“March to welcome Honduran refugees and protest against troops on the border” by Fibonacci Blue, CC BY 2.0 Despite being a highly addictive substance and one of the world’s most popular drinks (with approximately 2 billion cups being consumed every day), a significant portion of the people who farm and produce coffee live in poverty. A clear example of how the value of labor is not reflective of how much labor is required to produce something can be seen in the case of coffee growers. Approximately 25 million small-scale farmers produce 80% of the world’s coffee within 60 tropical countries, and yet they have very little power in terms of the global coffee market. A further 125 million people are dependent on the coffee plant for their livelihoods. Despite being a major contributor to the economies of developing countries, the market is extremely unstable and is dependent on climate conditions,…
