Javatrekker

Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee

Dean Cycon; founder and owner, Dean's Beans Organic Coffee

In each cup of coffee we drink the major issues of the twenty-first century—globalization, immigration, women’s rights, pollution, indigenous rights, and self-determination—are played out in villages and remote areas around the world. In Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, a unique hybrid of Fair Trade business, adventure travel, and cultural anthropology, author Dean Cycon brings readers face-to-face with the real people who make our morning coffee ritual possible.

 

Second only to oil in terms of its value, the coffee trade is complex with several levels of middlemen removing the 28 million growers in fifty distant countries far from you and your morning cup. And, according to Cycon, 99 percent of the people involved in the coffee economy have never been to a coffee village. They let advertising and images from the major coffee companies create their worldview.

Cycon changes that in this compelling book, taking the reader on a tour of ten countries in nine chapters through his passionate eye and unique perspective. Cycon, who is himself an amalgam—equal parts entrepreneur, activist, and mischievous explorer—has traveled extensively throughout the world’s tropical coffeelands, and shows readers places and people that few if any outsiders have ever seen. 

Along the way, readers come to realize the promise and hope offered by sustainable business principles and the products derived from cooperation, fair pricing, and profit sharing.

 

Cycon introduces us to the Mamos of Colombia—holy men who believe they are literally holding the world together—despite the severe effects of climate change caused by us, their “younger brothers.” He takes us on a trip through an ancient forest in Ethiopia where many believe that coffee was first discovered 1,500 years ago by the goatherd Kaldi and his animals. And readers learn of Mexico’s infamous Death Train, which transported countless immigrants from Central America northward to the U.S. border, but took a horrifying toll in lost lives and limbs.

 

Rich with stories of people, landscapes, and customs, Javatrekker offers a deep appreciation and understanding of the global trade and culture of coffee.

Interviews with the Author

Dean Cycon interviewed on Living on Earth, October 19, 2007

About the Author

Dean Cycon owns Dean’s Beans, an all-organic, all-fair-trade, all-kosher coffee roaster in Orange, MA. He and his company lead the industry in commitment to true fair-trade principles. Projects funded through Dean’s Beans include a revolving loan fund to dig wells in Ethiopia, a coffee roaster/café in Nicaragua owned and operated by a prosthetics clinic giving limbs and therapy to landmine victims, reforestation in Peru, and coffee de-pulping machines in Papua New Guinea. to learn more about Dean’s Beans visit www.deansbeans.com.