One Cup at a Time? (Fair Trade) Coffee, Migration, and Globalization

Abstract

The Broken Village: Coffee, Migration, and Globalization in Honduras. By Daniel R. Reichman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011. 209 pp., $22.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-7729-4). Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets. By Lyon Sarah. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2011. 266 pp., $29.58 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-60732-057-9). The interrelations between global commodity value chains, socially conscious consumption in industrialized countries, and rural development in less developed countries are issues that have gained prominence in recent years due to the rapidly growing fair trade movement. The movement has successfully raised public awareness about the relationship between Northern consumer decisions and living conditions of producers in less developed countries' rural communities. By establishing fair trade standards covering a wide range of social, economic, and environmental issues and combining them with a guaranteed price premium, fair trade has enabled farmers in less developed countries to stabilize or even improve their living conditions. As the second most valuable primary commodity exported by developing countries, coffee has played a central role in the development of consumer practices as “political strategies.” Two recently published books contribute to the rapidly growing literature on the interrelations between coffee, development, fair trade, and the potential role of individuals in “governance without government” in very interesting ways. Daniel Reichman's The Broken Village investigates the impact of globalization on a rural community in Honduras. Traditionally dominated by small-scale coffee production, this community experienced a dramatic increase in temporary undocumented migration to the United States over a period of a few years during the early 2000s. In his fascinating ethnographic study, Reichman explores the intricacies of this community's integration into global economic structures, as well as its social and cultural impact on migrants, families, and the community. The author explores the varied motivations for migration, ranging from socioeconomic push factors such as low coffee prices, bad coffee harvests, or the general lack of job opportunities at home, to the gravitational pull of idealized images of life and work in the United States, and the successes enjoyed by returning migrants. His use of “ethnographic profiles” enables the author to identify …