The
New Foundation for Haitian Coffee’s Future
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Myriam
Kaplan-Pasternak
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4/14/2015
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
This was the 23nd
trip into Haiti by Volunteer Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak, 16th as a
Farmer to Farmer volunteer with Partners of the Americas (POA) and the third with
USAID/VEGA Farmer to Farmer grant for coffee volunteers.
This trip was designed to be a follow up of previous
coffee work done by Haiti Coffee, POA, DG Educational Services and Makouti Agro
Entreprise since 2010 in an effort to increase the sustainable production of
Haitian coffee and improve the income of rural Haitian farmers.
Eight American volunteers, Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak of
Haiti Coffee and DGES; Guillermo Navarez, Q grader from Minnesota; Beth
Dominick, Q grader from Scared Grounds in California; David Pierre Loouis,
Marketing and sales, entrepreneur from Washington; Christa Michaud, Women’s
issues, from Mississippi; Shawn Steiman of Daylight Mind Coffee and Coffea
Consulting in Hawaii; Two volunteers from Partners of the Americas, Arthur
Bassett and Tommy Basset of Café Justo in Arizona, were joined by Haitian
agronomists Benito Jasmin and Jean Jacques Lucas of Makouti; and 206 Haitian
coffee producers including 100 women representing 13 cooperatives in Northern
Haiti.
The trip consisted of 5 days in Port au Prince, Haiti
where volunteers attended the First National Coffee Competition in Haiti put on
by the PNPCH ( National Platforme of Haitian coffee producers). Haiti Coffee
and Singing Rooster worked together to provide Q graders and translators for
the event.
The second phase of the trip consisted of a 2 day
conference on coffee at the Makouti Center in Lorry, near Cap Haitian. This was followed by several days of
workshops focusing on plant health, coffee harvesting and processing, coffee
cupping and business management. The courses were well attended and culminated
in 20 people being picked to begin training as coffee cuppers for next year’s competition
and possible future certification.
This visit was the third of three designed to increase
the transfer of knowledge of current coffee industry standards and to set a
foundation for Haitian producers who desire to rebuild their historical coffee
industry and increase coffee exports in an effort to rebuild their economy.
The
purpose of this trip was to implement changes,
review the progress on new practices already implemented since our two previous
trips in June and September 2014, and to review areas still needing expert
evaluations.
Thanks
to good fortune and action on the part of Singing Rooster ( Kok Ki Chante)
volunteers from our June 2014 trip, we were able to participate in the PNPCH
(Plateforme Nationale des Producteurs du Café Haitian) first national cupping
competition by providing two certified Q graders and a translator.
.
ACTIVITIES
·
Review of previous trip
The team met in Port au Prince with Benito and Jacquelin to discuss the impact from previous volunteer visits
1. Several
cooperatives (COPROCAD, CACEMUD, COEB, KASTM, KOPEJ, ADT and Makouti) have been
meeting on a monthly basis to discuss coffee related issues and solutions based
on the new knowledge they have acquired.
They are making organizational improvements and seeing a difference in
things getting done.
2. Several
cooperatives are now seriously looking at natural processing protocols and see
the benefits for them over washed coffee. They are encouraged as a good quality
natural process is doable while washed coffee poses huge challenges that are
near insurmountable for the more remote cooperatives. Globally there is a
growing interest in natural processed coffee as well and future market
opportunity is very likely to open up for Haiti’s naturals.
3. INCAH
(Government office that controls coffee) PNPCH ( National Platforme of Haitian
coffee producers) and many others in coffee now recognize the need to improve
the quality of Haitian coffee and to increase production. They see cupping
skills as a means of increasing quality and coffee nurseries as a means of
increasing production.
4. It had been
our hope that we would be able to bring into Haiti red bracelets to serve as
examples of ripe coffee cherry color. Unfortunately they arrived too late so we
are looking for another route to deliver them to Haiti. The picking of under ripe
and over ripe cherries accounts for the majority of the coffee defects during
green grading of coffee beans.
·
PNPCH Festival:
The First Annual National Competition for Quality Haitian Coffee
The festival was highly motivating and a great
stepping stone to future movement in the direction of producing high quality
Haitian coffee. As it was the first such competition and came at a time of
potential government instability and numerous threats of rioting, the poor
attendance and disorganization can be forgiven. No conference lectures were
given and many people were not informed about the competition and thus did not
enter coffee or cuppers. Many people
from the USA did not make it due to the record number of cancelled flights do
to the extreme weather conditions throughout the USA. Needless to say there was
a great deal of networking that went on.
