Just Coffee

The Gardeners of Eden East Timor Seed Project is calling for support for its 2009 program. You can help by sending seeds or making donations. With global food stockpiling and rising prices, Timorese families need to renovate their traditional farming systems organically and address the annual hunger and nutrition gaps, as well as invest carefully in other crops (forestry and small-commercial farming systems) sufficient to support trading. To do this, they need seeds, tools, supplies, and training.

The Gardeners of Eden East Timor Seed Project continues to have successes with groups who have received in small commercial quantities of seed at six locations in Ainaro. All locations report good germination rates and we have avoided distributing seeds of crops that people are unfamiliar with. There has not yet been direct contact with the groups in Ainaro that were contacted through the Ministry of Agriculture but we hope that there will be in the near future; Such are the difficulties of maintaining regular communications with groups in the mountains. Carrots have all performed exceptionally well, as have silverbeet, some of the open hearted lettuce varieties, rocket, zucchini (summer and winter squash) and the more traditional crops of the area like cabbages and kale. In the next phase of the project we would like to start to concentrate on groups that are ready to move on from simple seed saving to seed multiplication. There are many groups that want seeds and not presently enough seed to go round.

Last year Kileen Cleberg, owner of the Red Rooster Coffee House in Aberdeen, SD came along on the Just Coffee delegation to Guatemala. And, as she said last night, this trip changed her life.

Since that time Kileen and her brother Dan, who together own the Red Rooster, have sold more and more of Santa Anita's Guatemalan coffee as well as given presentations and shared stories and experiences to educate those in their community about the challenges and realities of fair trade.

Just Coffee customer, Jeff Hofer, spent a month with Santa Anita community in Guatemala in July 2005 and has since been back in November 2007. I hope you enjoy seeing the lovely photos that he took during his visit there:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/withonef/sets/72157594388101155/

About Just Coffee and his time in Santa Anita, Jeff said, "They are wonderful community and my time there was quite a great experience...Its impact on me has been far-reaching and I am happy to have found a coop that sells their coffee strait from the finca." Thank you for sharing some of what you experienced through your photos, Jeff!

One Cup is a short documentary filmed in Timor-Leste in January 2006 by Scarab Studio & Mutiny Media of Australia. This film attempts to offer insight into the struggles of coffee farmers in one of the poorest countries in the world. José Ramos-Horta, then Prime Minister and now President of Timor-Leste, and Keryn Clark, OXFAM Program Director, are interviewed in the film.

One Cup illustrates the positive benefits of fair trade while giving the viewer a glimpse into the challenges of coffee farmers in this lovely island nation. Unfortunately, the 29 minute long film does not delve into the actual reality of the fair trade system in Timor-Leste. Instead, One Cup chooses to focus an ideal fair trade system that so many of us hope to support while consuming products with that sweet little seal of certification that is supposed to guarantee us a product that is 'fair' to the farmer who grew it. The film is so generous to the current system of fair trade in Timor-Leste that at some points I even began to wonder who was actually behind its production. Although in my opinion One Cup does nothing to actually research or investigate the reality of fair trade in Timor-Leste, which is not nearly as nice as it may appear on the surface and from a distance, it is a lovely reminder of the ever increasing need for change in the way that we consume and trade across the globe.

How sad that now more than ever fair trade is becoming just more business as usual.

It is after 5am and I haven't slept a wink. I'm jet lagged and I am freaking out.

At 7pm on March 26th Just Coffee in collaboration with local NGO Fundasaun Hari'i Au Metan proudly presented "Black Gold", a documentary about fair trade coffee, at Motion restaurant in Dili, Timor-Leste. The free event was a major success with more than fifty people, both Timorese and foreigners, attending!

Motion. It is a restaurant, bar, lounge, nightclub, and theatre all in one. It employs ten people.

It serves as a regular music venue for arguably the best, but surely the most rockin', Timorese band in Dili, Galaxy, as well as a jam spot for local malaes with excellent musical skills. Some nights Motion transforms to the rhythms of salsa and swing as beginners and enthusiasts alike partake in dance classes; Other nights we are a dinner theatre.

Greetings!

I write today to inform you of the Just Coffee delegations that I will be leading this 2008 year. If you are interested in joining one of these upcoming delegations or would like to customize one specifically for your group, please contact me directly at: colleen (AT) justcoffee (DOT) net. Don't wait long though as some trips fill up quickly. Thank you.

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