Sometimes I think about my dissertation and feel so overwhelmed I run down the block to the 7-11, buy a cheap bottle of wine, and drink it with my roomates while watching a movie. But as of yesterday, I’ve given up my Netflix account — a Pavement DVD’s arriving tomorrow, and after that, it’s bye bye to those little red envelopes, invitations to distraction…

I have weird coping mechanisms, not an addictive personality — but one thing I’ll fully admit to being addicted to is coffee. I started drinking it as a sixth grader — one of the few privileges of going to a boarding school — and have pretty much stuck with it since, despite the insomnia and stuff as a pre-teen. My eyes water when I don’t drink it soon enough after waking up — I literally cry if I can’t get my java.

The wine’s never fair trade — 7-11 doesn’t carry that kind of stuff. But I was thinking today that although a lot of people have heard of fair trade, most people don’t know what it is, what it’s for — really, anything about it.

Which is really understandable, since we’re really, really removed from the whole food production process. (Note to Jen: That stuff you like in your hotdog bun was once a happy, squealing piglet. Like the ones made by icing, except alive and wiggly.) I’m not surprised most people don’t even know there’s a coffee crisis going on — I wouldn’t, if it weren’t for USFT.

Coffee problem 101: It pretty much all began in 1989. Until then, all the coffee-growing countries got together every year to decide how much coffee to make — kinda like what the oil countries do with oil — to keep prices at a certain level. In 1989 though, new countries — like Vietnam — started growing coffee, and the annual meeting ended without setting this quota.

So with more countries making coffee, and with countries already making coffee making more coffee in this quota-less environment, we got a coffee glut and prices plummeted. Of course, it was the small farmers who were affected (understatement).

Thus, the coffee crisis.

I know you all wanted to know but were just afraid to ask. And BTW — I did talk to the Coffee Bean guy this morning, for like an hour. His name’s Jay. Details TK.

** Update, 7/27/05: Conversation with Jay of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf here.

fair trade

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