Preface

There are many stories about Coffee, how it was discovered, cultivated and distributed, how it has fostered revolutions in art and philosophy, and fomented revolutions in politics, economics and trade, how it has become one of the most highly valued and heavily traded commodities in human history, and how millions of people have come to rely on it for everything from their morning motivation to their nighttime inspiration, while millions of others depend on it for their income and livelihood. There is a lot to know about coffee.

Despite all the ink and pixels that have been spilled over humans’ favorite psychoactive drug, there is at least one coffee story that, as far as I can tell, has yet to be told, at least, not explicitly. It sits there, mostly in plain sight (though some of the earliest bits require a fair bit of tenacity to dislodge from their cocoons, comfortably ensconced in the deep recesses of Academia), but you wouldn’t necessarily see it unless you knew what it was, where to find it, and were looking for it specifically.

As it so happens, I was looking for it, or at least one thread of it, and as soon as I started tugging at it, all the whole cloth came spilling out like a herd of goats released from an undersized pen. Having unearthed this gem, I can’t unsee it, and now feel compelled to share it with you. I think it’s an important story, one that may have ramifications for global trade, climate change and even the relationship we have to self-awareness itself. Yet even with all of that weighty gravitas, I feel that, like a fine Ethiopian Sidamo, this story will have the greatest impact when crafted as a light roast, so I’ll try my best to keep it short, bright and light, and let the high notes cut through the murk. 

And, while I am an avid coffee enthusiast, and have finely honed my off-grid espresso craft over the past 20 years, I am nonetheless not a coffee professional and have no connections to or involvement with the worldwide coffee industry, other than as a grateful consumer. The biases and opinions expressed herein are wholly my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the many authors and researchers upon whose work I have drawn. I present this work as a humble addition to our understanding of coffee, as neither an indictment nor an acquittal of the industry, flawed though it may be.

I believe it is no secret amongst coffee professionals that their industry faces multiple existential threats. Current climate change projections indicate 49% loss of climate compatible land for cultivation of c. arabica by 2050. Historically poor agronomy has caused further degradation to soil, water and livelihoods. Coupled with rising demand, this has created the need for increasingly complex and prohibitively expensive inputs to optimize yield, while the ability of farmers to sustain themselves continues to decline, causing many to abandon their efforts. Fundamental systemic changes across the entire coffee value chain will be required to sustain viability of the industry

Given that the performance-driven, capitalist culture that is killing off both our ability to live on this planet and our ability to grow coffee at all relies heavily on our collective dependence on caffeine, we might do well to reconsider this relationship. As it turns out, one potent solution to address these issues has lain largely undiscovered within coffee itself, which, when fostered and nurtured, has the potential to transform not only our relationship to coffee, but to the essential self the lies at the heart of our being, thence to each other, and ultimately to our world.

Learn about how coffee saves the world by navigating through the chapter links.

Enjoy!