Customer Reviews

Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee

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This book is amazing! Dean Cycon is amazing! I've seen "Fair Trade" coffee in stores but until I read "Javatrekker," I hadn't grasped the magnitude of the problems so many coffee farmers face. Dean Cycon is on a mission...his dedication to help poor coffee farmers improve their lives is remarkable. He deserves the Nobel Peace Prize! If you read this book and you possess an ounce of compassion for humanity, you will never buy non-Fair Trade coffee again. I highly recommend this book. It is entertaining, educational and inspirational.

In remarkably few decades Fair Trade went, from a simple and hopeful idea, to a 2.3 billion dollar business! This unprecedented success owes much to the wit, the persistence and devotion of a handful of activists such as Dean Cycon. But unlike many of his fellow travelers who concentrate on improving the palate and the social conscience of western consumers, Dean sees Fair Trade as a vehicle for much more profound changes in the lives of the coffee producers. Accordingly, he concentrates his efforts in reaching out to the cooperatives from which he buys his organic beans and shares his profits directly with them in the form of infrastructure investments such as water wells and local schools and, far more than that, with his tireless concern and the effervescent warmth of his presence.

In "Javatrekker" Dean collects some of the many charming memoirs of his incessant globetrotting through the coffee lands in a style which both emulates and evokes the very story telling traditions which inhabit these regions. He calls these accounts, quite accurately, "dispatches" since most of the local situations he describes are evolving from dire to hopeful and will obviously require updates beyond the ones he provides. Through Dean's recollections we are introduced to a number of colorful characters, literally sages and saints, idols and heroes, traders and tricksters from all corners of the world but, more than anything, these are people engaged in bettering their lives and those of their kin peacefully and joyfully. Their stories range from the humorous to the tragic, but Dean always manages to describe their struggles with the touching note that conveys to the alert reader that these are hardly any different in their dreams and aspiration from those one meets on our everyday. It is this recurring slice-of-humanity which makes Javatrekker a far better read than most travel or development literature. More than a hybrid of these two popular genres this book is really a "field manual" for a new, global campaign whose time is surely here: one that firmly rejects charity and "aid" as the currency of exploitation in favor of peaceful productive engagement and the local community empowerment which the example of fair trade has proven possible. What propels Dean's trekking is also, quite clearly, the quest for the next stage, beyond fair trade, in this long but ever more necessary bridge between worlds.

Western fair trade supporters are found to point out that coffee, as a commodity, is second only to oil in total annual volume of trade. They stop short, however, from speculating on what the world would be like if coffee producers had a measure control over their global market even remotely comparable to that which the Oil Cartel exerts over the price of the barrel! Perhaps Fair Trade is still in its early stages and is likely to become the new platform for a globalizing economy concerned with product quality as well as sustainability and climate change. Or maybe it is time to think of a more ambitious formula to fight worldwide inequality in trading justice that may bring about more immediately results. In either case Javatrekker will remain a vital and historical testimonial beyond the delightfully entertaining wild ride that it surely is. GET IT! READ IT! (You will thank me later...)

Coffee is more than just another drink: it's about politics, survival, and indigenous people - and Javatrekker is the perfect guide to the politics, culture and meaning of coffee. From Fair Trade business issues to adventure travel, anthropology and politics, JAVATREKKER surveys the peoples, customs and trade of coffee around the world in an invigorating, moving account recommended for any general-interest collection and in particular for college-level libraries strong in world economics.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Javatrekker is not just another book about fair trade coffee. Dean, founder of 100% fair trade, organic coffee roaster Dean's Beans, does describe fair trade, but entirely through recounting stories from his years of "Javatrekking" or traveling to coffee origins to meet the producers. Javatrekker is a great introduction to fair trade and is also some of the best travel writing I have read.
Javatrekker would be a great read for anyone interested in travel to LDCs or fair trade coffee.

As one reviewer wrote, there is a lot of "I" talk in this book. Yes, and that is to be expected, given that Dean is writing about his travels. The topic of fair trade coffee, and what it means in the life of the farmers Dean writes about, is obviously a crucial part of his existence. If he didn't care so much, Dean would not have gone out on a limb with the public statements about Newman's Own and their relationship with Green Mountain, who buy a much smaller percentage of their coffee at fair trade prices. The writing here is touching, and funny, and should be required reading for coffee drinkers. Dean describes some harrowing experiences (roads where people fear to tread due to bandits and militia), as well as scenes of humor (being kept awake by the gospel rock band and mispronouncing crucial words at meetings of farmers). The writing is thoughtful. Must fair trade pricing take into account the factors (such as inherent corruption) in particular countries? Even the "coyote" middlemen are given an alternate consideration. We can only hope that Dean will take his company public one day, use that new cash and clout to get into the major supermarkets, and increase the amount of fair trade coffee his company can buy and the farmers can sell, and thereby improve their lives and the lives of their children.

You might remember fair-trade organic coffee roaster Dean Cycon of Dean's Beans from my profile of his company in the February, 2006 Positive Power Spotlight.

Dean's just come out with a fascinating book: Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee.

Most Americans and Europeans in the coffee industry have never met a coffee farmer, and certainly haven't traveled to the remote indigenous communities where coffee is grown. Dean has traveled the world, meeting growers, processors, shamans, government ministers, bouncing his way down rutted goat trails, learning a few phrases of the local language (or what he thinks is the local language), getting stomach-sick on a regular basis--and having a great deal of fun. He often finds that not only is he the first coffee buyer to visit these isolated places, but often the first white man.

