Why Coffee?

Coffee is the second most valuable commodity traded legally around the world. It has played a crucial role in globalization since the 17th century, and it is central to the study of globalization’s continuing effects. Grown in more than 50 countries by 20-25 million families, then processed, traded, and sold by millions of other people, coffee is an immensely important item in the world economy. Beginning with English coffee houses in the 1650s, the drink’s impact on western social, cultural, and political life has been huge. It has played a major role in social upheaval in Latin America but also in achieving stability in Costa Rica. Coffee has been a basic factor in bringing profound social and racial change to various regions of the world, while it has provided an important source of foreign exchange to many producing countries.

To study coffee’s past, present, and future is to explore fundamental issues of how human taste and sociability have developed, how environmental damage can be halted or reversed, how the richer countries look at the social costs and benefits of international trade, and how development can be enhanced in poorer countries.

A Conference on the Moral, Economic, and Social Life of Coffee

Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, Friday October 31-Saturday November 1, 2008. Sessions will be held in the Heritage Room of the Shriver Center, located at the corner of Patterson (U.S. 27) and Spring Streets.

All sessions except the banquet are free for Miami University faculty, staff, and students. Miami people may register for the banquet (cost $35) on the registration page. All others, please use the registration page to register for the conference itself and/or the banquet.

Purpose: To bring together people from business and academia, drawing from various sectors and levels of the coffee business and from scholars who study the industry, the drink, and its impact on societies around the world. To discuss the problems facing coffee farmers, sustainable production, the environment, and the future of coffee. To increase public awareness of issues of politics, ecology, and social justice connected with the industry. To develop materials for a book that will draw together stories and opinions from many areas and levels of coffee production, processing, and marketing. To develop a portal web site for coffee studies.

Audience: General and academic. Miami University, a beautiful campus, is located an hour from both Cincinnati and Dayton, two hours from Columbus; Lexington, Kentucky; and Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana. Oxford, Ohio is an hour from both the Cincinnati and Dayton airports.

The Conference: Speakers will consider coffee’s past and continuing impact on issues of labor supply and conditions, market fluctuations, new technology, the environment (including eco-tourism), political change, and social justice. Bringing people involved in the business, from farms to roasters to multi-national firms, together with scholars concerned with many aspects of coffee’s impact in past and present should produce a forum for lively and productive interchange.

Participants: from the coffee business, major figures such as Geoff Watts, George Howell, and Kenneth Davids; from Transfair USA, Kim Moore; from development projects, Dan Clay; from environmental research, Robert Rice; from academia, Stephen Topik and William Clarence-Smith. Please see the schedule page.

Keynote Speaker: Sidney Mintz, one of the world’s foremost anthropologists, author of Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. Professor Mintz will speak on issues of how and why consumers “choose” various commodities among all those available to them. His talk will bring insights from anthropology and history together and will provide a framework for the conference.

Anticipated Results: A book drawn from conference proceedings should have wide appeal for classroom use and general readers. The organizer has experience in producing such a volume. The book will present stories and opinions about what is involved at each level of the coffee business and present case studies of coffee’s social, political, and environmental impact. Since the point of the conference is to allow participants to communicate with each other and the general public about coffee, articles will be jargon-free and clear. We also plan to create a permanent web site as a portal to other sites, articles, and bibliographies on coffee.