Coffee: From Farm to Cup

By Claire Jackan

We watched a documentary called Black Gold and visited Roberto’s farm to learn about how coffee is grown, harvested, and processed before it reaches consumers.  Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee but the crop is now grown in many tropical areas around the world. It takes four years from planting for a coffee plant to reach full size.  The International Coffee Agreement used to control the price of coffee until its collapse in 1989; since then, the price of coffee has dropped to a 30-year low.  Now the international price of coffee is determined in New York and London. Retail sales from coffee have increased from $30 billion in 1990 to $80 billion per year. Coffee reaches the consumer after six chains of “middle men” and coffee pickers generally make less than 50 cents per day.

            The documentary focused on an Ethiopian coffee company, and the economy of the surrounding community depends on coffee alone. While the owners of large coffee companies are making more money than ever, coffee pickers and the surrounding communities are living in poverty because they are not receiving a fair price for the coffee that they work hard to pick.  The average life expectancy in Ethiopia is 44, more than half of the population is under 16, the average wage is $2 per day, and 5% finish high school.  The therapeutic feeding center shown in the video attempts to feed the severely malnourished children with few resources and so they have to turn away children that are hungry but are not malnourished enough. Because of the low prices for coffee, some Ethiopians have switched to growing chat instead.  Chat is a narcotic plant that is widely consumed in East Africa but banned in the United States and Europe. Many of them don’t actually want to grow chat but are practically forced to because they can’t make enough money growing coffee.  

            At Roberto’s farm we were able to see how coffee plants are grown and processed. Roberto grows other crops like bananas and plantains on his six-hectare farm, but coffee is the only one that he sells.  The coffee is generally grown at high elevation with mostly shade and some sun. He grows bean plants near the coffee plants because of the nitrogen-fixation properties. Once the dry fruits are collected, he separates out the pulp from the seeds and removes the shell, either by hand or with a machine. He mixes the leftovers with organic material and uses it as fertilizer for the fields. Roberto sells his coffee beans to a toaster who decides how long to toast them depending on the desired strength and flavor. He doesn’t really have a market outside of his family and the co-op, but before we left many of us bought some of his coffee to take home to our own families and friends. This experience has highlighted the general lack of awareness in the United States about where our coffee comes from and the conditions under which it is produced. When I return home, I plan on purchasing fair-trade coffee whenever possible and I will encourage my family and friends to do the same.