Diplomacy
October 2, 2004
Who says we don’t join international organizations?
2 Comments to Diplomacy
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Thank god the US is no longer an international pariah. Hopefully a Kerry administration will see us joining the world beverage community.
hiya j!
thanks for the link, altho’i think it may require a little more context. how you feel about the u.s.a. rejoining the i.c.o. depends on how your view of illegal immigration, the world bank, colin powell, and the war on drugs.
it’s important to remember that coffee is the world’s second most-traded commodity, after oil. we often tend to forget that in a certain sense the planet runs on coffee almost as much as it runs on oil, economically.
about 70 countries of the planet’s 192 grow coffee, and it’s estimated that more than 25 million families depend on the bean for their main income.
the past 4 years have seen a deep price depression in the coffee market. many famers have abandoned coffee; others are near bankruptcy.
it’s widely understood that this coffee crisis was sparked when the world bank intervened in the market to urge viet nam, which was historically not a coffee country, to begin growing coffee to generate currency to pay off its debts.
viet nam now floods the market with low-quality coffee, and this coffee depresses prices. further brazil also constantly expands its production to generate export earnings.
but before you say, ok, well, those bankrupt farmers and their coffee-picking workers should just move to the city, we have to look at what’s happening on the ground. particularly in colombia, ethiopia, and mexico.
farmers desperate to save their family land have done the economically rational thing and switched to growing illegal drugs, sometimes at their own behest, and at others, at gunpoint under duress from insurgent groups and cartels.
in colombia the switch has been to coca and opium poppies. of course these drugs end up on the streets of the united states.
in ethiopia, the switch is to the drug khat or qat, which is a favorite substance in yemen and somalia. we don’t have to talk about those places, right?
in mexico, some farmers are said to be switching to marijuana; former mexican coffee pickers have crossed the border illegally in large numbers, according to news reports over the last several years.
the united states has long been involved in drug interdiction in latin america, particularly colombia. thus the price depression in the coffee market has been a serious obstacle to this effort.
colin powell contemplated whether he would recommend that the u.s.a. re-join the i.c.o. his final favorable decision was largely based on a desire to prevent colombia from turning completely into a narco-republic.
the i.c.o. is a consortium of coffee-growing and coffee-consuming countries. the u.s.a. had been a member until 1989, then dropped out.
our rejoining the i.c.o. is a step towards stabilizing the market and supporting anti-drug and anti-illegal immigration efforts.
finally, this step will also help the average coffee drinker in the u.s.a.! now that we are again part of the i.c.o. we can participate more fully in discussions towards raising quality standards. bottom line: a better-tasting cup of joe!
it’s a good thing, albeit it does seem a tad abstruse at first, i admit.
happy coffee, f