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History of Coffee
Overview:
Join us as we trace the history of coffee from its origins in Ethiopia to the Starbucks around the corner. It is a fascinating story of politics, power, chance and intrigue. We will also examine coffee's cultural influences as well as the differences between various types of coffee. Cream and sugar not included.
Key Lecture Points:
• Coffee is the 2nd most widely traded legal commodity in the world after crude oil. Over 2 billion cups are consumed everyday worldwide. And, about 125 million people around the world depend on coffee for their livelihood.
• The average American drinks 3.2 cups per day, most with cream or sugar or both. In total, the US imports about $4 billion worth of coffee annually.
• As a globally consumed commodity, it is unsurprising that different types of coffees and different preparation methods are favored by different peoples. From Turkish coffees, to Italian coffees like espresso, to the plain-old filter method used in the US, coffee is a reflection of cultural diversity. In India and Japan, coffees that are processed in the digestive tracts of animals, and then removed from the animals’ feces, are very highly valued.
• Coffee trading dates back to the Yemeni port of Mocha in the 16th century, but coffee’s origins are in Ethiopia perhaps thousands of years earlier. From Mocha, the imperial powers took coffee to their colonies in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia where it was first developed as a slave-powered cash crop. Most colonial production fed the growing coffee demand of Europe and North America.
• Today, coffee is still generally consumed in the Global North and produced in the Global South. Some argue that given sharp recent declines in coffee prices that little has changed from the colonial era. Southern farmers are still undercompensated, it is argued, and still at the mercy of Northern economic forces (not the colonizing forces, but rather the forces of Nestle, Starbucks, Kraft and Sara Lee). It was with this potentiality in mind that governments conspired to raise the price of coffee by restricting supplies in the post-WWII era thereby benefiting farmers.
• Coffee drinking has, in the past several decades, undergone significant changes, with speciality coffees consumed in coffee bar chains increasingly becoming the norm in the United States. Specialtiy coffee sales have been increasing at about 20% per year.
Exploration Questions:
• What sorts of labor practices has global coffee production historically encouraged?
• What are the implications of chronic oversupply in the coffee market for farmers?
• How did coffee move from being a Middle Eastern beverage to a European commodity?
Reflective Question:
• How has the consumption of coffee changed in your lifetime?
• Have you ever been to a Starbucks? How is it different from the typical coffee shops of the past?
For More Information:
• The International Coffee Organization: www.ico.org
• Neat coffee facts: www.gourmetcoffeeclub.com
• On the Coffee Price Crisis: www.sptimes.com
Books For Further Reading:
• Wild, Antony. Coffee: A Dark History. W.W.Norton and Co, 2005. 323 pages. This beautifully written and fascinating history of coffee accounts for the cultural, social, botanical, psychological, political and international aspects of this incredible plant. Wild’s telling takes the perspective of those exploited and downtrodden by coffee and its industrialization—hence, his ‘dark’ history. Click here to order.
• Luttinger, Nina. The Coffee Book: The Anatomy of an Industry from the Crop to the Last Drop. New Press, 2006. 232 pages. This comprehensive discussion of coffee is an excellent introduction to the plant, its production and consumption, and its global importance. Click here to order.
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