All the delegates of the PNPCH attended as they had a
general meeting and election for a new director. Makouti was also very well represented as
they arrived with 8 members and producers from the north. Despite some shyness,
they watched the competition, visited trade show booths to inquire about
equipment that they are interested in and also met with a bank representative
to discuss loans. Later they commented that it was amazing to learn that so
much is available to them directly in their own country. They don’t have to wait for an NGO to offer
them a project in order to move forward. It is important to note that they have
a lot to learn about preparing documentation for a loan and need to better
understand credit systems before they embark down this road and encounter the
pitfalls. It was a great experience and exercise for them.
The winners of the competitions were as follows:
1. Best coffee of Haiti from a cooperative came from
APCAB near Thiotte
2. Best coffee of Haiti from a single producer was
from Sylverain Ocnel of APCAB
3. Best coffee cupper was Merisier Panel and employee
of INCAH who was one of 7 Haitian cuppers including Madame Journal Ogisna from
Beaumont who came to SCAA in Seattle last year.
She is very interested in assisting with the development of the IWCA.
4. Two naturals were cupped unofficially in a
demonstration, with the intent of opening the door to submissions of Café Pile
in next year’s competition. The 11 other coffees that were in the official
competition were all washed. A youth division was also anticipated but received
no entries.
Interesting note that all of the best coffees at the
competition were prepurchased by Singing Rooster, which is run by Chris Nicaise
who was one of our volunteers last June 2014. These coffees are now slated for
sale in the USA. Chris and his wife Molly have also started the Haitian
organization Kok Ki Chante who are now F2F hosts ( recruited under the VEGA
grant) and will be receiving volunteers in the future with Partners of the
Americas
This experience was so motivating that upon arrival in
northern Haiti, cupping demonstrations were given a high priority and included
a screening triangulation test to pick out 20 people to attend regular training
to enter next year’s competition and a possible trip to Nicaragua for more
cupping training.
Beth Dominick, and Guillermo Navarez, our Q grader
volunteers, participated among the international judges which also included
Modesto Alcantara from the Dominican Republic and Molly Nicaise of Singing
Rooster. David Pierre Louis helped as the translator for the Haitians to a
small degree. It was unfortunately not anticipated that most of the cupping
would be in Spanish and David did not speak Spanish.
The other disappointment is that the director of the
PNPCH Jean Guillaume Celestin hasn’t been able to give us the time to fill out
the host registration and ODI forms. Most of the negotiations were done through
Singing Rooster, so it would be better to think of them as the host. Maybe down
the road, we can work on increasing PNPCH capacity to become a host for coffee
volunteers.
Makouti is currently inviting local youth interested
in learning about nurseries, to bring empty plastic water bags. They fill them with dirt at the nursery and
are paid $1.00 US for each one. These are then used for the seedlings and have
the added benefits of being cheaper than the purchased poly bags, generate
local incomes and clean up the environment.
  
1. Cupping-Beth Dominick-After word got out about the
competition in PaP, the interest in cupping has increased. Over the course of
the week the word spread, leading to a triangulation and cupping workshop. There are now plans to have a once a month
cupping workshop at Makouti. Cupping is
a key component to setting up a Quality Management System for coffee in Haiti
and improving the quality of the coffee. Beth worked with a total of 75 people,
including 26 women.
  
2. IWCA- Christa Michaud-International Women’s Coffee
Alliance. Christa and I have been
working together to bring Haitian women in coffee together to start a chapter
of the IWCA in Haiti. The purpose of the trip was to gather more information on
issues affecting women in coffee, to hear what their desires are, and gather
data for grant proposals and setting up the legal documentation for the
chapter. Each woman that attended was asked to speak with 10 more women in
their villages. The villages visited
were Beaumont, Lorry, Plaisance, Dondon, women delegates of the PNPCH, for a
total of 100 women and 36 men.
There are now 19 chapters of the IWCA around the
world. We visited with the organization
in Seattle at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Conference
 
3. Coffee Production- Shawn Steiman-Shawn is a Phd
coffee specialist and one of the few people in the USA who understands coffee
diseases and the needs of the coffee tree. He discussed coffee varietals,
environmental requirements, fertilizing, pruning, tips. After visiting the
trees in the field his key take home message is that the producers need to
fertilize and prune their trees. Shawn worked with a total of 55 people
including 33 women.
