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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
All will be held in the Heritage Room of the Shriver Center, located at the corner of Spring and Patterson (US 27) streets. Instructions about parking will be posted soon.
Friday, October 31, 2008
- 9 AM: Research on the coffee plant and its ecology
Robert Rice, Smithsonian Bird Project: How Coffee Farms Help or Hurt Wildlife
Kennedy T. K. Gitonga, Research Officer - Economist, Ruiru, Kenya: Production of Exemplary Coffees: Perspectives from Kenya
Stuart McCook, Guelph University: The ecology of taste: “ordinary” coffee and the limits of the specialty revolution
Comment Charlie Kwit, Wittenberg U. - 1 PM: Sustainability
Geoff Watts, Intelligentsia Coffee: Getting More Money to the Farmers
Ernest Carman, Café Cristina: Good Earth: Issues in Running a Sustainable Farm
Bethany Koch, Client Relations Manager, Rainforest Alliance - 3:30 PM: Structure of the coffee business
Quentin Wodon, World Bank: Coffee and African Development
Price Peterson, La Esmeralda, Panama: Strategies for Improving Coffee Quality
George Howell, Terroir Coffee: Producing and Selling Fine Coffees - 8:30 AM: Selling coffee
Kim Moore, Dir. of Business Development–Coffee and Hot Beverages, TransFair USA: What Fair Trade Does
Manoel Correa do Lago, Rio de Janeiro, coffee exporter: The Brazilian Coffee sector in the perspective of Fair Trade
Daniele Giovannucci, independent consultant to the industry: Trends in coffee markets and the effects of sustainability efforts
- 10:30 AM: The situation of small farmers
Abdoul Murekezi, PEARL Project, Michigan State U.: The PEARL Coffee Project: Harnessing Partnerships for Sustainable Growth in Rwanda
Carlos Roberto Sáenz, Café las Brisas, Guatemala: Coffee and Recovery from a Civil War
Comment Olga Lucia Cuellar, University of Arizona and ACDI/VOCA, Colombia - 1 PM: Taste and images
Kenneth Davids The Coffee Review: The Competing Languages of Coffee: Trends in The Signs and Symbols of American Specialty Coffee
Robert Thurston, Miami U.: The Changing Image of Coffee 1660-Present: Sociability and Social Justice
Comment Bruce Robbins, English, Columbia University - 3:30 PM: The popularity and spread of coffee
Steven Topik, UC Irvine: Boston Tea Party or Slavery? Why Americans Came to Drink Coffee
Jonathan Morris, U. of Hertfordshire: The Globalization of Italian Coffee
Comment William Clarence-Smith, School of Oriental and African Studies, U. Of London
Dinner: Please register separately for the dinner on the registration page if you wish to attend.
Keynote address by Sidney Mintz, Johns Hopkins University, 7:30 PM, also in the Heritage Room: Why do Human Beings Like Psychoactive Substances? The Social Side of Addiction.
Saturday, November 1