Five years ago, we met Tadesse Meskela at a Specialty Coffee Association conference where he was searching for clients to purchase green coffee directly from the Oromia Coffee Union — a farmer collective that he manages. His efforts resulted in our coop, Cooperative Coffees, purchasing one of the first containers that was sold directly by farmers in Ethiopia. Since then, we have developed a strong working relationship with Tadesse and the Oromia cooperative. Their story is now chronicled in an award-winning documentary called Black Gold that is currently showing throughout the United States.

Multinational coffee companies now rule the supermarket shelves and dominate an industry that generates over $80 billion in revenue each year, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to help his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers lift themselves out of poverty. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world's coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.

To see where Black Gold is being shown, visit:
www.blackgoldmovie.com/screenings.php?id=5

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Café Campesino is proud to be one of Oromia's trading partners and able to offer Oromia's Fair Trade, organic wet-processed Sidamo and Yirgacheffe coffees and dry-processed/sun dried Harrar coffee.

Established in June of 1999, the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) is named after the Oromia region in Ethiopia. The men and women of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union — nearly 74,000 farmer members organized into 74 cooperatives — are the growers, processors and exporters of high quality, organic Arabica coffee. Sixty-five percent of the country's coffee production, which involves approximately 425,300 households, is from this region. The coffee in the Oromia region is shade grown and is bird friendly.

Read on...

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On October 25th Americus joined the fast-growing ranks of the state’s "Entrepreneur Friendly" communities, an official designation that means a community is strategically developing an environment that welcomes small business and entrepreneurs. Café Campesino was one of five local companies visited by the state’s review team during the full-day assessment...way to go Americus!

This Thursday, November 9th, from 11 am-12 pm, Bill and Tripp will speak with the members of Georgia Southwestern University’s (GSW) Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) at the school's Student Success Center. The program, titled "The Internationalization of South Georgia," is being produced by the GSW SIFE, an ongoing free enterprise educational and service program housed within GSW’s Center for Business & Economic Development in the School of Business Administration.

On Friday, November 10th, Bill will be in Atlanta at the Landmark Theaters Midtown Art Center to participate in the Atlanta premiere of the movie Black Gold and will field questions after the show.

Reminder: Café Campesino is a proud supporter of the Several Dancers Core/CORE Performance Company’s U.S. premiere of Corazón Abriendo (Heart Opening), which also premieres November 10-12 at the 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta. To learn more about Corazon Abriendo, please call 404-373-4154 or visit www.severaldancerscore.org.

On Saturday morning, November 11th, our very own Athens-based Stacey Johnson will be at one of Café Campesino’s newest customers — the Red Sky Café — in Buford, Georgia, to serve up samples of Café Campesino and talk Fair Trade.

And while Stacey is in Buford, Tripp will be hosting our good friends from the Southeast Regional Office of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) — Dorothy Grillo, director of the SE Regional Office, Simone Blanchard, CRS program officer, and their husbands Roy and Brett (respectively!) — for a tour of Café Campesino and strategy session. Café Campesino is proud to be part of the CRS Fair Trade Coffee program and looks forward to working with Dorothy and Simone to raise awareness about the program throughout the Southeast United States!

To round out the weekend flurry of activity, Bill & Tripp travel to Savannah on Sunday, November 12th to join our friends from the Sentient Bean at the Savannah premiere of Black Gold. Delicious Ethiopia coffee, roasted by Café Campesino, of course, will be available before and after the show and Tripp and Bill will lead a panel discussion after the film.

During the weekend of November 17-19, Bill and Geoffrey will travel to Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA, to join thousands of students, people of faith and human rights activists in attending the annual vigil at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). The School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) is a grassroots movement that works to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the SOA/WHINSEC and to change what many believe is the oppressive U.S. foreign policy that the SOA represents. This will be the eighth year that Café Campesino serves coffee from Fair Trade farmers in countries that are directly affected by those trained at the school in order to raise funds for SOA Watch.

Café Campesino will be joined by our friends from the Newman Catholic Center in Illinois, Koinonia Partners here in Americus and Mexico Solidarity Network, which is based in Chicago. To learn more about SOA Watch visit www.soaw.org.

Finally...SAVE THE DATE…on Friday, December 8th, Café Campesino will hold its annual open house at our roastery on Spring Street. We invite everyone who can to join us for this fun get together which will include unlimited fresh-brewed Café Campesino coffee (what a surprise, eh!), hors d'ouevres and refreshments, a bounty of great gift ideas and Americus' own premiere of Black Gold!

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In honor of this month's midterm elections:

"The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves."