4. Coffee Processing- Arthur Bassett- These lectures
covered the harvesting, drying, moisture meters, storage, washed coffee and
natural processing.
5. Sales Pitches-Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak- the group
split up into small teams and came up with a short presentation to convince a
buyer to buy their coffee. This was a new experience for most participants as
in the past, producers just took their coffee cherries to the cooperatives or
dried them and took them to market.
Cooperatives took the beans to Port au Prince to the FACN/Haitian Blue project. They had very little involvement beyond that
and are largely unaware of what happens to coffee beans once they leave the
area.
6. Identifying current coffee problems- Benito Jasmin- KOPEJ- Nursery and seedlings; Need more training.
REPANORD- Need more seedlings, need more training
COPACVOD-Modern training practices
KAPB- More training
APKP- More training
APKB- More training
APCAP- More training From Arthur Bassett's trip report
This diagram shows what the Haitians think are their
current coffee needs. While I agree that these are all reasonable needs and it
is not easy to prioritize. The top priority for training should however be
fertilizing and pruning. These are vital
to dealing with the coffee rust problem and for mitigating climate change. Also more evidence is pointing towards the
use of Effective Microbials (EM1) which I introduced to Makouti last year. They have been using it as a foliar spray in
the nursery. Now they need to start using it in the field on the mature trees.
7. Green Grading-Everyone-Short exercise in coffee
grading to reinforce coffee evaluation skills
8. Contracts-Tommy Bassett- This was a very nice basic
introductory lecture on contracts, something the producers and cooperatives
have been asking about.
1. Tippi Tap-Arthur Bassett- a simple hand washing
station for use in the fields and at the nurseries. 54 people including 19
women attended.
2. Nursery- Shawn Steiman & Myriam
Kaplan-Pasternak- Hands on demonstrations at the Makouti nursery, Dondon and
ADP nursery
3. Pruning- Shawn Steiman & Myriam
Kaplan-Pasternak- Hands on demonstration at the
Makouti nursery.
Shawn recommends a 3-4 year pruning rotation. Either pruning part of
each tree yearly or only a part of the plantation each year. The first year a
branch is cut, it will not produce. It
takes until the following season to begin bearing fruit again, but the amount
of fruit will be much greater than on unpruned trees.
4. Coffee Triangulations- Screening- 44 people
attended, 20 men and 24 women
This was a screening to find people who have naturally
more sensitive taste buds and a greater potential for cupping accurately. The
test consisted of 5 groups of 3 cups of coffee.
2 are the same and one is different.
The taster must accurately pick out the different one. Those who scored
3 out of 5 or better were promoted to the cupping workshop series with the
hopes that all twenty of these people will make it to the Second National
Haitian Cupping Competition next year.
We also hope that some of them will go on to become certified Q graders.
These cupping opportunities give Haiti’s coffee industry an opportunity to open up exciting potential careers for Haiti’s youth keeping them in agriculture and adding value to the coffee industry. They also put the power of negotiation in the hands of the Haitian people rather than the Wall St. traders.  
5. Intro to Cupping Workshop-Makouti Training Center-
Beth Dominick- This workshop was conducted on the last day to give the new
coffee cuppers’ group a feel for what they will be learning. There were 20
people including 7 women
6. IWCA- Plaisance- Christa Michaud- A day trip to
Plaisance allowed for meeting with several women in the village involved in
coffee. They are very interested in a
women’s chapter of the IWCA. They are
eager to have access to more knowledge, have representation without men
filtering the information and potential access to markets for women’s harvest
coffee
7. Coffee Diseases- Plaisance- Shawn Steiman and
Arthur Bassett-Field visits to see more coffee trees and evaluate the disease
problems. Translating was a problem. The
key piece of advice is fertilizing and pruning the trees
8. IWCA- Dondon- Arthur Bassett and Myriam
Kaplan-Pasternak- Discussed the issues facing women in Haiti and in
coffee. They do a great deal of the
harvesting and all of the sorting of coffee. All the coffee is mixed together
so they cannot sell their own separately for the time being. They want
representation.
