Highways to Zion

a journey towards a radical Gospel

Drinking Coffee - Doing Good

Posted on 11/02/2007 ::: 3  Comments, Leave Some More


We launched our new coffee ministry at church the other day.  This isn't your typical donut and coffee time ministry.  It is a ministry that is raising awareness in our church and community and making an impact in lives across the globe.  While we were at Catalyst we met some folks from Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee.  L.O.A.T.H. Coffee (wow, that is a bad acronym) is changing the lives of thousands, if not millions, of Rwandan coffee growers.  In the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 there were 800,000 people killed, and nearly half of them were coffee growers.  Entire families were annihilated because or racial hate.  The two warring tribes, the Hutu's and Tutsi's are now on a long road to reconciliation.  Land of a Thousand Hills is assisting that process.  In the communities that Land of a Thousand Hills purchases their coffee from Hutu's and Tutsi's must work side by side in order to make a living.  This is bringing people who would otherwise be lifetime enemies together for common goal of bettering their communities.  

Land of a Thousand Hills also pays almost 75% more per pound of coffee than what the Fair Trade label requires.  While these growers would usually be making $.40/lb they are making nearly $2/lb.  This allows families to educate their children and have adequate health care.  For every pound of coffee that is sold another dollar goes into a fund to offer micro-finance loans to widows of the genocide.  This supports them as they start their own business and pull themselves out of poverty. 

It is exciting to even see Christ working through what we buy.  Be on the look out for small changes that you can make in your life (like buying Fair Trade) that can make an impact in someone else's.  

On the same note, I have always been disappointed when coffee shops (...pronounced, "StarBucks") offer a handful of Fair Trade coffees, but their main market is still un-Fair Trade. It is like they are saying, "Yeah, Fair Trade is morally good and all, but only as far as we can market it and make money off of it."  So, I have been trying to steer clear of 'Four-Bucks'.  I did, however, find an awesome little coffee shop in downtown Maryville called Grounded Coffee.  They serve nothing but Fair Trade (hoorah) and have the best atmosphere of anywhere I have been.  So hats off to you, Grounded Coffee of Maryville Tn.  

Back to our coffee ministry though... we sold out on our first Sunday (about 50 bags)!  Thus we sent about $150 back to Rwanda... not bad for just starting.  And the coffee is seriously good so I am sure that that $150 will be multiplying itself as people get all hopped up on caffeine. 

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#1  On November 3, 2007, Sara Washington PHD wrote:

Christ would never drink the Devils brew. What next? A crack house?

Coffee puts the system under the strain of metabolizing a deadly acid-forming drug, depositing its insoluble cellulose, which cements the wall of the liver, causing this vital organ to swell to twice its proper size. In addition, coffee is heavily sprayed. (Ninety-two pesticides are applied to its leaves.) Diuretic properties of caffeine cause potassium and other minerals to be flushed from the body.

All this fear went away when I quit, and it was a book that inspired me to do it called The Truth About Caffeine by Marina Kushner. There are five things I liked about this book:

1) It details—thoroughly—the ways in which caffeine may damage your health.

2) It reveals the damage that coffee does to the environment. Specifically, coffee was once grown in the shade, so that trees were left in place. Then sun coffee was introduced, allowing greater yields but contributing to the destruction of rain forests. I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere else.

3) It explains how best to go off coffee. This is important. If you try cold turkey, as most people probably do, the withdrawal symptoms will likely drive you right back to coffee.

4) Helped me find a great resource for the latest studies at CaffeineAwareness.org

5) Also, if you drink decaf you won’t want to miss this special free report on the dangers of decaf available at www.soyfee.com


#2  On November 3, 2007, Jeremy LaDuke (Author) wrote:

Sara,

I appreciate your concern for our health. However, I do not appreciate the use of scare tactics in your comment. You state that coffee, “puts the system under the strain of metabolizing a deadly acid-forming drug”. The word deadly can be misused and relative to any number of things. I assume you are using it in reference to caffeine taken in large and practically impossible dosages. You also lump all coffees together as being sprayed with pesticides and harmful to the environment. This is not so. I am sure there are some coffee growers that have these practices – all the more reason to buy organic fair trade, which does not harm the environment, use pesticides, or oppress coffee growers! I did check out the website caffeineawareness.org which seems to be initiated and run by the author of the book you referenced. I found that the main image on the page that promotes the book, The Truth About Caffeine, uses facts as scare tactics. While 5 grams of caffeine may indeed kill you, it is comparable to the lady who killed herself by drinking too much water. There are only about 135mg of caffeine in a cup of coffee. That means it would take about 37 cups of coffee at one time to get 5 grams of caffeine – not likely to happen. I am curious if she also details the health benefiting uses of caffeine, such as alleviating breathing problems in premature infants.

So… a crack house? Maybe. Jesus probably would have hung out there.

Blessings,
jeremy


#3  On November 9, 2007, Curtis Kiser, (soon to be BA...) wrote:

Jesus would have totally hung out at crack houses! Because that is where the most important, immediate work needs to be done. Just to play advocate…I wonder how many people have died in “caffeine related incidents” as compared to Rwandan racial encounters? Well, I suppose we have the numbers for the latter, it’s a start. Anyway, just poking a little fun. I do not think that Land of a Thousand Hills would promote caffeine overdoses or encourage people to become substance abuseres.

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