Tuesday, April 16, 2002


remember when the soviet union fell, everyone worried that the famously super-smart russian physicists would sell their knowledge to nefarious dictators? look again. . .

this former soviet scientist applies his brains to selling rome's danesi caffe to moscow restaurants and hotels.

sadly, not all coffee news is so upbeat. remember my recent mention of the development meeting about the dire state of coffee in central america, which grows some of the world's best coffees? usaid has published a report from that meeting. the development agencies recommend that central american governments attempt to encourage domestic consumption, adopt more efficient farming methods, move into organic coffee farming and make efforts to brand and market their distinctive coffees in a modern way.

finally, they suggest that high-quality coffee producers skip the commodities exchanges altogether and sell directly to specialty retailers. this is the radical idea. further, i'm heartened to see that the development agencies formally suggest organic and sustainable farming practices.

as a little girl from kansas, naturally i grew up listening to the old farmers complain bitterly about how east-coast speculators were ruining their lives. it's the kind of thing you quickly learned to ignore, along with the usual "when i was a chil' we done had no shoes. . ." (i also remember quite clearly the general hatred of the bank, which was widely considered an agent of satan. people were proud to pay off their farms and burn the mortgage. my great-grandmother and i went to a couple of festive cookouts where we ate apple pie and watched the papers smoke. . .) well, here's a case where the development agencies themselves are blaming the problems on those darn-tootin' speculators! i know many careless perusers of this page think me anti-capitalist and anti-globalist. nothing could be further from the truth.

but at the same time we have to note that the market, like all human institutions, isn't perfect. it can get out of whack. and this has clearly happened in the case of coffee recently. since nothing is to be gained by impoverishing a huge section of the global economy, harming the coffee workers and growers, destablizing their social systems, and bankrupting their governments -- nor is anything worthwhile got by reducing the quality of coffee we put every day in our mugs -- i applaud the efforts of those who think about ways to smooth out this glitch in the global market.

but besides issuing reports, what will the development agencies actually do to help our neighbors in central america move to a better system? suffering as they now are from several years of low prices, central american coffee producers can't afford to go it alone.

the last thing i'm going to say on this topic may sruprise some: i'm not inherently a political type person. my awareness of the coffee situation and the plight of the people in it was brought about by asking the simple question: how can i personally get a better cup of coffee? this lead me to buying espresso machines, french presses, vac pots, fancy coffee. . .and finally to the reality behind the glossy ads promising that "rich, delightful morning cup."

i woke up and smelled the coffee. . .good grief, am i turning into some kind of ranting, coffee-addled rageboy?

posted by fortune | 10:54 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments