Wild Coffee Confirmed on the Upper Boma Plateau, Collected for Genetic Analysis; Or, My Star-Studded Botanical Treasure-Hunt
World Coffee Research Initiative in South Sudan By Emma Sage, SCA Coffee Science Manager The Scene: It was the tail end of the dry season in South Sudan. Our base camp, located in the small village of Jonglei, was dusty and despite being at 1100 meters elevation, was well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I had …
SCAA Symposium 2012 Day Two
Original posts can be found at Sprudge.com: Day Two, Part 1 | Day Two, Part 2 By Erin Meister Day Two, Part 1 The second morning of Symposium started with a little bit of that volatility we’d spent so much time talking about yesterday, when a group of protestors burst into shouts opposing the participation of Honduran …
Roasters Guild Origin Trip to Brazil | July 2012
Why Attend? Participants will experience factors that contribute to great tasting coffee, examine environmental and social issues important for sustainability, and meet coffee farmers to understand the opportunities to connect roasters and green coffee buyers to the amazing, dedicated people who grow it. On this trip, attendees will visit the regions of Mogiana, Sul de …
SCAA Symposium 2012 Day One
The first day of Symposium kicked off with presentations on the market, exploring volatility elevated prices and consumer response. Moving into discussion around the supply chain, presenters explored the potential for collaboration among key players in the supply chain and how to address the inequalities that exist in the chain. We’ve had some fantastic coverage …
SCAA Announces 2012-2013 Board of Directors
SCAA is proud to announce the election of Shawn Hamilton of Java City to the position of second vice president. Shawn will become the President of the association on May 1, 2014. SCAA also welcomes new Secretary/Treasurer Ben Pitts of Royal Cup Coffee as well as new directors at large Carolyn Fairman and Chad Trewick. …
Connecting with the Specialty Coffee Consumer
Although specialty coffee has been a movement of twenty-five years or more, we actually know very little about our customers. Who are they, what do they drink, and most importantly, what motivates them? Those questions formed the basis of a recent study undertaken by SCAA — to gain insight into today’s specialty coffee consumer, their …
Sustainability is Dead. Long Live Sustainability!
By Peter Giuliano, Director of Coffee and Co-Owner at Counter Culture Coffee I was a young coffee person when the concept of sustainability became big news in coffee. In those days—the roaring ’90s of coffee—the idea of thinking in the long-term about agriculture and about industry seemed fresh, exciting and different. The concept of acting in …
Critical Issues at Origin | Organizational Capacity Building: Key to Long-term Sustainability
By Warren E. Armstrong The SCAA Sustainability Council serves as a “think tank” for sustainability–related ideas and as a liaison to other industry, professional and NGO organizations. As part of its work, the Council has defined several critical issues at origin to promote the long-term livelihood interests for a quality coffee value chain. A quality …
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role and Reasons for Business Involvement in Sustainable Development
By Tracy Ging, Deputy Executive Director, SCAA Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as the voluntary commitment of businesses to include in their corporate practices economic, social, and environmental criteria and actions, which are above and beyond legislative requirements and related to a broader range of stakeholders—everyone influenced by their activities. When we …
Creating a Global Dialogue via the Culture of Coffee
Story by Majka Burhardt Photos by Travis Horn/Coffee Story Ethiopia Coffee can erase a famine. Agree? Disagree? Wonder just how literally I mean for that statement to be? How about this one: Coffee can create greater global understanding. If you’re reading this, you’re involved with coffee. If more than one billion cups of coffee are …
Why Does Shade Matter?
By Emma Sage, Coffee Science Manager, SCAA As the specialty coffee industry grows more concerned with sustainable practices at origin, we often find ourselves in conversations about shade-grown coffee. No one will argue that shade-grown coffee is less sustainable than growing coffee in full sun plantations, but what scientific information exists to support …
Addressing Hunger in the Coffeelands: The Next Great Sustainability Challenge in Specialty Coffee
By Michael Sheridan Over the past few years, I have had the privilege of working with smallholder coffee farmers in Central and South America as a project manager for Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Our projects have helped farmers increase coffee productivity, improve coffee quality and raise coffee incomes, but one thing they haven’t done is eradicate …