Building Grower / Consumer Alliances for Confronting the Coffee Crisis By Roberta Jaffe, Devon Sampson, and Annie Shattuck

File

CAN-LEISA-final.pdf

Description

In 2001, world coffee prices tumbled to all-time lows, devastating coffee-dependent farm families and their communities, in what became known as the global “coffee crisis.” Out of necessity, many farm families left their communities to find wage labor, while others cut down their coffee plants and shade trees in favor of cattle pasture. The integrity of coffee producing communities in México and Central America was strained by emigration, biodiversity was threatened by deforestation, and denuded and trampled hillsides started to wash away in the tropical rains.