In a world of high finance, unprecedented technological change, and
cyber billionaires, it is easy to forget that a major source of global
wealth is, literally, right under our noses. Coffee is one of the most
valuable Southern exports, generating billions of dollars in corporate
profits each year, even while the majority of the world's 25 million
coffee families live in relative poverty.
But who is responsible for such vast inequality? Many analysts point to
the coffee market itself, its price volatility and corporate oligarchy,
and seek to "correct" it through fair trade, organic and sustainable
coffee, corporate social responsibility, and a number of market-driven
projects. The result has been widespread acceptance that the "market" is
both the cause of underdevelopment and its potential solution.
Against this consensus, Gavin Fridell provocatively argues that state
action, both good and bad, has been and continues to be central to the
everyday operations of the coffee industry, even in today's world of
"free trade". Combining rich history with an incisive analysis of key
factors shaping the coffee business, Fridell challenges the notion that
injustice in the industry can be solved "one sip at a time" - as ethical
trade promoters put it. Instead, he points to the centrality of coffee
statecraft both for preserving the status quo and for initiating
meaningful changes to the coffee industry in the future.
