News & Events
The Good Shopper
Oprah Magazine, September 2006
Before 2001 the coffee-growing families of Xanica, a tiny village in Mexico's Oaxaca State, had no electricity, no place to buy groceries, no money for girls' education. "These people lived in dirt poverty, under the thumb of a large plantation owner," says Matt Warning, PhD, an economist at the University of Puget Sound who has visited several times for research.
'Transparent' coffee brings a new choice
The News Tribune, August 23rd, 2007
Tough choices confront today’s socially aware, caffeine-addicted coffeehouse consumer.There’s fair-trade coffee, commercial coffee, organic coffee and "shade grown" coffee. Brazilian coffee, Mexican coffee, Jamaican coffee, Ugandan coffee.
Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers to Hold Annual Conference in Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Press Advisory
Growers, Roasters and Special Guests Will Be Largest International Gathering to focus on Climate Change and Coffee Production
Sustainable Harvest Ranked Among Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing Companies In America
Press Advisory
Sustainable Harvest Top-Ranked Coffee Company in Oregon, Second Nationally.
Coffee Importer Goes Habitat-Friendly
Portland Tribune, July 2007
Habitat loss is one of the most serious threats to the chimpanzees that famous primatologist Jane Goodall has studied for more than 40 years.
In Transition, Part II: New Co-ops Build Hope for Mexico's Coffee Farmers
Fresh Cup Magazine, May 2007
In the March issue, we brought you the story of the La Trinidad co-op in Oaxaca, Mexico. Five years ago, these coffee farmers broke away from a larger co-op in order to survive in the changing global market, keeping their high-altitude crops from being mixed with lower-grown coffees to earn a more livable wage. The group’s success is a model that others in the region are looking to duplicate.
Bean Town
Willamette Week, October 2006
They are everywhere. Walk Portland's streets, and it seems they line every block, monopolize every choice street corner.
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Women in Coffee: Leadership Trends at Origin
Fresh Cup Magazine, June 2006
Christina Gonzales walks down the grassy path that runs like a vein through her family’s coffee farm, El Valle, in the highlands of Guatemala. Surrounded by three volcanoes and blessed with rich soil, the Antigua region is renowned as one of the most ideal coffee-growing regions on Earth. The coffee plantation is generations old, passed down to Gonzales from her grandmother and mother at a volatile time in Guatemala’s history of expropriation of lands and civil war. Despite hardships, Gonzales centers her life on producing some of the area’s best coffee.
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Assuring Sustainability: Relationship Coffee
Fresh Cup Magazine, June 2006
Before long, the term Relationship Coffee will need no explanation. The progressive business model is more recognized than ever for best-business practices that cultivate strong ties between producers and buyers. With an emphasis on quality control training; full transparency of all business, price and quality information; traceability of coffee from the cooperative to the cup; and pre-trade financing, Relationship Coffee is becoming the standard for sustainability and growth of specialty coffee.
The Coffee Widows
Time Magazine, September 2005
Rwanda is best known for the 1994 genocide in which Hutu tribesmen killed 800,000 of their Tutsi rivals. Coffee, one of the country's biggest exports, was also a casualty of that massacre. For Michigan State University professor Dan Clay, a specialist in Third World agricultural development, rebuilding Rwanda's coffee industry proved a double-edged challenge: how to get the industry on its feet yet avoid the commodity trap that dooms many farmers to subsistence living in a world where coffee is abundant.
The Coffee Maverick
Delicious Living
At a remote coffee farm in the lush highlands of Guatemala, a screen door creaks open as David Griswold steps into a small, rugged building nestled under a canopy of grevillea trees. Inside is a carefully assembled circle of chairs occupied by several members of a coffee-farming cooperative eager to meet the 41-year-old American importer. Fluent in Spanish, Griswold exchanges pleasantries with the men as they all take a seat, but before long, the discussion shifts to business. Griswold interviews the farmers to get a sense of whether their coffee might meet his expectations; they talk about coffee quality, growing practices, cooperative politics, and price. He also inquires about their visions, ideas, and needs.
