The cradle of humankind, Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, was also the cradle of coffee. Legend attributes the discovery of coffee to an Ethiopian goat keeper who, tending his flock on a hillside above the Rift Valley, saw the beasts frolicking after eating under some shade trees. He investigated, found a green leafy shrub loaded with red berries, and helped himself. The result was that he frolicked his way to a local monastery, and shared his discovery with the monks. The monks, at first dismayed by the effect that the berries had on the goat boy, threw them into the fire. But the aroma released from the roasting berry seeds made them regret their decision, so they retrieved what they could, made a brew from the seeds, and the result was coffee.
The coffee growers of the mountains above the Rift Valley still produce some of the world’s premier Arabica beans–grown for their flavor, unlike cheaper caffeine-rich robusta beans. The trees of the hillsides provide the shade in which coffee plants thrive, and a habitat in which insect-eating birds thrive. They also release nitrogen into the soil, keeping it fed, and eliminating the need for fertilizers. It sounds like the sort of paradise for coffee growers that the Biblical Eden may have been for the earliest humans. But Ethiopian mountain growers, after all, live in the Ethiopian mountains, far from cell phone tower sand computer terminals, and traditionally had been very much out of the loop in getting fair market prices for their crops. Barely enough food, and no possibility of schools. But in 1999, some of the Ethiopian coffee growers began the process of becoming fair Trade certified by meeting environmental and humanitarian standards established the Fair Trade Organization.
What does that mean? In the village of Yirgacheffe, the farmers of the Negele Gorbitu Coop are now living in mud-brick, tin-roofed homes instead of huts made of grass. It may not sound like much to those of us who drop $3.25 for a Starbuck’s latte, but to the families of Yirgacheffe, it might seem like the return of Eden.
