POLICY AND CERTIFICATIONS

The rise of private food standards has brought forth an ongoing debate about whether they work as a barrier for smallholders and hinder poverty reduction in developing countries. This paper uses a global value chain approach to explain the relationship between value chain structure and agrifood safety and quality standards and to discuss the challenges and possibilities this entails for the upgrading of smallholders. It maps four potential value chain scenarios depending on the degree of concentration in the markets for agrifood supply (farmers and manufacturers) and demand (supermarkets and other food retailers) and discusses the impact of lead firms and key intermediaries on smallholders in different chain situations. Each scenario is illustrated with case examples. Theoretical and policy issues are discussed, along with proposals for future research in terms of industry structure, private governance, and sustainable value chains.

Six treatment systems, composed of three downflow anaerobic filters followed by six Constructed Wetlands (SACs), had their operating conditions evaluated when used in the treatment of wastewater from coffee fruit processing (ARC). The filters were made of PVC (1.5 m high and 0.35 m in diameter) and filled with n. 2 crushed stone. SACs were constructed of wood boxes (1.5 m long, 0.4 m high and 0.5 m wide) being sealed with an HDPE geomembrane and filled with "zero" crushed stone. The pH of the ARC was corrected with lime to values near 7.0 and nutrient concentration altered in order to obtain a BOD/N/P ratio equal to 500/5/1. In half of the SACs was planted ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) and in the other half oat (Avena strigosa Schreb). As a result, it was observed that the plant species grown in the SACs didn't affect the overall efficiencies of pollutant removal by the systems. The systems that received the lowest organic loading showed the highest efficiencies of removal of organic matter, reaching 78% for COD and 70% for BOD and the removal of TSS was higher than 70% in all systems studied, indicating the feasibility of applying anaerobic filter system followed by constructed wetland system in ARC treatment.

This article compares the difference in water use and drainage between a coffee agroforestry system and a coffee monoculture in Costa Rica. HYDRUS 1D modeling and climatic scenario simulations were performed to examine potential competition for water between the coffee and shade trees.

This article examines difference in partinioning of gross rainfall into throughfall, stemflow, and rainfall interception between a coffee monoculture and coffee agroforestry system. The authors find that cumulative throughfall was different between the two systems.

This research paper, published in September 2010, aimed to compare the quality of coffee produced by dry and wet processing methods in Kavre District, Nepal. The study collected data on coffee production, processing, and quality assessment through surveys and experiments. The key findings of the study are:
• Wet processing resulted in higher overall quality scores compared to dry processing, with wet-processed coffee having a more distinct aroma, better acidity, and higher overall cup quality.
• Both dry and wet processing methods produced coffee of acceptable quality.
• The challenges faced by coffee producers in the region include lack of access to finance, limited technical knowledge, and poor infrastructure.
• The study recommends targeted training and support to improve coffee production and processing practices, which could lead to higher quality coffee and better market access for producers in the region.
The study suggests that wet processing could be a more suitable method for producing higher quality coffee in Kavre District, Nepal.

This article examines the development of and contestation over the standards for certified fair trade, with particular attention to the U.S. context. It charts fair trade’s rapid growth in the United States since the 1999 advent of formal certification, explores the controversies generated by the strategy of market mainstreaming in the sector, and focuses on five key issues that have generated particularly heated contention within the U.S. fair trade movement. It offers a theoretical framework based in the literatures on agrifood systems, social movements, and public-choice economics, for understanding the corporate response to alternative markets such as fair trade. The article suggests a typology of responses by social movement actors to this increased corporate participation, and assesses the relevance of the U.S. case for the future prospects of fair trade, both in other national contexts and as an international movement.

Coffee farms are often embedded within a mosaic of agriculture and forest fragments in the world's more biologically diverse tropical regions. Although shade coffee farms can potentially support native pollinator communities, the degree to which these pollinators facilitate gene flow for native trees in unknown. We examined the role of native bees as vectors of gene flow for a reproductively specialized native tree, Miconia affinia, in a shade coffee and remnant forest landscape mosaic. We demonstrate extensive cross-habitate gene flow by native bees, with pollination events spanning more than 1,800 m. Pollen was carried twice as far within shade coffee habitat as in nearby forest, and trees growing within shade coffee farms received pollen from a far greater number of sires than trees within remnant forest. The study shows that shade coffee habitats support specialized native pollinators that enhance the fecundity of genetic diversity of remnant native trees.

One of the processes for pulping the coffee cherries can be obtained by using water. This process uses a great amount of water and its waste contains high concentration of organic matter and other compounds such as pesticides, which makes this wastewater potentially harmful to any receiving water system. The present work investigated the treatment of the pulping wastewater using two advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). The optimum molar concentration for the treatment was 6.3x10^2 mol/L for iron (II) and 2.5x10^1 mol/L of H2O2. The solar photo-Fenton system showed better results compared to the conventional Fenton, with a reduction of biological oxygen demand (BOD) up to 60%. The combination of chemical and biological treatment showed that the sequence of UASB followed by solar photo-Fenton treatment showed better BOD removal efficiency of 95%.

