Javatrekker's Journal: Our Blog
2015 Year At A Glance
2015 started with a new website that was so poorly designed that we actually lost ground for the first time in twenty-two years! Sorry about that, folks, but we spent...
Updates from the Field 2014
There were a lot of ups and downs this past year, as coffee price fluctuations and the Roya (fungal rust) epidemic hit our partners hard, especially throughout the Americas. Fortunately,...
Timor Update: Health, Education and Quality Coffee
Several years ago we worked with Cooperative Café Timor to create the first Direct Trade relationship in Timor, with the village of Atsabe. While everyone else, from Starbux to Equal...
Return to Sumatra
A wise old woman (ex-Mother-In-Law, actually!) once counseled me: “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” That’s true enough regarding most corporate claims of sustainability,...
We Receive MLK Day Honors!
We are very humbled and happy to have been recognized on Martin Luther King Day for our commitment to social justice and Peace. In a ceremony in Orange, we were...
Year in Review 2013
Deeper and deeper we go! Looking back over 2013, I can't believe how deeply we went into our work in the coffeelands. Between me, Michael, Vic, Heather and a slew...
Dean Receives Nobel Prize for Business!
Last week the Business for Peace Foundation, based in Oslo, Norway, announced its 2013 Business for Peace Honorees. Eighty nominations from fifty countries, five Honorees and Dean was the only...
The Unseen Women of Coffee
Michael and I are headed to Nicaragua tomorrow to work on our newest project there, "The Unseen Women of Coffee". This is one of the most leading edge social justice...
Forging New Partnerships in El Salvador and Nicaragua
Since I started working at Dean’s Beans, I’ve often reflected on a question: how can we have the greatest positive impact on the lives of farmers? One idea is to...