The Coffee Crisis Series collected together in one handy blog, for those finding me now:

The Basics: All you need to know for your cocktail party conversations

• Cheap addictions for the morning-impaired: Coffee Crisis 101. How the coffee crisis came to be.
• Stop drinking sludge: Coffee Crisis 102. The coffee problem, in very simple terms.
• We agree on one thing — less coffee, please: Coffee Crisis 103. How to solve the coffee problem (some disagreements on this one).
• What’s in a sticker?: Coffee Crisis 104. Why the fair trade sticker matters for coffee.
• Coffee vs. Coke. Due to the coffee crisis, many farmers are turning to more lucrative crops — like coca.
• Coffee and immigration. Why are so many farmers immigrating to the US? Partly because the coffee crisis has driven them off their land.

The Controversies: Read this, and you’ll fit in with the hip Oxfam kids

• Indie farms and the fair trade conundrum: Coffee Crisis 105. Why some good coffee companies don’t, or can’t, get stickered. (Update, 9/22/05)
• Quality and equality in fair trade: Coffee Crisis 106. Why quality coffee may or may not matter. (Update, 9/27/05)
• Fair trade workarounds: Coffee Crisis 107. Why the fair trade sticker STILL matters for coffee. (Update, 9/28/05)
• Consumer power and yuppie guilt: Coffee Crisis 108. Why fair trade coffee shouldn’t have to be gourmet coffee. (Update, 10/3/05)
• The Catch-22 of fair trade debates: Coffee Crisis 109. Why the fair trade reach is limited right now, and how big companies could (but don’t) fix it.
• Quality isn’t always rewarded: Coffee Crisis 110. Not all high-quality coffee’s bought for fair prices; fair trade’s still important for the gourmet stuff. (Update, 5/18/06)
• Why isn’t coffee roasted where it’s grown?. A two-part series (here’s part 2) that examines why country-of-origin roasting’s difficult for coffee headed to the western world. (Update, 8/9/06)

Ongoing coffee issues: Corporate responsibility, consumer activism

• All’s fair in love and coffee? What does “fairly traded” mean? (Update, 10/14/05)
• Why care about Starbucks?: Fair trade opinions: Why we can’t we fair trade peeps get along? The two camps in the fair trade movement. (Update, 10/16/05)
• Chicken or the egg? Consumer demand, corporate response: How companies measure (or suppress) consumer demand for fair trade. (Update, 10/12/05)
• Pick your cause wisely: Fair trade v. Organic? What all these important certification labels mean for the average activist-consumer. (Update, 10/25/05)
• A monkey for the fair trade movement. Why Monkey & Son, a local coffee company, opted for 100% fair trade & organic certification. (Update, 10/31/05)

After 4 years of teaching 17-year-olds, even my blogs are starting to look syllabus-y… If you’re wondering why I’m posting at 3 am — I’m jet-lagged and over-caffeinated –

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