The experiment was conducted to develop an integrated treatment system for coffee processing wastewater (CPWW) through the combination of biomethanation with aeration and wetland plants treatment. The biomethanation was carried out at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) using upflow anaerobic hybrid reactor (UAHR) and 18 h of HRT was found to be optimum. The maximum biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total solids (TS) reduction were 66.0%, 61.0% and 58.0%, respectively with organic loading rate of 9.55 kg m?3 day?1. The reduction of pollution load of the wastewater by microbial action augmented by aeration resulted in the reduction of electrical conductivity (EC), BOD, COD, and total solids (TS). Continuous aeration of wastewater resulted in maximum reduction of BOD (74.6%), COD (68.6%) and TS (49.3%). The wetland plant, Typha latifolia reduced 85.4% and 78.0% of BOD and COD, respectively in biomethanated and aerated CPWW.

Many traditional farmers and environmentalists subscribe to the popular idea that the natural world offers ecosystem services that contribute to the stability, productivity, and sustainability of agriculture. Opponents of this view argue that the farm is not an environment to be stewarded by romantic environmentalists, but rather is a battlefield on which the enemies of production must be vanquished. Contemporary research in ecosystem complexity offers a new platform on which to adjudicate between these two points of view. Through particular network structuring, nonlinearity, and stochasticity, and especially with the added dimension of space, recent theoretical and empirical research reveals that ecological systems persist and generate ecosystem services as a result of complex interacting components. Here we report on our research into the ecological dynamics of a collection of species related to key problems in pest control, a critical ecosystem service in coffee production.

The effects of grinding (medium-coarse) and extraction time (14–22 h) on the physicochemical and sensorial properties of cold brew coffee produced using two types of Colombian specialty coffees (Huila and Nariño) were evaluated. Cold coffee brewed under coarse grinding and 22 h of extraction exhibited the highest values of total dissolved solids, extraction yield, pH, titratable acidity (TA), and total phenolic content. The type of coffee used mainly affected the TA and pH. All cold brew coffee samples had lower TA values than their hot counterparts. Nariño cold brew samples had higher TA values than those of Huila in all treatments evaluated. Higher scores were reported in the sensorial evaluation of cold brew coffee when prepared using the shortest time (14 h) and coarse grinding for both coffee types. These coffees were characterized by strong sweetness, fruity and floral flavours, medium bitterness and acidity, and a creamy body. Furans, pyrazines, ketones, aldehydes, pyrroles, esters, lactones, furanones, and phenols were detected as odour-active compounds. The findings of this study demonstrate that the particle size, contact time, and coffee type affect the physicochemical and sensorial characteristics of cold brew coffee, leading to cold brew coffees with different flavour profiles.

This study explores some of the dilemmas facing the Fair Trade movement as it seeks to broaden and deepen its impact among the rural poor of Latin America's coffee sector. We argue that the efforts to broaden Fair Trade's economic impact among poor, small-scale producers are creating challenges for deepening the political impact of a movement that is based on social justice and environmental sustainability.

A key challenge of ecosystem management is determining how to manage multiple ecosystem services across landscapes. Enhancing important provisioning ecosystem services, such as food and timber, often leads to tradeoffs between regulating and cultural ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, flood protection, and tourism. We developed a framework for analyzing the provision of multiple ecosystem services across landscapes and present an empirical demonstration of ecosystem service bundles, sets of services that appear together repeatedly. Ecosystem service bundles were identified by analyzing the spatial patterns of 12 ecosystem services in a mixed-use landscape consisting of 137 municipalities in Quebec, Canada. We identified six types of ecosystem service bundles and were able to link these bundles to areas on the landscape characterized by distinct social-ecological dynamics. Our results show landscape-scale tradeoffs between provisioning and almost all regulating and cultural ecosystem services, and they show that a greater diversity of ecosystem services is positively correlated with the provision of regulating ecosystem services. Ecosystem service-bundle analysis can identify areas on a landscape where ecosystem management has produced exceptionally desirable or undesirable sets of ecosystem services.

This article explores the role of risk perception in adaptation to stress through comparative case studies of coffee farmers' responses to climatic and non-climatic stressors. We hypothesized that farmers associating these changes with high risk would be more likely to make adaptations than those who saw the events as part of normal variation. Nevertheless, we found that farmers who associated events with high risk were not more likely to engage in specific adaptations. Adaptive responses were more clearly associated with access to land than perception of risk, suggesting that adaptation is more a function of exogenous constraints on decision making than perception.

Wet processing of Arabica coffee (Coffea Arabica) produces higher quality and receives higher prices on the world market compared to coffee prepared via dry method. Behind the background of depressed world market prices, countries with comparatively low production costs like Vietnam will increasingly switch their production to high quality and higher priced washed Arabicas in order to enhance competitiveness and revenues. However, wet coffee processing requires a high degree of processing know how and produces large amounts of processing effluents which have the potential to damage the environment. Characteristics of waste water from coffee processing is a Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) of up to 20.000 mg/l and a Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of up to 50.000 mg/l as well as an acidity of below pH 4. In order to treat coffee processing waste waters, the constitution of waste water is presented and technical solutions for waste water treatment in a pilot case are presented.