Tag Archives: CAFE Livelihoods

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 […]

180. What is the standard for (disclosure in) Direct Trade?

2011-06-22 Comments Off on 180. What is the standard for (disclosure in) Direct Trade?

Over the past week or so, I have stumbled onto the websites of two different roasters who source coffee from a cooperative we support in Central America.  Both are well-regarded Direct Trade roasters.  Both have language on their websites that could be construed to suggest that they source all their coffees directly.  One of them […]

164. Another home run in Las Sabanas

2011-05-11 Comments Off on 164. Another home run in Las Sabanas

In keeping with the baseball theme from yesterday’s post, here is another analogy between baseball and coffee quality.  Don Jaime Molina of the quality-focused 5 de junio cooperative has hit another home run in Las Sabanas: he placed a winning lot at the Nicaragua Cup Of Excellence from his Monte Cristo farm for the fourth […]

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 […]

155. Symposium hunger commentary

2011-05-02 Comments Off on 155. Symposium hunger commentary

I had the enormous privilege last week of providing some brief commentary at the SCAA‘s annual Symposium following the world premiere of the After the Harvest documentary, which focuses on the issue of seasonal hunger in the coffeelands.  When Hal Hamilton of Sustainable Food Lab gave the keynote to open Symposium, he encouraged participants to […]

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 […]

148. El Pinal – Heads in the clouds, feet on the ground

2011-04-13 Comments Off on 148. El Pinal – Heads in the clouds, feet on the ground

The members of the El Pinal cooperative have their heads in the clouds, literally.  Their offices and their mill are perched on a narrow peak of the Cordillera del Bálsamo that is as often as not wrapped in mist and clouds.  But the organization is seeing its future clearly and thinking in ways they haven’t […]

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