Fair Grounds Newsletter from Cafe Campesino

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Fair Trade is Springing Up All Over
Monthly Special: A Cafecito Story
Bill's Spring Break Travels Part I by Bill Harris
Community Caravan and Staff Notes
Call to Action: World Fair Trade Day
Show Your Café Campesino Pride and Win!
Quote of the Month
Past Issues of Fair Grounds

We’re like a flower about to bloom…the spring of Fair Trade is here! It’s been a long winter and all of us at Café Campesino are shaking off the chill and revving up for a busy April and a bright year ahead. In this issue of Fair Grounds, Bill writes about his recent travels in Guatemala. You’ll also find some resource information about the upcoming World Fair Trade Day, a complete list of our upcoming activities in Community Caravan (we’re exhausted already just reading about them!) and a new recipe. Grab a steaming mug of your favorite Café Campesino coffee and read on...

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Spring is in the air, and it’s warm enough to go outside, kick back with your favorite cup of Café Campesino, and do a little reading. This month, we have something special to offer — A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez. Order $50 or more from us and we’ll include a copy of this neat little coffee book for free!

Order $50 or more from us and we’ll include a copy of this neat little coffee book for free! (Be sure to enter promotional code ap06acs when prompted at check out.)

What’s this book about?
With lyric simplicity, Julia Alvarez tells the complex tale of a social beverage that bridges nations and unites people in trade, in words, in birds, and in love. The story is told through the eyes of Joe, a Nebraska farmer. While on holiday in the Dominican Republic, Joe learns from Miguel and other campesinos the important role of coffee in global trade, environmental degradation, and endangered songbird habitat. Initially overwhelmed, Joe eventually learns to live compatibly with the natural world. Human communication, in the form of written word, the spoken word, and the shared cup of coffee gives him the power to face life's challenges one cup at a time.

To make sure you get your just reward for reading this month’s edition of Fair Grounds, be sure to enter promotional code ap06acs when prompted at check out and if you’ve ordered $50 or more, you’ll not only get a great cup of coffee but a great read as well! p.s. – A Cafecito Story is also a wonderful, caffeine-free way to introduce the little ones to the world of coffee!

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by Bill Harris

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala — I joined a group of wary locals who were gathered around the bus driver, carefully watching to make sure that each piece of the brake drum and tire assembly which were scattered about found a proper home. The bus driver and his buddy were putting the final touches on the brake repair as I had walked up to the bus and asked “is this the next bus for Colomba?” The driver enthusiastically responded “Si! Si!” and told me that we would be on the road in 10 minutes... He smiled as he saw my eyes roaming over all of the parts. I tried in vain to summon the appropriate Spanish in order to convey “Please, please do not rush — I am not in a hurry and really hope that you repair those brakes correctly.” Instead I just said “bueno” and trusted that it was also in the driver's best interest to get those brakes repaired properly before we descended 3,000 feet down Guatemala's Pacific slope.

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We mentioned in the last edition of Fair Grounds that April is looking to be a busy, busy month…well, we weren’t kidding! Read on for a glimpse of this “real-time” Community Caravan at its best!

Monday April 3rd — Tripp set out bright and early for Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport to pick up a delegation of extraordinary folks from Peru, including Esperanza Dionisio Castillo, the general manager of Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa Ltda. (CAC Pangoa), from whom we buy our Fair Trade, organic Peruvian coffee. Accompanying Esperanza were Marcial Lazo Mucha, Mario Chacon Acuna of the Green Development Foundation’s Progresso Coffee Program (to learn more about this program, visit www.greendevelopment.nl/progreso) and, Elizabeth Villa Junco, the general manager of Central de Productores Agroecologicos Pichanaki, CEPROAP, Pichanaki, Chanchamayo, PERU. CEPROAP is an umbrella organization of coffee producer organizations from the district of Pichanaki. Established in 2000, CEPROAP currently has 39 producer associations Ander its roof with a total of 904 small-scale producer members with over 11,000 acres of coffee under cultivation

Bill and Wilman Sotelo, a member of the technical assistance team working with our producer partners at Fondo Paez in Colombia, later joined Tripp and the Peruvian delegation to present a Fair Trade Producer Partner Perspective at Sevananda Natural Foods Market.