— Plato

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• October 2006 The Power of 100: A Fair Trade Harvest, Corazón Abriendo: A Multimedia Event
• September 2006 For the Love of Big Yella, Many Paths to the Top by Café Campesino's Bill Harris
• August 2006 The Golden Rule of Fair Trade by Tripp Pomeroy, Café Campesino's General Manager
• July 2006 The Fair Tradin' Cross Road Blues by Bill Harris, Café Campesino President
• June 2006 2006 World Fair Trade Day - Americus Style, Building Community Right Here at Home by Bren Dubay, Director, Koinonia Farm
• May 2006 What Fair Trade Is All About, By Tripp Pomeroy, Ten Ways to Celebrate World Fair Trade Day
• April 2006 Bill's Spring Break Travels Part I by Bill Harris, Call to Action: World Fair Trade Day
• March 2006 Café Campesino Teams Up with Guayakí, On The Road With CRS in Nicaragua by Michael Sheridan, Call to Action: Global Exchange Reality Tours
• February 2006 True Love is Café Campesino, Café Campesino Honored at GA Sustainable Business Day, Call to Action: Bioneers
• December 2005 Celebrating a Great Fair Trade Year, Fair Trade Partner: Café Conciencia, Fair Trade Partner: No Sweat Apparel
• November 2005 Gearing Up For the Holiday Season, Café Campesino Community Caravan, Show Your Café Campesino Pride and Win!, Return of the Monarch Butterfly
• October 2005 Hurricane Stan Ravages Our Guatemalan Friends, Report From the Fair Trade Futures Conference, Customer Spotlight: Sobornost for the World Foundation's World Village Fair Trade Market, Fair Trade Partner: Maya Tech Learning Centers
• September 2005 Cooperative Coffees and Producers Meet in Guatamala by Tripp Pomeroy, Café Campesino's General ManagerSupport OXFAM - Support Fair Trade, Customer Spotlight: Rainbow Natural Grocery, Fair Trade Partner: A Different Approach
• August 2005 Producer Profile: Fondo Paez, Customer Spotlight: Apoteca, Fair Trade Partner: Pachamama, A World of Artisans
• July 2005 Harrar Joins Our Coffee Lineup, Producer Profile: Ethiopia's OCFCU, Fair Trade on the Home Front
• June 2005 Sumatra Update: June 2005 provided by Thomas Fricke, ForesTrade, National Fair Trade Conference, Fair Trade Partner: Three Frontiers Trading Co.
• May 2005 Producer Profile: ACMPASA Santa Anita, Top 10 Ways to Support Fair Trade, Customer Spotlight: Crimson Moon Café, Fair Trade Partner: Fair Trade Resource Network
• April 2005 An Eye-Opening Trip to Guatemala by Bill Harris, Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Coffee Program, Manna Grocery and Deli, La Esmeralda Stove Project
• March 2005 Insights From Our Guatemala Producer Partners by Tripp Pomeroy, Take Us To Your Coffeehouse!, Customer Spotlight: The Sentient Bean, Fair Trade Partner: Mexico Solidarity Network
• February 2005 Meeting Our Guatemala Partners Face to Face, Producer Profile: APECAFORM, Customer Spotlight: Mayflower Coffee Company, Fair Trade Partner: CoffeeTradeJustice.com
• January 2005 Tragedy's Wake: Update From Sumatra, Producer Profile: PPKGO Cooperative
• December 2004 Mexico: Notes From the Field, Customer Spotlight: Ten Thousand Villages, Fair Trade Partner: Cloudforest Initiatives
• November 2004 Conscious Consumption: A Personal Perspective, Customer Spotlight: Oyamel - Cocina Mexicana, Fair Trade Partner: Three Frontiers Trading Co.
• October 2004 A Mission...Not a Market: The 2004 Vote: Making it Work
• September 2004 Producer News: CECOCAFEN in the Off Season, Customer Spotlight: The Healthy Gourmet
• August 2004 Producer Profile: Cooperativa Café Timor, Fair Trade Friends: Marketplace of India
• July 2004 A Fair Trade Reality Check, Fair Trade Friends: Tribal Fiber, Coffee Lab International
• June 2004 The Promise of Fair Trade, Fair Trade Friend: Global Crafts
• May 2004 Fair Trade at the Carter Center, SCAA meeting.
• April 2004 Coffee and Community in Nicaragua, Fair Trade in Americus Makes the News!
• March 2004 Fair Trade chocolate, Rosetta's Kitchen
• February 2004 Bill's Return to Guatemala, Guayakí Rainforest
• January 2004 Espresso - What's the Buzz?
• December 2003 Fair Trade: Global Exchange's Fair Trade Challenge; Fellow Fair Traders: SERRV International
• November 2003 Fair Trade: More Than Just a Fair Price; Fellow Fair Traders: Lucuma Designs
• October 2003 Exploring the Coffee Regions
• September 2003 Cooperative Coffees Annual Meeting
• August 2003 Fair Trade Friends: Oxfam America; The Art (and Science) of Roasting Coffee
• July 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Sumatra
• June 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Guatemala; Gayo Mountain Adventure; Dr. Coffee - Cupping
• May 2003 Fair Trade Friends: United Students for Fair Trade; World Fair Trade Day
• April 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Ethiopia; Celebrating Earth Day with Fair Trade
• March 2003 Bill's Central American Adventures, Part 2; SWP Decaffeination
• February 2002 Bill's Central American Adventures, Part 1
• January 2003 My Life as a Bean
• December 2002 Exploring Our Origins: East Timor; Sustainable Development
• November 2002 New Website; Gift Baskets
• October 2002 Interview with roaster Lee Harris
• September 2002 ForesTrade Wins UN Sustainability Award; Exploring Our Origins: Sumatra's Gayo Cooperative
• August 2002 Producer News: Shade Grown; Fair Trade Friends: Atlanta Audubon
• July 2002 Exploring Our Origins: Colombia
• June 2002 Back Roads Journal: Cooperative Coffees and Café Campesino; Exploring Our Origins: Peru; Fair Trade Friends: Music of the Andes
• May 2002 Staff Notes: Cinco de Mayo; Producer News: Visit to Mut Viz; Back Roads Journal: SCAA Meeting
• April 2002 Back Roads Journal: Travels in Fair Trade; Customer Composting Tip