Ken Harrinton wrote:
>
> Red Jungle is set in present day Guatemala. The
coffee crisis there is on going.
> The Crisis is due to a lot of factors, but the most
important one is the fact
> that many other countries have recently gone into
coffee production,
so there
> is much more production in the world than, say,
before 1980. Believe
it or not,
> these new producers, like Vietnam, produce coffee
even cheaper than producers in
> Latin America can, in part because the Vietnamese
pay their workers
even less.
> The coffee crisis has generated a reaction in
consumer countries like America,
> Germany and France etc. creating consumer groups
that "label" coffee as
> "sustainable" meaning the workers who helped
produce it are being
treated
> fairly by employers, given health care, a decent
wages etc. This is a
good
> thing, it helps workers in very concrete
ways.
You didn't mention the causes at all in RED JUNGLE, only the
effect. However, knowing that the World Bank directly and
actively encouraged Vietnam (the number 2 producer in the
world, after Brazil) and others to grow coffee, I found
Russell's explanations in RED JUNGLE of how the World Bank
would meddle and hurt Guatemala now that it was down even
more poignant.
OT: I am happy to hear the fair trade coffee makes a
difference. I've been buying fair trade green beans for a
while, and not quite co-incidently have been roasting
Guatemalan beans only this month.
Cheers,
--Stewart
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