Haiti's Coffee Paradox

Coffee came to the Americas with European colonization, and like most other colonial agricultural enterprises, coffee plantations were a grueling, dirty business. In Haiti, they were run by slaves.

So it's ironic that coffee would later become something of a savior crop for Haitian farmers. In the late 1990s, backed by USAID, Haitian coffee growers began growing a variety called Haitian Bleu. It was fair-trade certified, which allowed farmers to earn a living wage.

What's more, first-rate roasters in the United States thought it was delicious.

But it's hard to sustain a happy narrative within the political chaos and grinding poverty of Haiti, and Haitian Bleu was no exception.

Could it come back, though? As many of Change.org's writers have said, in one way or another, the earthquake has called attention to the downside of urbanization and the abandonment of sustainable agriculture.

Some of the U.S.'s coffee nobility are hoping that, as Haitains move back into the countryside — because Port-au-Prince is rubble — they may be able to seed a new coffee success story.

Paul Katzeff of NorCal's Thanksgiving Coffee Company observed, "Coffee rarely brings economic and social justice. But it can."

For the time being, Heritage Coffee Company is donating $7 to earthquake relief efforts for each bag of Haitian coffee it sells.

Photo credit: MarkSweep