Tuesday, July 22, 2003


disenheartening but somehow strangely life-saving

despite the anticipated 8-10% decline in 2003-04 world coffee production, prices in june fell to their lowest levels since the start of 2003.

threats of a frost in brazil retreated, and so the price has dropped.

the ico composite indicator average price for the month was a low, low US$0.49 cents per pound.

i've written here pretty endlessly about the human suffering caused by this world-price depression known as the coffee crisis.

the question is how we consumers can help struggling farmers continue to produce the best quality coffee, which isn't the stuff the "big four" has been pushing us all these years and hope to continue pushing in their shiny new plastic containers. . .

(note to the big four: the reason people are drinking less of your umm, product, isn't because they dislike wrestling with the can opener, guys! it's because your product is inferior!

it used to be better, and we've noticed the difference! which is why starbucks and other local, independent specialty roasters/coffeehouses continue to pop up everywhere like mushrooms after the rain. . .why we are roasting at home. . .why we are buying fancy espresso machines faster than you can shake a stick. . .)

again, the best way to show one's love, as ted lingle of the scaa says, is to ask "how can i help?" one way to help is to support that worthy charity, coffee kids, and aid the farmers, workers, and their families directly with great microcredit programs.

another proposed solution is to consider buying fair-trade coffee. our friends at equal exchange (here's a shout-out to you, beth ann!) have launched a great educational website about fair trade and why the u.s.a. should rejoin the i.c.o., grounds for action.

equal exchange and i both advocate that the u.s.a. return to the i.c.o., an action that should help stabilize the coffee market over time.

doubtless, dear readers, unless you've been with me here on bccy for a long time, you're finding this whole topic quite confusing. long-time readers know this rejoining the i.c.o. thing has been a bee in my bonnet for quite some time.

all i can say is that we normal, average coffee drinkers need to care about coffee prices. low coffee prices have not benefited us coffee lovers, on the whole.

low prices mean that the farmers who produce the best premium coffees are increasingly discouraged. this leaves us fewer options for better coffee now and in the future.

for those of you yet to discover the joys of specialty coffee either locally or by mail-order, you may have noticed that despite these historic low prices, what you pay for your can of supermarket brand x has not declined. thus the fateful question: where does your coffee dollar go?

yes, since we here at bccy are not interested in drinking steamed, perfumed and highly processed cheap robusta, but only the highest quality coffees, the price depresssion isn't helping us a bit.

apart from our self-interest, there is also the inconvenient fact that as coffee farmers go bankrupt, those who worked for them go hungry or move north to join the illegal underground economy.

it's a complex problem. but these market problems have market solutions. buying and enjoying high-quality fair-trade coffee could be a useful piece of the puzzle. . .

on a happier note, however, i love studies like this. it turns out chocolate is good for you; coffee is good for you; now pizza seems to protect against cancer.

break out the mozzarella and go for it! the researchers credit the result to the so-called mediterranean diet, "including non-frozen, home-made pizza."

isn't homemade pizza (one sauce here; mozz here) exactly what we here at bccy have been talking about for oh, 3 years now?

posted by fortune | 10:55 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments