409. The coming crisis in the coffeelands

The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) released another update on the food security situation in Central America last week.  I have not been working directly on our response to coffee leaf rust in Central America, and I have not been publishing much here lately.  But I felt compelled by a “lost-in-translation” moment in […]

407. “A dignified life”

2014-05-01 Comments Off on 407. “A dignified life”

Today is International Workers Day, also known as Labor Day throughout the coffeelands of Latin America.  Seems like an appropriate day for me to share some reflections on the farmworker conversation I had the privilege to moderate during last week’s SCAA Expo. The post is unusually long because the conversation was uncommonly rich. Of all […]

406. Counter Culture’s new approach to quality incentives

2014-04-17 Comments Off on 406. Counter Culture’s new approach to quality incentives

Last week I told the market here that if it wants meticulous selection, conservation of heirloom cultivars and improved cup quality, it needs to create incentives for them. Today, I explore the extraordinary efforts of one roaster to do just that. Counter Culture Coffee is reengineering its financial incentives for quality with some remarkable results: […]

405. It’s the market, stupid

2014-04-07 Comments Off on 405. It’s the market, stupid

Coffee may have something to learn from the mantra of the generals who ran the War Room during Bill Clinton’s 1994 campaign for president: it’s the economy market, stupid.

404. “Meaningful economic benefit”

2014-04-01 Comments Off on 404. “Meaningful economic benefit”

Tracy Ging, Director of Sustainability at S&D Coffee, has contributed an article to The Producer Issue of the SCAA Chronicle titled “Sustainable Coffee and Meaningful Economic Benefit.”   It seems to be almost an editorial afterthought, appearing near the very end of the issue and amounting to barely a full page of text.  Bu the author packs […]