Growth and Fairness: Coffee and Tea

This expedition explores production, domestic and international trade, and consumption of Rwanda’s two most important export crops, coffee and tea. The expedition will explore and compare the organization of coffee and tea production (Who owns the land? Who provides the inputs? Who does the different work? Who profits?), trade practices (Who buys the coffee? Who buys the tea?), and international marketing (How does Rwandan coffee and tea find its way to your breakfast table?). Issues of environmental impacts, sustainability, and fair trade will be explored. This expedition lends itself in dozens of obvious ways to crosscurricular exercises and investigations by U.S. students that will be appealing and relevant (Who in the world – and at home – drinks coffee? Who drinks tea? How are these products marketed in the U.S.? Where does the local coffee shop get its beans? Where did coffee shop culture come from?).