9. Coffee Diseases- Dondon-Shawn Steiman- Rust most
definitely exists in Haiti as do the Coffee Borer Beetles ( Eskolyte). There are likely some other diseases,
nematodes, bacteria, etc but not in significant amounts, The most prominent
thing that Shawn noted was the lack of nutrition to the trees. The PH of the soil is very likely off and
most likely too acidic which is common on tropical islands. This makes it harder for the plants to
retrieve the nutriens from the soil, which in turn weakens the trees. Since few
farmers fertilize their trees, the soil is also likely to be depleted. Fertilizing with either chemical fertilizers
( more rapidly available) or compost will greatly help. Ash can be added to the soil medium to help
with the PH balance, especially for the nursery seedlings. Water stress and PH
balance issues were seen in many of the nurseries. Pruning on a 4 year cycle
will also help strengthen the trees and increase their resistance to diseases.
It is good news that malnutrition is the key problem
affecting these trees as this can be easily rectified while fungal or other
coffee diseases are in serious need of research worldwide.
10. Makouti Business Review- Tommy Bassett met with
Hermon Duverson to review the computer system used to track Makouti’s finances
and producer’s records. See separate report.
The most significant note was that Makouti is having a
very difficult time keeping the antivirus and software programs updated.
Automatic updates are not happening due to the internet accessibility. A USB extension cord for the desktop computer
would help.
11. GPS- Arthur Bassett and Benito recorded altitudes
for many of the coffee regions in which Makouti works with the plan of
assigning producers to zones based on altitude.
Coffee will be sorted and kept in separate lots on a weekly basis based
on altitude. This will help with
tracking cupping scores, introduce the concept of keeping coffee in separate
lots and evaluating the impact of altitude on flavor quality.
12. La Citadel- Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak- I took the
team to see the Haitian fort and castle ruins built by King Henry Christophe,
the first president of Haiti. It was great to take a day off and be
tourist. It was also an opportunity for
me to see the changes in the tourist industry of Haiti as it has been 7 years
since my last visit to the Citadel.
Many pleasant changes have been made with nice little
tourist shops set up and the horses you can ride to the top are in much better
health. They also offer some dune buggy
rides up for a fee and by reservation.
The concept of Agrotourism is beginning to take
hold. We now have a venue for
advertisizing and taking reservations through http://www.getgonetraveler.com/. The
pieces are present for a tour. The next
step is setting up a budget for a tour and to set the price.
   Cupping Reports from samples brought by Eric Mitchell:
All these samples are from natural processed coffee
that Eric visited. These should be considered baseline samples. Next year we hope to see better results.
Cupping results for washed coffees for cooperatives with some
training
Follow up meeting in Seattle at the Specialty Coffee
Association of America (SCAA) Conference
Gauging impact of a project is not always easy,
especially when evaluating agriculture over a short duration (1 year) and on a
limited budget. Returning to the SCAA
conference this year proved to be an excellent gauge as to the interest in
Haitian coffee.
A. Last year there were no booths offering Haitian
coffee or information on Haitian coffee. This year, Café Kreyol, another US
based Haitian coffee importer was present.
His booth was well attended. He
is now selling Haitian coffee to Whole Foods.
He is also importing other coffees from around the world because Haitian
coffee alone cannot maintain a profitable business in the US. His biggest
challenge in Haiti is educating the Haitian cooperatives on the finer points of
coffee processing.
B. Last year the PNPCH, funded by Agronomist and
Veterinarians Without Borders, sent 3 Haitians to the conference and Singing
Rooster sent two.
This year only 4 Haitians were at the conference and travelled on their own. They are all involved independently in coffee. 2 are working with Haiti Coffee.
C. Last year I went to the SCAA to learn and connect
with potential volunteers and potential mentors. I didn’t know anyone there before I went. I
recruited 3 new volunteers
This year I found I knew lots of people in the
industry and met several new people who sought me out because of their interest
in Haiti. I have recruited 4 potential new volunteers and 7 potential repeat
volunteers for specific SOW needs. I also made some new connections for
resources needed in Haiti and a shipping broker for exporting Haitian coffee to
Europe.
D. Nine of the volunteers who participated in this grant and 7 of the members of the Haitian Coffee Network were in attendance at SCAA. Most of us gathered at Lucid Lounge in Seattle for an evening of fun and discussions about Haiti. Also in attendance was a film maker who is working with David Pierre Louis on a documentary about David’s journey to find his mother in Haiti after the earthquake ( House collapsed but she survived) and the work he is doing to help his country rebuild. Becoming involved in Haitian coffee has become a big part of his plan to help Haitians sustainably thrive once again.
