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.

Schedule of Conference Sessions

(the schedule is subject to change)

Friday, October 31, 2008

1. Research on the coffee plant and its ecology
   
   Robert Rice, Smithsonian Bird Project
   Kennedy T. K. Gitonga, Research Officer - Economist, Ruiru, Kenya
   Stuart McCook, Guelph University, on coffee rust disease
   Comment Charlie Kwit, Wittenberg U.
2. Sustainability
   
   Geoff Watts, Intelligentsia Coffee, on sustainability
   Ernest Carman, Café Cristina, Costa Rica, on running a sustainable farm
   George Howell, Terroir Coffee
3. Structure of the coffee business
   
   Ilhem Baghdadli, World Bank
   Folgers rep to be named
   Price Peterson, La Esmeralda, Panama
4. Keynote address following dinner by Sidney Mintz, Johns Hopkins University

Saturday, November 1

5. Selling coffee
   
   Kim Moore, Dir. of Business Development–Coffee and Hot Beverages, TransFair USA
   Manoel Correa do Lago, Rio de Janeiro, coffee exporter
   Daniele Giovannucci
   
6. Situation of small farmers
   
   PEARL Project, Michigan State U. Dan Clay or another PEARL rep.
   Carlos Roberto Sáenz, Café las Brisas, Guatemala
   Comment Olga Lucia Cuellar, University of Arizona and ACDI/VOCA, Colombia
7. Taste and images
   
   Kenneth Davids The Coffee Review, Consumption from a theoretical pt of view
   Robert Thurston, Miami U. The changing image of coffee 1660-present
   Comment Bruce Robbins, Columbia University
8. The popularity and spread of coffee
   
   Steven Topik, UC Irvine Why Americans Came to Like Coffee
   Jonathan Morris, U. of Hertfordshire, Why the British Like Italian Coffee
   Comment William Clarence-Smith, School of Oriental and African Studies, U. Of London

The Coffee Conference - October 31st - November 1st, 2008 - Miami University, Oxford, OH - Contact Robert Thurston