Thought this film might be of interest -
www.blackgoldmovie.com - the screenings are pretty thin on the ground but if there is one near you I highly recommend going to see it. As the tag line goes I am sure you will wake up and smell the coffee.
I saw it for the first time about 6 months ago at a film festival, and going again to a local screening in London this week.
In summary the documentary highlights how multinational coffee companies now rule and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.
However, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields. This is particularly evident in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. The film follows Tadesse Meskela on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As farmers harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.
Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey, the enormous power of the multinational companies that dominate the coffee trade becomes apparent.
This is probably why 60% of my loans are to those related to agriculture - not only do farmers have to contend with the weather...