Observations:
·
Need for
standardization in many things; accounting practices for cooperatives; weights
and measure;
·
General
acceptance to the ideas but need more exposure and practice
·
Strong interest
in preharvest financing but no real understanding of how to get access to it
·
Lack of
understanding of the bigger global picture
·
International
awareness of Haitian coffee is increasing
·
In order to
increase production as fast as possible, the producers need to fertilize trees,
Use the Effective Microbials and start pruning on a regular basis. Planting new trees alone will not provide a
sustainable solution.
·
Processing,
drying and storing practices need to be standardized and improved as they are
the weakest link to improving quality
·
Cupping is
becoming a common interest and will hopefully become mainstream, but the
crucial link will be using cupping results as feedback for improving practices
that improve quality of the coffee.
·
This year the
best market for Haitian coffee is the local market in Haiti that is paying
$3.00/ lb of coffee cherries. This is
higher than the export market and less costly.
This is also an unusual phenomenon and one that was not foreseen by
everyone. By learning to produce a high quality natural processed coffee that
could be exported, producers could reach both local and export markets with the
same coffees. There is a growing interest in natural processed coffees
worldwide. This however leaves the cooperative with their washing stations a
bit useless, unless they too adapt. Their
drying patios are an excellent means to standardize the protocol for naturals.
·
Most of the
cooperatives we worked with are eager for more information, but two of the
largest ones, Marmelade and COPACVOD are convinced that they do a good enough
job. Sometimes they promise to follow protocols if they are prepaid. They sadly
are missing the boat and will eventually be left behind when the quality of the
smaller cooperatives improves. With the focus continuing to be on
collaboration, we hope that they will come on board sooner rather than later.
Results:
The
progressive evolution of this project has reached a point where a solid
foundation of general knowledge has been created for the coffee producers and cooperatives
working with Makouti Agro Entreprise.
They can now understand the bigger picture and have basic awareness of
the pieces of the value chain. The next
phase will be to build on the foundation by focusing on the finer points and
practices of each phase of the coffee beans’ life and each step of the value
chain. Experience is needed as well so that over time the new knowledge can be
adapted and improved upon. There should never be an endpoint but rather ongoing
evaluation and refinements of practices to keep the quality and quantities
improving and the results producing a viable cost effective product that is
sustainable. Producers and cooperatives
will need to learn to evaluate the market and the best product for the market
each year. They now have the basic knowledge to start doing so.
Cupping
is now an activity of interest rather than an intimidating mystery wrought with
awkward behaviors. The producers and agronomists are now freely exchanging
ideas and descriptions about the subtleties of coffee rather than shying away
and dismissing the coffee as disgusting. They are eager to listen to the
critique on the coffee they produce.
Quality
is still in need of work, but this will take more training and impact
throughout several harvest seasons. Thankfully more parties are now coming to
Haiti to help with coffee education and are willing to collaborate. Hopefully grants will continue to support the
transfer of information and loan systems at reasonable rates will be offered to
upgrade equipment and resources.
The
Haitian Coffee Network, coordinated by Michele Edwards of Partners Worldwide is
now 38 members and growing. In time, this collaboration could, and has already,
increase efficiency, reduce costs and increase outreach helping things progress
more rapidly. The sharing of ideas is generating a great deal of enthusiasm and
hope that the industry will continue to advance despite the many challenges
still ahead.
NEXT STEPS and FUTURE
VOLUNTEER NEEDS
· Need a
USB extension cable 6-10 ft long. More than 10 ft could cause transmission
problems.
· Design and
explain contract templates for producers and cooperatives that are fair to both
buyers and sellers
·
Financing-How to ask for credit; How to
prepare financial statements; Presentation
from lenders (Yunnis Social Bank, Sogebank, KECAM, Root Capital)
·
Selective Harvesting for Quality and
Quantity- Distribute red bracelets,
Demonstrate increased income from larger volumes, Demonstrate increased income from increased quality, What are
buyers looking for?
·
Coffee Tree Health needs to be improved by,
Fertilizing, Pruning, and use of Effective Microbials.
