The dark story of poverty in your coffee cup

By TOM THOMPSON
GUEST COLUMNIST

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

My local Starbucks sells a small coffee for $1.50; a simple latte starts at $2.50. That seems like a lot for a drink whose origin is the humble pit of a berry from a shrub in Ethiopia. Then again, we've come to believe a good cup of coffee, or even better, a latte, can make a bad day better or help with a moment of contemplation.

However soothing its image, coffee is the second most valuable exported legal commodity on the planet (after oil). Literally millions of people depend on the coffee industry for their livelihood. For its consumers, coffee minimally delivers the largest jolt of the world's most widely taken psychoactive drug (caffeine). At various times coffee has been claimed to be an aphrodisiac, enema, nerve tonic and life-extender.

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