This article is SCAA Collaborative Content in partnership with UTZ Certified Climate change, without a doubt, is the elephant in the room when it comes to specialty coffee. Arabica beans, with the complex web of variables affecting their quality, are known to be the “canary in the coal mine” of the changing face of agriculture. …
by Carolyn Fairman, Chief of Staff, SCAA For years now, SCAA and its member organizations have been creating greater awareness about the issue of hunger. You might ask, “What does hunger have to do with coffee?” Unfortunately, the answer is “a lot.” 800 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger—and many of them are coffee …
by Tracy Ging, Director of Sustainability, S&D Coffee Sustainability is a tricky thing to define. Much the like the term “specialty,” the more you try to define it, the more elusive the concept becomes. I’d rather leave it open-ended, and make room for the possibility that even once the right words are found, there will still …
The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), the world’s coffee authority and largest coffee trade association, presents its 2014 Sustainability Award to Twin, a UK-based ethical trading organization, and collaborators for their project Congo Coffee Revival: Regenerating Communities by Linking Remote Farmers to Mainstream Markets. This annual award honors individuals, businesses and organizations in the …
by Kristina Morris Heredia, communications and marketing coordinator at Coffee Kids While this article is seemingly about five reasons your nonprofit should attend the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual Exposition, The Event, it really comes down to one reason: community. The Event is a wonderland of coffee paraphernalia, businesses, producers, connoisseurs, as well as …
by Kimberly Easson, JavaVentures In 2005, I was on the board of directors when SCAA became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and committed to being a partner in addressing some of the world’s thorniest global issues — food security, maternal health, climate change, education, and poverty alleviation. Whoa — who us? It’s kind …
by Rosemary Trent, executive director of Pueblo a Pueblo “Sustainability” is an interesting word, and one that is used all the time when we talk about the coffee industry. But, like many buzzwords, it means different things to different people. The dictionary defines sustainability as “the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting …
By David Piza Cossio, Relationship Coffee Manager, Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers In early September of this year, international coffee prices for Arabica coffee plunged to a 4-year low, breaking the $1.16/lb threshold experienced back in the early stages of the Great Recession. The large Brazilian crop is estimated to surpass 50 million 60kg bags during …
Interview With Richard Young, Food Service Technology Center Chronicle: Your work focuses on promoting energy efficiency practices in the food service sector. What are some of the ways you explain why it is important to care about these efforts? Richard: Commercial food service operations, from cafes to cafeterias, are very energy-intensive. Most operators have no idea what …
By Michael Kaiser I was not born a coffee farmer, but providence would introduce me to one. In July of 2011, one month after moving to El Salvador, I found myself across the table from Emilio Lopez Diaz, listening to the story of Cuatro M, the collection of coffee farms, processing facilities and their exporting …