Fair trade slippages and Vietnam gaps: the ideological fantasies of fair trade coffee

Fair trade coffee sales have boomed since the late 1980s, making it one of the most recognised forms of ‘ethical consumerism’ in the world. Around the same time exports of lower quality coffee beans from Vietnam also boomed, launching Vietnam from an insignificant coffee exporter to the world’s second largest with historically unprecedented speed. These disparate projects have had significant impacts on thousands of farmers – with Vietnam’s new class of coffee producers representing three and a half times the number of coffee families certified by fair trade. Northern actors, however, have given far more public and positive attention to fair trade. This article will argue that this difference does not stem from a strictly objective appraisal of the relative merits and shortcomings of each project, but from the compatibility of fair trade with ‘free trade’ and its emotionally charged ideological fantasies. This includes unconscious beliefs and desires around individualism, voluntarism, democracy and the affirmation of the exaggerated power of Northern consumers – as opposed to the Southern agency and complicated collective action implied by Vietnamese coffee statecraft.     

样品成份对“咖啡环”法DNA检测的影响

目的调查样品中常见成份对"咖啡环"法DNA检测的影响。方法将含有不同浓度SDS、Na Cl等的DNA-EB滴加到载玻片上,室温自然蒸发,用凝胶成像系统观察荧光沉积形貌(Deposition Pattern,DP)、计算积分光密度(Integrated Optical Density,IOD),分析量效关系。结果低浓度非DNA成份存在时,DP仍以环状沉积为主,但有年轮环、放射纹等成份特异性细微差异。浓度高时,DP因成份而异,可为环+散在光点型(Na Cl)、中央光斑+弱小环型(SDS)、同心或年轮状多环型(Triton X-100)、环+斑点型(H^+)等。非DNA成份对DNA含量估计有不同程度影响,但估计值多数在0.5~2倍以内。结论样品成份对DNA的DP和IOD均有影响,但不影响DNA含量的粗略估计,且能提供样品纯度和残留物信息。     

Elite-led development and Mexico’s independent coffee organisations in the wake of the rust epidemic

Abstract

Between 2012 and 2016 a virulent strain of coffee rust reduced Mexican yields by more than 50%, and it is still devastating production. The government has responded by replacing traditional arabica plants vulnerable to the pathogen with resistant, high-yielding varieties to recover the sector and encourage long-term adaptation to a disease that cannot be eradicated. However, this contribution will attempt to show that the intractable nature of the epidemic and the biological characteristics of resistant varieties threaten the survival of independent coffee organisations and their agroecological shade coffee systems. With little or no possibility of recovering production without the use of resistant plants, the alternative production and marketing models that these organisations have constructed over the past three decades face unprecedented challenges.     

Coffee Growing in a Tea Town

正AHEAD of his visit to Belgium in late March,2014,Chinese President Xi Jinping published an article in the local newspaper Le Soir,titled"Friendship and Cooperation Bring Better Life to Both China and Europe."It recounted the story of a young Belgian who has taught Chinese farmers how to grow high-quality coffee.His name is Wouter De Smet.     

Africa-Style Small Town

正Designed to promote African culture and art,Africa-style Small Town exhibits Tanzanian Makonde sculptures,Zambian copperplate etching and masks from Malawi,amongst others.Facilities:a studio,conference room,exhibition space,a coffee shop and exhibit zone for imported African products Address:Songzhuang Xiaopu Artist Village,Tongzhou District,Beijing E-mail:dongqixin23@gmail.com     

Struggles for autonomy from and within the market of southeast Mexico's small coffee producers

This contribution examines the historically shifting reproduction strategies of southeast Mexico's small coffee producers through the lens of autonomy. It argues that producers attempt to create and occupy spaces of relative autonomy from commodity and labour markets while also struggling to exert a degree of control over their commodity market integration – termed here ‘autonomy within the market’. Recent developments in Mexico's coffee sector – falling real prices for certified coffee, an emerging quality programme led by transnational export firms, and devastating crop disease – are transforming coffee growing regions, threatening producer livelihoods and driving diverse reconfigurations of autonomous struggles.     

Land Acquisition,Investment, and Development in the Lao Coffee Sector: Successes and Failures

ABSTRACT

Despite the increasing acknowledgment of scholars and practitioners that many large-scale agricultural land acquisitions in developing countries fail or never materialize, empirical evidence about how and why they fail to date is still scarce. Too often, land deals are portrayed as straightforward investments and their success is taken for granted. Looking at the coffee sector in Laos, the authors of this article explore dimensions of the land grab debate that have not yet been sufficiently examined. Coffee concessionaires in southern Laos often fail to use all of the land granted them and fail to produce high yields on the land they do use. Thus, the authors challenge the often-assumed superiority and effectiveness of large-scale versus small-scale production, specifically the argument that they modernize agricultural production and optimize land use. They argue that examining failed investments is as important as studying successful ones for understanding the implications of the land grabbing phenomenon for social, economic, and environmental outcomes. Knowledge about the scale of “failed land deals” provides important motivation for national governments to close the gap between intentions and actual outcomes. This article engages with the current debate on quality of investment and challenges the approach of employing land concessions as a vehicle for economic development in the Lao coffee sector and in other sectors and countries.     

Living in the World of Online Shopping

正In a span of less than three months, I’ve amassed a fairly impressive portfolio of things I’ve purchased online. Going from a complete newb on the Chinese Internet to an online shopping maven, I’ve bought things ranging from clothes, cellphone cases, wine, ribbons, a humidifier, stickers, coffee filters, pans,butter, sugar, facial wash, film, an air purifier…the list goes on.     

Africa-Style Small Town

正Designed to promote African culture and art,Africa-style Small Town exhibits Tanzanian Makonde sculptures,Zambian copperplate etching and masks from Malawi,amongst others.Facilities:a studio,conference room,exhibition space,a coffee shop and exhibit zone for imported African products Address:Songzhuang Xiaopu Artist Village,Tongzhou District,Beijing