Friends and Family,
Yesterday I traveled a bit around the coffee production and sales in our area. Coffee has a good price this year on exportation. Unfortunately it does not have a good harvest for most of the people about us with small plots of coffee bushes. The storm AGATHA destroyed much of the flowering of the coffee trees, resulting with fewer red coffee beans. Pickers, including small children, rise at dawn, crowd into back of local trucks, and head out to pick coffee for the larger land owners. They are paid three dollars to pick 100 pounds of the humid bean, about eight hours in the hot sun. Here in our community the biggest plantation owner, with seven plantations of coffee, is receiving 208. dollars for each 100# of coffee, dried and toasted. His coffee is loaded with chemicals. There are many middle man coffee buyers and as always the POOR are those who recieve little or no profit for all their labor. Most field workers near us would own if any a small plot that would produce only a few hundred pounds of the humid coffee.
A Fair Trade Coffee Cooperative in one of the mountain villages, was founded over forty years ago by a Montana Priest, and continues to produce and export organic coffee. We can purchase this coffee here direct from the Cooperative but we cannot export it. This preparing the coffee for export is a WOMAN´s project and the coffee carries the label "Coffee Feminina". It is indeed a success story for our MISSION!
Remember the little coffee producers in your prayer when you drink your Coffee LATTÉ
each morning. AND BE SURE TO DRINK ONLY ORGANIC, FAIR TRADE COFFEE! THANKS!!
