"Black Gold"

From http://www.blackgoldmovie.com:

Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.
But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world's coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.

My eyes caught a glimpse of this documentary called "Black Gold", so I've decided to take a look at it. Now I am a supporter of Fair Trade, so I'm pretty excited that there's a documentary that supports it. "Black Gold" explores through one of the hottest industries in the world, the coffee industry, and how we and the farmers are affected by it. There are so many people who enjoy their cup of Starbucks coffee, but we forget about the poor farmers who give us this coffee. For every cup of coffee you buy from Starbucks, the farmer in Ethiopia only makes three cents. That is just outrageous.

So anyways, I'm pretty interested in seeing it. I've heard really good things about it, but it's not really easy to get a copy. There's only one source in the US right now at California Newsreel, and I believe it's only for educational pruposes. However, PBS is showing "Black Gold" through their program, Independent Lens, on April 10th, 2007. Check your local listings for more specific times. My local PBS station is airing it late, it looks like, so I'm probably going to record it. But I believe that the issues brought up in it will be good to talk about on the blog, and I think it will expose people to the idea of Fair Trade.

Official site:
http://www.blackgoldmovie.com/

PBS's Independent Lens site:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blackgold/