Friday, January 15, 2010

Featured Donor: Sweet Maria’s

Over the past few years, interest in home coffee roasting has grown exponentially and Sweet Maria’s, based in Oakland, CA, has played a central role in the movement.

Their website offers advice on how to choose a home roaster, detailed roasting instructions, photos of beans at each roasting stage and forums for discussing all things coffee. They also sell supplies and equipment, and green coffee to get eager home roasters started.

Sweet Maria's Dog CalendarThis holiday season, Sweet Maria’s produced “The Unofficial 2010 Dogs of Coffee Calendar,” which was sold to benefit Coffee Kids and five other charities. The calendar has 15 full-color photographs of dogs from various coffee-producing regions. Co-owner Thompson Owen took the photographs during his travels around the world in search of coffee.

“Maybe he misses our dogs, West Oakland mutts of the first degree, or maybe dogs tend to be a friendly presence. Whatever the reason, over time, Tom has amassed quite a collection of photographs of dogs at coffee origins,” said Maria Troy, co-owner of Sweet Maria’s.

The unique calendar is available for purchase on Sweet Maria’s Web site.

For over ten years, Sweet Maria’s has supported Coffee Kids through various fundraisers and they strive to educate their customers and online followers about our work. Their site is consistently one of the top referrer’s to the Coffee Kids Web site.

Posted by Kyle Freund on 01/15 at 11:50 AM
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Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Latin American Farmers Leaving Organic Coffee

Latin American countries account for 75% of the world’s organic coffee production. But even as demand for organic coffee has increased, coffee farmers are being forced to return to conventional cultivation using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In the article, “Organic coffee: Why Latin America’s farmers are abandoning it,” reporter Ezra Feiser talks with coffee farmers and researchers to uncover what’s happening.

coffee harvest The Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education in Costa Rica (CATIE) estimates that at least 10% of organic coffee farmers have gone back to conventional production. The article goes on to state that the high prices that had been associated with organic coffee are diminishing and many farmers are being forced to sell their organic beans in the conventional market.

In Chiapas, Mexico, farmers associated with our partner ICSUR experienced this firsthand when a buyer canceled two large contracts and farmers were forced to sell their coffee in local markets. Many families sustained a heavy loss (Read more here).

ICSUR Mushrooms According to the article, farmers using chemical fertilizers and pesticides harvest about 485 pounds of coffee out of one acre, versus 285 pounds per acre on an organic farm. If they cannot justify the cost, they are forced to return to conventional methods.

The impact is heavy in many communities. Given a lack of education on proper usage, local water sources are frequently contaminated with chemicals, much of the land is rendered sterile from overuse, and families are frequently exposed to toxic chemicals.

Families working with our partner ICSUR have incorporated edible mushroom production and chicken-raising efforts to diversify their income and lessen their dependence on income from coffee. With economic diversity, many of these families can continue their organic farming and weather the finicky markets.

Posted by Kyle Freund on 01/05 at 04:43 PM
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