In the U.S., he spends a lot of time hectoring coffee executives at Starbucks and elsewhere to commit more to fair trade and to fund development projects--which he's able to accomplish for a tiny fraction of the money a large bureaucracy would need, by using methods initiated and designed by local communities using local resources to meet local needs, in the spirit of E.F. Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful.

He leaves a trail not only of Dean's Beans t-shirts and "Make Coffee Not War" bumper stickers, but a legacy of vast improvement in the lives of the villages he visits. Clean-water wells, education centers, community-owned coffee processing plants, simple hand-operated depulpers that allow coffee farmers to capture much more of the value of their crop...some of these are projects he funds directly, and others come out of the cooperatives' share of coffee profits, made possible by the fair-trade price he pays, sometimes three times as much as the "going rate."

Dean sums up his philosophy in the closing words of the book:

I have never been fully comfortable with what I, when I know in my heart that things can be better, more respectful, more loving, and frankly, more exciting. It pains me deeply to see cultures crumble and blow away under global pressures (or simply for lack of water), or kids' lives go unfulfilled for want of a pencil or notebook. Javatrekking allows me the vehicle to explore my own relationship to these things and to take responsibility where I can. These may be small contributions in the greater scheme of things, but as an old Indonesian farmer advised me..." Add your light to the sum of lights."

Dean has clearly taken that advice seriously. His many initiatives include forming the Coffeelands Landmine Victims Trust, which works in Central America and Vietnam, co-founding Cooperative Coffees, an association of 23 local coffee roasters around the U.S. and Canada who offer fair trade organic coffee, and simply funding scholarships for individual children of coffee growers in Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea.

Dean Cycon is living proof that it is more than possible to use business as a force for positive social change, while at the same time see the world and have a terrific time.

Published sustainably on recycled paper by Chelsea Green (publisher of my own book Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World), Javatrekker is full of well-told stories and includes some great color photos. It's available from Dean's Beans or from the publisher.

Dean Cycon, who happens to be a signer of the Business Ethics Pledge, has pledged to donate 100% of the profits to coffee farmers.

Shel Horowitz's award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, demonstrates how to build a business around ethics, environmental sustainability, and cooperative practices--and how to develop marketing that highlights those advantages.

I started reading Javatrekker over a cup of anonymous black coffee. By the time I had finished, a steaming mug of Dean's Beans Sumatran roast hovered over my lips, and I took a sip: the coffee was delicious and, best of all, I knew where it came from and what my caffeine buzz was supporting. This is the great gift of Javatrekker. You close the cover with a profoundly deep understanding of the global dimensions of the coffee trade.

But this is not all that Dean Cycon, the owner of Dean's Beans Organic Coffee, offers in his first book. Cycon recounts his travels and travails through Ethiopia and Kenya to the peaks of the Andes and the northern provinces of Sumatra (and beyond!) with humor, integrity and intelligence. His stories are engaging, and they offer an unprecedented glimpse into the history of your morning cup of coffee.

Javatrekker is peppered with fascinating pieces of trivia and pricelessly humorous anecdotes.

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you're a coffee drinker, you need to read this book. If you're not, you should read it anyway. Cycon is a true role model for corporate social responsibility, and even if we all can't lead a life of javatrekking, we can benefit from Cycon's knowledge of the global coffee market and his experience working with coffee farmers all over the world. As consumers, we should know where our money is going, but it's often hard to follow the money trail. With Cycon's help, we can all begin to piece together the truth about our morning jolt.

I learned nothing about Fair Trade,but I sure learned a lot about Dean and how grateful the many cultures of the world are to Dean, for being Dean. I thought the writing was fairly poor, the self absorbed, self congratulatory "storytelling" was over the top and I didn't even think it was a very good travelogue. I've read many better books about coffee and the effect that the systems that are in place have on the farmers. I couldn't even get all the way through the book. I was really disappointed.

Dean Cycon's book is a good read on the various cultures of people who produce coffee. It is a sample in every way, shape, and form of people, travel and coffee. Dean takes the reader on some of his many travels and tells about the experiences he has. He is a bit self-absorbed and does not seem to do too well at looking at both sides of a story. Take the book for what it is, a tale of a person developing relationship with coffee growers, not an investigative story or fair trade primer.

If you are trying to understand where coffee comes from, the complexities of the coffee trade, and the lives of the people who produce coffee, this is one book you should definitely read. I would highly recommend reading Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival first. You will then understand fair trade, certified organic, and the many forces that impact the lives of growers (in that case, in Southern Mexico).

Read Dean's book to understand one man's quest to make the world a little better for people who most have us have not bothered to care about. Dean's a gutsy guy, is doing some good stuff, and that excuses a little bit of ego in my book. Keep up the good work in the third world Dean.

If other readers came away with a solid or even marginal understanding of fair trade and shade grown coffee, then they are better readers than I am. This book did not need to be a dry study, but I obtained this book hoping for more than a travelogue. He is a great storyteller and a probably a delightful guest, but beyond a few factoids (and some interesting descriptions of cultures), I barely learned anything about coffee or coffee markets. I think this books would have been greatly enhanced by more description of why things are the way they are, where and when shade grown coffee makes economic sense, how variabilites and inequities in the market could be reduced, how large the market for fair trade is and what the big players are doing, where there is fair trade but not shade grown coffee, and on and on...