The coffee connection

Brewed in Louisville, harvested in Guatemala, fair-trade coffee has effect on farmers, environment

NAHUALA, GUATEMALA

Pascual Perechu threaded his way up a footpath shaded by banana and avocado trees, away from his mountain village dotted with rickety houses, pecking chickens, barefoot children and smoky cooking fires.

His sandals slapped the dirt as he walked to his daily destination — dozens of 8-foot-tall coffee trees scattered under a tropical forest canopy full of birds.

Perechu, a 54-year-old Mayan farmer, has spent a lifetime of long days tending, picking and hauling coffee from his tiny plot, ideal for its 3,500-foot elevation, shade and volcanic soil.

Coffee is big business globally, yet most of the small, isolated farmers growing more than half the world's coffee get, on average, just 4 to 8 cents from a $2 cup of retail coffee.

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