Dark brew
The earliest reliable reference to coffee tells us it was used in the 15th century at Sufishrines in Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. Strongly associated with the Arabic world, it arrived in Europe during the 17th century. Over time, it has woven itself into the fabric of everyday life and for much of the world’s population has become a vital and often addictive part of our daily morning ritual.
A multi-billion-dollar commodity, coffee is grown in the tropics and to a lesser extent the subtropics, both home to high levels of biodiversity. The largest four producer countries — Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia — together account for two-thirds of production. Compared to Europe, Australia and New Zealand are both modest coffee consumers but are still home to vibrant coffee cultures.
FREE-MARKET ISSUES
Coffee has also been linked to a range of serious concerns, including rainforest destruction, monocultures, pesticides, pollution from processing residues, slavery, child labour and producers being forced to sell to middlemen for half of the market price. All these can be tackled via consumer choices.
Slave labour is often linked “debt peonage” whereby exploitative economic conditions are used to keep workers in debt to
