Coffee
(16 April 2004: this draws upon materials I've been collecting for a couple of years, linked via coffeelog and vade mecum)
Basic datums:
- After oil, coffee is the most traded commodity (Caffeine FAQ: "Coffee is the second most valuable legal item of international trade in the world [after oil]", and "the largest food import to the United States")
- Coffee is the most valuable agricultural commodity ever in world history, sez Ron...
- Coffee is a drug. And nothing but. (see Caffeine FAQ for amounts in various soft drinks)
- Coffee is a model for food production systems --though other commodities diverge significantly in great and small
- Coffee is a source of wealth, and of poverty
Every coffee bean comes from a plant --and was probably hand-picked. Each one connects its consumer to its producer, and to the chain in between.
One way to model and track this linkage is by monetizing it --but it's important to not 'privilege' monetization as the way to comprehend the architectonic of coffee.
This cup came from this pound which came from this bag which was in this container... Eachj of the steps from plant to cup is a story, a drama, an arena --with actors, forces, branching paths, patterns in space and time (chronotopes). THere are documents attached to/about each of those steps. How do we (1) find, (2) manage, (3) assimilate them?