The Coffee Continuum:
Corporations, Communities & Consequences
2008 Exploration Seminar in Costa Rica and Nicaragua

**THIS PROGRAM IS FULL AND NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS**

Program Director:  Max Savishinsky
Dates of Instruction: June 22 to July 18, 2008

Coffee is 2nd only to petroleum in world market value with the US consuming 1/5 of the world's annual production. A world crash in coffee prices, trade issues and environmental abuse have taken a severe toll on the welfare of farmers, animals and the land in developing countries, where most coffee is produced. This program will examine the continuum, contrasts and consequences of coffee production in and between two of the most important coffee countries, Costa Rica & the U.S. Students will also look at the new coffee boom in Nicaragua and the many contrasts between Nicaragua (the 2nd poorest nation in the hemisphere) and Costa Rica, one of the wealthiest and best-developed.

The program will travel extensively in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to explore coffee farming, processing, certification, marketing and exporting though visits to corporate coffee farms and small cooperatives. We will explore the commercial, social, environmental aspects of coffee production & trade, and talk with individuals and organizations at the forefront of efforts to improve the economic, social and environmental realities of those on the producing end of the coffee continuum.

• See course website to learn more about the program.
• Visit the Coffee Exploration Seminar Group on Facebook for more info and photos.

Students will learn the art of coffee "cupping" - the process professionals use to assess the many qualities of coffee beans, and come to understand where coffee comes from, where it ends up, and why. Students will study what makes good coffee good, the complex process of converting the sweet coffee fruit into a consumable coffee bean. Most importantly, you will look closely at how and at what expense coffee has come to be such a critical commodity both in world trade, local economies, and in the lives of millions of people who produce, consume and trade coffee around the globe.

We will also look back at coffee in the U.S. - specifically at Seattle as a critical world coffee hub - and reflect through personal interviews, discussions and journals on our own relationships to this commodity which is a fixture of contemporary life in the places we live and study. Throughout the program students will undertake field-based inquiry to answer to the core questions of this seminar:

• Where does coffee come from? How is it produced, why do we drink and pay so much for it?
• What do “organic”, “shade grown”, "direct trade," "single origin" and “fair trade” mean, and why should we care?
• How effectively do these production and trading practices protect farmers, consumers, wildlife and the earth, and to what extent do they promote sustainability?
• Why do so many coffee farmers live in poverty when Seattleites make good money through coffee jobs and investments, and pay three times for a cup what a farmer gets paid to grow a pound?
• What can we do – as coffee consumers, employees, investors – to make the system fair & sustainable?

This program includes: all in-country transportation in and between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, all housing, approx. 2 meals per day, numerous course site visits (farms, coops, businesses) and many extra-curricular field trips (rafting, rain forest, hot springs, volcanoes, lakes, waterfalls) and more.

Participants will earn 6 credits of SISLA 399 or CHID 472, Latin American Foreign Study (I&S), and can petition departments for other applicable credits.  Participants should check with their advisors to determine how these credits can count towards departmental requirements.

Program Director: Program Director Max Savishinsky directs the UW's departmental study abroad programs and the Exploration Seminar series at the UW. He has led numerous study abroad programs on a range of topics in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has special expertise on Costa Rica and the coffee industry, and is a fluent speaker of Spanish. For more information or to contact former program participants, please contact msavvy@u.washington.edu

Student Costs:
$ 2,750 Program fee
$ 200 IPE Fee
Additional costs include round trip travel to Costa Rica, health insurance and vaccines, some meals, and personal expenses.  The program will provide participants with all housing and on average two meals per day.

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