Starbucks' African Coffee Celebration

It's interesting for me to see how people stand on Starbucks. I happen to be a big fan of what they do for the most part. Sure, they could improve in a few areas - for example, I, for one, would like to see them encourage in-house (non-paper!) cups for those staying - but overall, I think they do a great job with employee benefits and buying a great deal of fair trade coffee. Here's an article about their current African Coffee Celebration. It discusses C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmers Equity Practices) standards a bit, which Starbucks explains as, "coffee-buying guidelines designed to work with coffee farmers to encourage high quality coffee and promote equitable relationships with farmers, workers and communities, as well as protect the environment."

Though this is the first, you may find that I post a lot about the coffee industry - I picked up the coffee habit in the last year and am trying to learn more about the industry. Here's an article by Gregory Dicum, one of the authors of The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop. The short article talks about the coffee industry and sustainability and how the coffee industry gives good lessons in sustainability due to its long history. The industry interests me from a sustainability perspective due to the huge environmental, social and supply chain impacts involved for something that many people enjoy daily, but do not give a second thought to.