Jacket and Tie

A retail pound of coffee in 1980 was around $3. Today we pay around $6 for a pound and adjusted for inflation, retail coffee prices have fallen 10 to 20% in the past 25 years. Farmers producing coffee are getting a small fraction of the retail price. The trend in past years has been to organic growing practices and fair trade for growers to mitigate this disparity and improve coffee quality. During this period global trade had boomed and new coffee growers have entered the market from developing Asian markets forcing price competition and keeping improvements in sustainability at bay. Growers in new markets have no regard for environmental concerns and live in such poverty any price is acceptable. Coffee importers and traders have increased their profits over the years at a steady rate of return by exploiting emerging market poverty. Profit is paramount and all other concerns are secondary and subject to publicity. Larger and larger corporations form conglomerates or cooperate in back-room deals to play the growers off the consumers to maintain their supply chain and thus control of profits from the coffee trade. Globalism is fast becoming one large controlling company dictating the markets and supply and demand forces are becoming irrelevant. This is happening across all sectors and markets, domestic and foreign and is why real wages have declined worldwide when adjusted for inflation while corporations have continued with steady growth. So where is coffee with the current economic crisis and can we expect to have our morning fix in the future? Corporations will continue their control of the market in the face of new challenges. Climate change is lowering yields in traditional growing areas. The pace of change is making it hard to keep production levels up as new more suitable areas have to be cleared and planted. Ideas of sustainability and environmental responsibility have been shelved as governments are trapped in their own budgets and seeking desperate means for real tangible wealth. Today world shipping has declined because lines of credit for trade are untrustworthy however; in the near future world shipping will suffer from devastating energy costs raising coffee prices. Finally, an increased rate of domestic inflation to cover all the bailouts will reduce your purchasing power; all tolled coffee prices will rise dramatically. A good cup of coffee will be equated with a fine glass of wine and gone will be the days of the commune office coffee pot. The idea that Juan Valdez will come to your home with a fresh brew in the morning will be more fleeting than your 401k. Link This drive-thru is jacket and tie only….