Growing coffee: It's black, no sugar

The business is booming, but farmers struggle nonetheless

By Jan McGirk
SPECIAL TO MSNBC

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico — Never has coffee as a commodity been cheaper than it is today, earning huge profits for the companies that roast and market the beans. And never have the farmers who grow the crop been so poor. While more than 400 billion cups of coffee are sipped and savored every year - more than any other beverage except water - little of the profit trickles down to the farmers.

WHAT YOU PAY at your local Starbucks for a double latte is more than a typical coffee picker earns in a day. Most of the world’s coffee is grown in Third World nations in Latin America, Asia and Africa. On small plantations, most pickers earn under $2 a day.
Today, coffee ranks just behind petroleum as the world’s second-most traded legal commodity, worth double the value of tea and cocoa combined.

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