How did coffee effect on Latin America?
Coffee is increasingly becoming a part of Western culture for many it has become a daily routine and coffee shops are now a common social meeting place. Since coffee shops are getting popular and built at every half block in many downtowns, it may not be surprising that coffee has become the second largest traded commodity next to oil (Watson and Achinelli 2008). As the consumer steps up to the register and orders their four-dollar latte, “it is most likely that they will not think of the more than 25 million people around the world who base their livelihoods on its production” (Watson and Achinelli 2008). The producers of these coffee beans are often small-scale farmers who are reliant on faceless consumers, large corporations. Coffee is now one of the world’s most traded goods, it is important for both consumers and producers to understand the impact the production of coffee is having on the farmers at a local level.
The western culture of coffee is rapidly expanding. As the globalization of coffee spreads to consumers, corporations are becoming more and more disconnected from the coffee producers. The research will look at specific case studies of how the coffee impacts on Latin America. In addition, I’ll be also looking at the specific effects of economic change of coffee production on farmers and children in Brazil.
Through the introduction of the crop into the Caribbean in the early 1700’s, became of economic importance in the mid-1800s. It has been in the last thirty years or so the practices and economy of coffee in Latin America has seen the greatest change as modernization and dependence on coffee production has grown. The coffee land in Latin America is becoming increasingly industrialized. The traditional practices of coffee production in Latin America were much more like gardening. With a pair of shears,