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.