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Coffee and Global Sustainability

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Coffee and Global Sustainability

Coffee is everywhere. From specialty espresso shops in Italy to the corner convenience store, it is near impossible to go anywhere in the world and not be able to purchase a cup of joe. And it is big business too. Since 1950 coffee production has grown by almost 200 percent, and after oil, coffee is the most important traded commodity in the world.[i] Coffee is so prevalent affluent societies take it for granted as an affordable part to their everyday life. For the growers in developing countries, although they may rarely drink the product they produce, it is their livelihoods.

This paper will take a look into the past and present of coffee and evaluate and present solutions, both environmentally and socially, for the continued sustainability of the world’s most influential drink.

A History of Exploitation

To understand the implications of coffee’s impact on society and the global economy, it is important to start at the beginning.

Coffee berries were first eaten by slaves who took it with them as they were taken from what is present day Sudan to Yemen and Arabia. This is where coffee as we know it today was born. It is believed that the first beans were roasted and brewed around 1000 A.D. in Arabia. By the 13th century, coffee was a common drink among Arabs and coffeehouses were opened in Mecca and throughout the Arab world. By the 15th century, coffee was cultivated as a crop throughout Arabia. However, the Arabs banned the exportation of coffee and made exported beans infertile in attempts prevent its cultivation in other areas.[ii]

It was hard to keep coffee to themselves for long, and it is believed that an Indian by the name of Baba Budan smuggled fertile coffee beans to India by taping them to his belly. Whether that is true or not, around the 1600s India began to grow coffee and the Dutch took notice. The

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