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Permalink Reply by Joshua Longsdorf on March 22, 2009 at 1:14pm

Currently a majority of the coffee grown in the world is traded as commodity. Simply put the quality of the cup has no effect on the commodities price, it's not supply and demand either. It's speculation, similar to the speculation that caused the banking collapse following the mortgage crises, which leads to farmers being severely underpaid for their crop. It means we are not paying the true cost of coffee. Therefore decommoditization is us paying for what it takes to maintain living soil on a farm, for the farm workers to actually receive a living wage, and the farmers to actually make a profit. It's putting a face on the farmers that grow it and do it well. To again borrow a line from Edwin Martinez of Finca Vista Hermosa Farms in Huehuetenango, Guatemala "The growers, brokers, roasters and retailers shouldn’t be the rock stars, rather they should collaboratively be building the pedestal that lets the bean speak. And in this process to share credit where credit is due in building a foundation that allows a phenomenal bean to be tasted and experienced."

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Permalink Reply by Adam on March 31, 2009 at 8:15am

good quote, as soon as the farmer gets more appreciation for the extreme amount of work he/she does, my stomach will feel a lot better about placing so much of his/hers product down in there.

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