Javatrekker's Journal: Our Blog
Frankenbeans - Here Comes GMO Coffee!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the café; just as organics, shade-grown and Fair Trade seemed to be making sense in the weird world of...
Indigenous Coffee Farmers Self-Help Efforts in Oaxaca, Mexico
In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, indigenous coffee farmers have organized to improve their crops and better their lives. In response to the severe land and market crises of the...
Using Coffee to Preserve Rainforests
Most coffee drinkers are aware of the massive, unrelenting destruction of temperate and tropical rainforests around the world to satisfy our need for everything from cheap beef to paneling for...
The Heart of the Pine Ridge Occupation
Pine Ridge, Ogala Lakota Reservation... On January 16, 2000, the Grassroots Oyate, traditional Lakota tribal members led by their Elders, took peaceful control of the administrative offices of the Oglala...
Who Benefits from Hurricane Relief?
Esteli, Nicaragua... Like all of you, we were moved deeply by the recent tragedy of Hurricane Mitch, as the nightly news showed the massive destruction it caused throughout Central America....
Fighting Big Oil in the Amazon
The Secoya are indigenous to the Amazon rainforest. In Ecuador, they live in a rapidly changing region along the Aguarico River. I am writing these notes on a public bus...
Ingrid Washinawatok - A Personal Memorial
On February 25, 1999, my friend Ingrid Washinawatok and her companions Lahe'ena'e Gay and Terence Freitas, were taken hostage by armed, masked men as they left the U'wa territory in...
Did Nazi's Grow your Coffee?
It was toward the end of the rainy season of 1949 that my employers sent me to investigate some business in southern Brazil. I was commissioned by Hills Brothers, Folgers,...
Cooperatives Mean Self-Reliance for Coffee Farmers
When you buy Dean's Beans® organic coffees you are directly participating in the strengthening of the cooperative movement not only here, but around the world as well. Most of the...