Arriv­ing back at my desk on Tuesday after the SCAA Annual con­fer­ence, I began the process of men­tally dis­sem­bling all the infor­ma­tion gath­ered through the Symposium and the reg­u­lar con­fer­ence. Here is a par­tial list of those moments that best show the high­est qual­i­ties of the Specialty Coffee industry.

Rick Peyser. Is it pos­si­ble to say too much in praise of Rick. He is our res­i­dent saint in cof­fee. For years he has preached, often in the wilder­ness, about Los Meses Flacos, the thin months. I think I first heard about this from Rick about 5 years ago, and he has writ­ten about it sev­eral times in CoffeeTalk. For those who do not know what this is about, let me explain. The thin months are the period between the end of the har­vest and the begin­ning of next years har­vest when a farmer must sup­port all his family’s and farm’s needs just on what was earned through the last cof­fee har­vest. In a recent sur­vey across Central America, fully 2/3’s of small hold­ing farm­ers said that they were unable to main­tain a nor­mal diet for their fam­i­lies through the thin months. This con­di­tion is so preva­lent that Los Meses Flacos is well known and widely accepted through out cof­fee grow­ing regions as a gen­eral con­di­tion of life.

Now the mes­sage is gain­ing momen­tum in the cof­fee con­sum­ing coun­tries. At the SCAA Rick Peyser, along with the Coffee Trust pre­sented a film about Los Meses Flacos called “After the Harvest” nar­rated by of all peo­ple, Susan Sarandon. It is a mas­ter­piece of visual and emo­tional doc­u­men­tary that bring forth this cru­cial issue with absolute clar­ity. If you care about cof­fee, you must see this film. Rick Peyser, Green Mountain Coffee, The Coffee Trust, and all those involved in the mak­ing of this film are to be con­grat­u­lated. We are in their debt.

Grounds for Health. GFH cel­e­brated its 15^th anniver­sary at the SCAA con­fer­ence and what a mag­nif­i­cent achieve­ment. Grounds for Health is ded­i­cated to end­ing the scourge of cer­vi­cal can­cer in devel­op­ing coun­tries. Cervical can­cer is the lead­ing cause of death by nat­ural causes of women of child bear­ing age in the cof­fee­lands. Although rarely lethal in devel­oped coun­tries, for a vari­ety of rea­sons hun­dreds of thou­sands of women die from cer­vi­cal can­cer every year around the world. What is extra­or­di­nary is that the dis­ease is com­pletely pre­ventable and treat­able if dis­cov­ered early. For about 25¢ a kit, the dis­ease can be diag­nosed in a sin­gle visit and then, if a woman is found with can­cer, for a bit more the treat­ment can be per­formed the same day. Everyday, Grounds for Health is sav­ing women’s lives, literally.

This year, Grounds for Health was awarded the SCAA Sustainability Award for their work. A very big achieve­ment. GFH’s big spon­sor is Green Mountain Coffee – again, as well as Royal Coffee, Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee, and ECOM. CoffeeTalk too is proud to be a (lesser) spon­sor and Kerri sits on their Board.

The International Women in Coffee Alliance. The IWCA expe­ri­enced its break­out moment at the SCAA this year. Dedicated to devel­op­ing chap­ters in cof­fee grow­ing coun­tries through which cof­fee women in con­sum­ing coun­tries and pro­duc­ing coun­tries can build strong rela­tion­ships, sup­port each other, and train in bet­ter busi­ness and agri­cul­tural prac­tices to develop qual­ity and higher value. The IWCA signed char­ters with two new chap­ters at the SCAA this year – the Dominican Republic and Burundi, raised thou­sands of dol­lars to fur­ther sup­port pro­grams with a donor appre­ci­a­tion din­ner as well as the now-traditional IWCA break­fast, and secured fund­ing for schol­ar­ships to allow women from ori­gin to attend the sec­ond IWCA International Conference in El Salvador to be held later this year.

With the addi­tion of the Dominican Republic and Burundi, the num­ber of coun­tries with Women in Coffee Chapters rises to seven, with another twelve wait­ing in the wings to ful­fill the require­ments to become chap­ters and join those groups already enjoy­ing the ben­e­fits of the IWCA. CoffeeTalk is proud to also be a spon­sor of the IWCA and Kerri sits on their board as well.

These are just a few of the great moments at the SCAA. We truly have a great asso­ci­a­tion and indus­try. Thank you.
Cheers,