A cup of coffee can leave a bitter after-taste

LAUREN SILLER
Lauren Siller of Remsenburg is a freshman at Davidson College.

January 17, 2005

Coffee is typically considered a thing of pleasure, surely not a true necessity in anyone's life. Yet that cup of java comes from a long and complicated process, exploiting many along the way.

I recently returned from a trip to Nicaragua. The goal of my travels was to better understand the lives of those who produce coffee and the Fair Trade Federation's aspiration of improving those lives. As the world becomes smaller, globalization makes it more difficult for small, family-run farms to compete with large plantations. It is standard for small coffee producers to conclude the year having made no profits, and at times, in debt.

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