·
Dry Mill Processing (generally done
Jan-March in Northern Haiti)- Critique
what is being done, Evaluate sorting practices, Teach SCAA guidelines for
identifying defects and causes of defects
·
Cupping- more firsthand experience,
workshops and certification training
·
Marketing and sales to consumers in USA
and abroad
·
Make Less than Container Load (LCL)
consolidating shipping available directly from Haiti
·
Cost of Production analysis for small
producers and cooperatives
·
Coordinate shipping of materials needed
and purchased by Makouti. Find a reliable shipper.
PERSONAL
REFLECTION
On any given day the adventure of rebuilding the
Haitian coffee industry can be great or seriously stressful. Haiti is full of
challenges, yet also full of hope. When
I see the results of decades of charity and the lack of access to basic
knowledge, I am chilled at how few choices exist in the average Haitian
family’s life. How isolating and paralyzing that can be when viewed from a
global perspective. It takes great courage for Haitians to venture off their
island and overcome their fears of ignorance, but someone must travel where
hope lives, where choices live, unless we can open the door of knowledge to
them, in Haiti.
I am excited by the current move to invest in income
generating agriculture in Haiti. As I
sit and talk with farmers, I am hopeful.
Working with Makouti has given them choices in their lives. Choices that allow them to feed their
families and put their children in school. Makouti and Farmer to Farmer are
also walking hand in hand with these Haitian farmers; working side by side to
help Haitians find their confidence and regain their farming heritage that once
made their country rich and renown.
But is it enough when we all live in a world governed
by stock markets and large corporations that decide fates based only on their
profits. Coffee is a world traded commodity whose pricing is announced daily
and based on supply and demand for a handful of companies and large traders.
Speculators, tell stories to juggle the market through an illusion of
predictions that are often thrown out the window by Mother Nature. Farmers are
always forced to predict the future.
Deciding when and what to plant based on instincts learned and passed
down through the generations. Mother
Nature can be fickle and even brutal but farmers have learned to understand
her. Stock quotes and speculators are
much harder to intuit for people with little schooling and no internet. These purchase
prices are even less meaningful when they have no correlation to the costs of
production faced by farmers who grow the products, especially the small
farmers. It is easy to bias a supply and demand system when the suppliers are
uneducated and cannot negotiate with facts in hand. The end result is that we
are currently in a global coffee farmer crisis.
At SCAA, I was saddened to hear so many farmers from
countries around the world express their fears; talking of starving families
that once thrived on coffee production; young people abandoning the farms
because they do not want to be stuck in lives of poverty; dying coffee trees
because the farmers can no longer afford to care for the trees; trees dying of
diseases because solutions weren’t important enough for adequate research
dollars to be devoted to the largest consumable commodity in the world. WHY?
Now the time has come to pay the true cost of all that
inexpensive coffee we guzzled with glee. Cost of production studies are being
done and must be done in every coffee producing country. We need to give up on the one price fits
all. Even the minimum price floor of
fairtrade is reinforcing poverty because it gives consumers a false sense of
security and buyers use it as leverage. Certification programs, like fairtrade
and organic, reinforce poverty as they cost the producers thousands of dollars
yet benefit only the roaster and retailer who get the lion’s share of the end
profits. Farmers gross pennies per cup
and often that isn’t even their profit. It’s a loss that reaches to the heart
of the bellies of their families.
There is no time like the present to talk about the
exploitation of coffee farmers. History repeats itself unless we create the
change we want to see in the world. A walk through Facebook shows people
fighting for $15.00 PER HOUR wages and garnering worldwide support. Open dialog
worldwide is the best way to educate and help everyone thrive. This is an
important issue especially when you see that in Haiti the minimum wage is less
than $5.00 PER DAY for the factory worker who
is making your tablets and undergarments. We aren't born knowing what caused
all this nor how to fix it but the internet is making us all aware of the
disparity between the 1%ers, those in the middle and the 2 Billion who live in
poverty, many of whom are coffee farmers and laborers.
We need to reach out globally, teach the young and the
old. Knowledge overshadows fear and ignorance, keeping manipulation at bay. If
we keep demanding higher minimum wages without changing the high end wages, we
may be able to pay for coffee drinks at every street corner, but are we
thinking about the lives of those that picked the beans. Are we really getting
what we want? Or are we seeing the end of coffee? Can we look in the mirror and
see the end of poverty and hunger? How
can we all afford to Drink and Thrive?
|
Monday, April 27, 2015
Haiti Coffee Trip Report March 2015
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