John Freivalds says: I'm sorry but as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia that drank coffee all the time and a businessman in Brazil and a Starbucks citizen in the US, coffee to me is coffee. But the Colombians learned how to better market it. The rest of the world including Brazil is playing catch up.



John Freivalds says: I'm sorry but as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia that drank coffee all the time and a businessman in Brazil and a Starbucks citizen in the US, coffee to me is coffee. But the Colombians learned how to better market it. The rest of the world including Brazil is playing catch up.

Brazil Agriculture: Winning the Great Farms Race

by John Freivalds

[Excerpt]

Who’s Afraid of Juan Valdez?

Smuggled trees and synthetics took the wind out of the Brazilian rubber industry, but Brazil benefited from another case of biopiracy. Believe it or not, coffee is not native to Brazil. Originally from Ethiopia, the plant had found its way to Europe by the early 1700s. A French ship’s captain named De Clieu snuck some coffee plants out of France to Martinique and from there to French Guinea. Then enter Lt. Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta, the man who planted the first coffee tree in Brazil. Here’s how the book The World of Caffeine describes what happened next: “Palheta was a Spanish officer sent from Brazil to French Guinea to arbitrate an international controversy. While there, he engaged in an affair with the governor’s wife, who, in recognition of his erotic favors, gave him a bouquet at his departure in which was concealed a cutting of a coffee tree.” Remember that the next time you have a cafezinho!

With its low costs, Brazil is the world’s largest producer. But alas it is not the best coffee marketer. It lost that title to the Colombians and Madison Avenue. In the 1950’s Brazil had about one-quarter of the world market compared to Colombia’s one-tenth. The Colombian Coffee Federation, an association of growers, saw that Brazil was setting the price through its massive production. They had to come up with a “unique selling proposition” for their coffee. So in 1959, they looked not to their government, the World Trade Organization, or the UN but to Madison Avenue, then the capital of US advertising. The rest is history: Juan Valdez became a marketing icon for Colombian coffee as part of an innovative marketing campaign. Now all kinds of retailers around the world boast that they serve Colombian coffee. I’m’ sorry but as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia that drank coffee all the time and a businessman in Brazil and a Starbucks citizen in the US, coffee to me is coffee. But the Colombians learned how to better market it. The rest of the world including Brazil is playing catch up.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

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February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.