Coffee Sustainability
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“Coffee Quality” by Michael Sivetz
Coffee awareness has a lot to do with knowing the corporate coffee landscape and its history, and so to help complete that history and in memory of a true “coffee great” here is a collection of select pages from my own personal copy of “Coffee Quality” (1987) by the legendary coffee whistleblower, Michael Sivetz:
Michael Sivetz is known as the original “coffee expert”. As a chemical engineer, he published what is referred to as the “Coffee Bible” (called “Coffee & Technology” 1979) in which he was the first to break down the molecular composition of the coffee bean; roasted and green.
Yet you won’t find his name in many coffee histories, (save for the few companies that pay tribute to him for inventing fluid bed roasting technology, like this one) because he became a whistleblower after that. You see, he worked for some of the largest and now oldest coffee companies in the world during the early coffee commodity boom (1950s-60s), including Folgers, General Foods, and Kraft (then R&D).
Being and early insider, he became wise to some exploitative practices in coffee and refused to keep his mouth shut. Openly voicing to his colleagues his disapproval of certain of their practices, which he argued masked real coffee quality from the consumer and kept farmers in a cycle of poverty.
He was starting to have regrets about the work he did for the big corporations, much like the inventor of the pod machine eventually came out to publicly admit that he regretted his invention due to the environmental catastrophe that pods created.
Over time Sivetz became such a hassle for his profit-driven colleagues that eventually the industry stopped employing him to consult them. He was swept under the rug and some even tried to discredit him and make him out to be an eccentric.
The isolation caused Sivetz to self-publish the book “Coffee Quality” in which he “spilled the beans” on everything he knew and disapproved of.
“Coffee Quality” (1987) is arguably the most controversial coffee book ever written because it provides an insider, whistleblower perspective from the early days of coffee conglomeration. It is a primary source showing how early corporate greed created some of the conditions that led to the intensified social and environmental problems we have in coffee today.
For a more detailed history of Michael Sivetz, see this article by Merchants of Green Coffee.
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The Power to Change (Coffee) is in Us All
Coffee is a choice we share, every morning, which means we also have the power to choose to do something about its problems. Using that power is also a choice, although I have to admit, it’s not an easy one in today’s climate where, amoung other issues, the consumption of coffee leads directly to deforestation.
16,000 hectares of forest are lost each year just to dry the green coffee before it’s shipped. It is unacceptable that forest wood piles like the one above are being used in Central America to produce our coffee. 
Clearing room for growing more coffee, in order to keep up with demand, is also replacing the fractions of forest that remain intact. Let’s face it, coffee is an extractive industry.
Adding to this, the world coffee market, regardless of any good intentions is widely skewed and divided, which plays a big part in the slow pace of much-needed social, environmental and economic change. Because, well, money rules.
The weight of the negative information, without there being clear solutions, can easily lead coffee lovers to feel helpless. Feeling particularly powerless to the situation myself recently, I stumbled across the writing of Anna Mercury, particularly her short essay “How to Stand While the World Falls Down: Advice for transmuting a disaster”, and it immediately inspired me to get back on the horse and share some of its practical wisdom.
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Sustainable Coffee Project Update #1
This is my very first personal update as part of the development team for a sustainable coffee program. The project (now called, Global Coffee Solution) includes the creation of the Yoro Biological Corridor. What makes it truly special is the end goal: to protect, regrow and link up threatened forests in cooperation with smallholder coffee farmers.
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Eigensinn Farm’s Fertile Ground for Regenerative Coffee
Summary: A personal account of my experience spreading awareness about Cafe Solar® regenerative coffee at Chef Michael Stadtländer's annual Wild Leek and Maple Syrup Festival. I wrote this story on my own to promote this coffee program and provide an insider view of an Eigensinn farm event, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in a unique, top-quality, farm-to-table food experience.Experiencing an Eigensinn Farm event is like coming home to a family meal; One is left with that warm, fuzzy feeling along with a side of the tough, yet necessary conversation. It’s a safe space for expensive tech. I lost my phone in the vast sea of people at this year’s Wild Leak and Maple Syrup Festival and suffered zero heart rate increase imagining someone pocketing it. No one here cares about phones. Plus, all the chefs and attendees, including the 100 healthcare workers invited this year (a show of pandemic goodwill), are a part of this “food family”. I found my phone within 30 minutes of eating and talking. Someone had handed it over to Chef Michael Stadtländer; The man of the hour.
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Earth Day (Self) Check-In
Summary: My personal 'lifestyle list' for a cooler planet (a.k.a. low footprint living) ...Since we’re living in what could be called the ‘Age of Climate Crisis’, this outdated Jurassic notion ‘Earth Day’ as awareness must evolve … past the hashtag and green marketing opportunities, to putting that awareness into practice. And since our daily habits (365 days of the year) are a reflection of how we treat mama earth, I’m taking today to share my personal ‘lifestyle list’ for a cooler planet. This list is tailored towards actions that people can internalize in their daily lives … that are enriching and also don’t take a lot of extra time.
It’s About Checking In With How We Check Out
In our so-called developed world, we’re caught in what seems like an endless cycle of working, buying, using, and throwing stuff away. So one of the most effective means for the average person to have agency and create change in society is through their lifestyle decisions and consuming habits; i.e. what they buy, companies they support, and all the ‘boring’ things they do each and every day. (Not through direct tree-planting and tree-bathing, although this can cultivate the right mindset).
