By Willy Foote, Root Capital For decades, SCAA members have made significant investments that support the millions of farmers at the heart of the global coffee market. These investments have helped strengthen livelihoods, conserve the environment, improve quality, and promote women’s empowerment and gender equality. Yet something’s still missing. Past efforts have too often failed to …
by Kimberly Easson, Coffee Quality Institute You’ve probably been hearing a lot about gender equity and women’s empowerment, and it’s no coincidence, since the development world has been highlighting the importance of this issue in global development circles. Statistics are impressive for both the challenge and the opportunity. For example, these data are taken from the …
By Michael Sheridan I have been living at origin and working with coffee growers since 2007. I started blogging about my work in the coffeelands on behalf of Catholic Relief Services in 2009. The next year, I began publishing an annual review of “origin content” of The SCAA Event, under the title: “The view from …
By Lily Kubota, SCAA On Tuesday morning, thousands of coffee professionals around the world woke up to the news that Coffee Kids, a non-profit NGO supporting a wide variety of projects in coffee farming communities would be suspending programming and seeking “an appropriate organization with which to merge.” This announcement spurred a lot of conversation about …
By Adam Kline, Atlantic Specialty Coffee Inc. As specialty coffee professionals, we know we are lucky. Lucky in many ways, but especially in that our industry has developed based on the distinction of quality over the equalizer of commercial price. We realize that our unique need to protect quality—of coffee and of life—allows us to conceptualize …
By Kristina Morris Heredia, Coffee Kids For the third year in a row, the Roasters Guild kicked off Coffee Kids’ Grow it Forward campaign to help coffee-farming families grow food, grow income and grow in self-sustainability. Through their Silent Auction during the 14th annual Roasters Guild Retreat, they raised more than $5400 for coffee-farming families. In …
by Anne Nylander, SCAA The term “professional barista” simply did not exist in coffee 30 years ago. This role in the industry was built in no small part by large coffee retailers who brought the professional barista to the masses, and baristas now grace our cafes on a daily basis. Today, baristas are often seen …
by Rosemary Trent, Pueblo a Pueblo For more than a decade, SCAA’s Sustainability Council has recognized individuals, businesses, and organizations that promote sustainability within the coffee world, selecting one each year to receive the prestigious Sustainability Award. This year’s panel received an unprecedented number of applicants representing projects that have demonstrated remarkable dedication to real and …
There’s a lot more specialty coffee coming out of Rwanda these days, and there’s a lot to love about Rwandan coffee. 25% of Rwanda’s agricultural exports consist of coffee, and in recent years, the country has made substantial investments in specialty coffee infrastructure. As a result, numerous 90+ coffees are now coming out of the …
by Lindsey Berk, Operation Groundswell “Eating is an agricultural act.” —Wendell Berry, American novelist, activist, cultural critic, and farmer We seem to have forgotten that. At least, I had forgotten that until I left my corporate job and my NYC apartment in 2011 to begin a three-year journey around Latin America and Australia. Working …