Book Club Discussion – Coffee and Community

Description

In Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair Trade Markets, Sarah Lyon examines how the idea of Fair Trade coffee, with its associated ideas of alternative economic and social development, serves to connect consumers in the Global North with the small-scale producers in Guatemala. Throughout the book, she highlights the often contradictory processes of Fair Trade and global markets in both providing opportunities while also creating or reinforcing structures of inequality, while at the same time creating sometimes false images or perceptions of people on both sides of this relationship. For this book club discussion assignment, we ask that you identify a specific passage in the book that deals with a particular issue of the Fair Trade coffee process that resonates with you. This passage can be from any of the chapters and any of the topics (e.g. Fair Trade as an alternative model of economic and social development; the ideas of supporters or detractors; the ways in which Fair Trade impacts local Maya social structure or relationships, etc.). Then explain why this passage resonates with you and how it influences your opinion of Fair Trade as a movement for economic and social development or justice. Please make sure to cite the page that you take the quote from in the book. (25 points) Next, please describe how you perceive your own purchasing and consumption habits and how it may reflect the ideas of the global economy discussed in the book. Do you consider issues of organic production or Fair Trade when you purchase your coffee or other food/beverage items? Do you think that movements such as Fair Trade, and individual consumers in the US, can make a difference in low- to middle-income countries like Guatemala? Has this book changed your opinion about Fair Trade or consumption habits in the US? What other options might there be for more sustainable and systematic economic and social reform? (25 points)