Tuesday, April 4th — Our friends from Peru and Colombia are in Americus for meetings, a little coffee cupping, and grits (of course), then later in the day the Peruvian delegation splits off for a visit to our friends at Larry’s Beans.

Wednesday, April 5th — Tripp and Wilman are off to visit South Georgia Technical College for a morning of dialogue with students and faculty there. After they’ve wrapped up their visit, they’ll pile into Bill’s hybrid Honda to journey to Charlotte, where they will spend the rest of the week at this year’s SCAA conference and meet with fellow members of Cooperative Coffees.

Saturday, April 15th – Tripp heads off to the Sentient Bean in Savannah, prodigious purveyors of Café Campesino coffee (and loyal Fair Trade allies) to cup coffee with the Bean’s staff and customers between 5:30 and 7:00. Following the cupping, Sentient Bean barista Linda Reno will present Fair Trade & Community in Guatemala, a one-hour presentation and photographic exposition of her recent experience visiting with our producer partners in Guatemala. If you find yourself in Savannah for the weekend, be sure to visit the Sentient Bean for Linda’s presentation and a cup of Café Campesino coffee. For more information, visit www.sentientbean.com.

Friday April 28th through the 30th – It’s that time again…Geoffrey is heading out to serve up Café Campesino and, this year, Guayaki Yerba Mate Lattes and Chai lattes, to the folks riding in this year’s Bicycle Ride Across Georgia's Spring Tune-Up in Madison, Georgia. For more info about this annual event, visit www.brag.org.

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Organizations and individuals around the world will support Fair Trade by taking part in this year’s World Fair Trade Day on May 13th.

The Fair Trade movement continues to grow rapidly, attracting more and more supporters who bring innovation and energy to the cause. As proud supporters of World Fair Trade Day, Café Campesino and our fellow Cooperative Coffees members are deeply committed to making Fair Trade work for more small producers. Our experience has taught us that the development of Fair Trade depends upon the creative thinking and problem solving as well as the concerted, coordinated efforts of consumers and Fair Trade businesses alike.

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If you're passionate about Café Campesino, show it! Send us:

— a photo showing your "Café Campesino Pride.” This could be anything – a photo of you holding a bag of Café Campesino coffee, a photo showing that you took your Café Campesino on the road — use your imagination!
— a short written testimonial about how much you love us
— an original coffee poem or haiku (three lines, 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second, 5 in the last)

Each month, we will choose one entry to appear in the following Fair Grounds newsletter. If we choose yours, you’ll win a pound of your favorite Café Campesino coffee. Please send your entry to info@cafecampesino.com.

Contest ends: April 28th

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"Fair Trade supports some of the most bio-diverse farming systems in the world. When you visit a Fair Trade coffee grower's fields, with the forest canopy overhead and the sound of migratory songbirds in the air, it feels like you're standing in the rainforest."

— Professor Miguel Altieri, leading expert and author on agroecology

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Fair Grounds is produced by:

Café Campesino
725 Spring Street
Americus, GA 31709

Contact Information:

Orders and General Information
Phone - 888.532.4728, 229.924.2468
Fax - 229.924.6250
http://www.cafecampesino.com
www.cafecampesino.com/store/index.php
info@cafecampesino.com

Staff:
Lee Harris
Tripp Pomeroy
Bill Harris
Kristy Johnson
Maty de Barrios

Fair Grounds is designed and delivered by:

Starstruck Design
335 West Gill Road
Gill, MA 01354

Contact Information:
Don Kruger
Lynn Nichols
Phone - 413.863.7752
Fax - 413.863.7752
http://www.starstruckdesign.com

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