Black Coffee (film)

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Black Coffee

Directed by	Irene Angelico
Produced by	Ina Fichman
Written by	Harold Crooks, Irene Angelico
Music by	Freeworm
Editing by	Alfonso Peccia
Distributed by	Mongrel Media
Release date(s)	2005 (Canada)
Running time	174 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Black Coffee is a documentary examining the complicated history of coffee and detailing its political, social and economic influence from the past to the present day.

Coffee is the second most traded legal commodity in the world, surpassed by oil. However, only one cent of a $2 cup of coffee goes to the grower.^[1] This inequality has helped shape the history of continents and the Cold War.

Tagline: "A glimpse into the dark side of the brew."

1 Content
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Content

Note: This covers the last half.

Brazil has been adversely effected by deregulation in the 1990s, which has seen boom and bust cycles in the coffee market. This in combination with industrial scale production has made the price of green coffee beans historically low and places additional financial pressure on farmers. In an attempt to combat this experts have sought to create a higher quality Brazilian blend that can be sold at higher prices.

In 1773 coffee was marginal in North America but after the Boston Tea Party ones political affiliation and patriotism could increasingly be determined by whether you drank coffee or tea. Coffee's mass production in the America's started when the wife of the governor for French Guinea gave her departing Brazilian lover Francisco Polletta flowers with hidden fertile coffee beans as exporting them was illegal. Resulting in Brazil becoming the world powerhouse in coffee production and being a driving force in its modernization, decimation of rain forest and slave trade. Creating vast wealth for the coffee barons and making Brazil the last country in the America's to abolish slavery.

In the early 19th century most people would roast their own beans. When the self-emptying roaster and the paper bag were invented, John Arbuckle saw an opportunity to sell roasted coffee to the masses and he created a machine "filled, weighed, sealed and labeled coffee in paper packages."^[2] "Arbuckle Ariosa Coffee" was sold nationwide and went with the settlers and helped "win the west." J. A. Folger and his brothers go to San Francisco for the gold rush but he ends up staying in the city and being hired as a carpenter for a coffee, spice grinder. Folger soon realizes a fortune could be made by roasting and grinding coffee for prospectors who didn't have the luxuries of home.

The boom, bust cycles deeply affected South American economies growing coffee. When Brazil begins overproducing coffee this led very low prices and the real possibility of revolt, so Brazil attempts to hold back coffee production to boost the price of coffee. However, plantation owners grow even more coffee in response to the artificially higher prices and this crashes the coffee market; only a few weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 which led to the Great Depression. The coffee crash topples the Brazilian government in the Revolution of 1930 and the coffee barons install a new strong man government led by Getúlio Vargas. He orders mass burning of coffee stockpiles with no effect on coffee prices.

During the depression independent coffee brands go bankrupt or are consolidated by the large brands. In World War II instant coffee became the preferred way to keep soldiers alert and warm, and coffee control measures were put in action in South America because of concerns it may side with the Nazis if its economy continued to languish. So the United States bought out Brazilian coffee production from 1941 to 1943. When the war was over American coffee companies began a price war over instant coffee, resulting in cheaper beans and diluted coffee. Canadians on the other hand had standard brewed Tim Hortons coffee to go with their donuts, while Maxwell House launches one of the longest running and most successful advertising campaigns for coffee. Consumers continue to drink less coffee, so caffeine-free Sanka coffee is created in an effort to stimulate demand.

In the mid-1950s bad weather in Brazil resulted in a higher price in coffee and congressional hearings. At the 1950 hearings an advocate for South America clarified that there are large obstacles and much development still needed in South America, and if a fair price for coffee was established it would lift millions out of poverty. This speech was largely ignored by coffee producers and consumers; so coffee growing countries create Juan Valdez in an effort to educate the American consumer and the Pan-American Coffee Bureau popularizes the term coffee break. However, despite higher consumption the price remains low as Brazil continues to overproduce; and calls are made for Getúlio Vargas' impeachment. Vargas writes a letter regarding the imposed production of coffee on his country and then commits suicide.

This underlines an era of communism in South America where coffee plantations are taken over and the CIA sponsors coups to take back the coffee producing countries. In order to stem communist revolutions in South America, the United States enters into the International Coffee Agreement. Introducing a quota system that limits the amount countries import and export in order to keep the price stable and sustainable, but there is constant disagreement between countries how much they should be allowed to import, and in 1989 with end of the Cold War the system ended causing a dramatic drop in prices. Brazil responds by modernizing and automating its coffee production; allowing for profitability even when prices drop; and Vietnam's coffee production increases dramatically in a decade. Causing a crisis in many South American and Central American countries that have not modernized their coffee plantations.

These consequences make headlines when 14 Mexican coffee farmers die as they try to cross the border into Arizona looking for work. Slowly there is increasing awareness among consumers of where their coffee is grown and who benefits from it.