From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This surprisingly gripping travelogue is filled with tales from the “coffeelands,” barely-on-the-map locales in Africa, the Americas, and Asia where coffee farmers struggle to survive. Written with knowledge and good cheer by the founder of Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee, the book reads more like a trippy adventure than a business trip, though the issues Cycon raises are vital, prescient and little known (”99 percent of the people involved in coffee… have never been to a coffee village”). While learning first-hand about the hardships involved in growing and selling coffee beans-the world’s second most valuable commodity, after oil-the author finds himself in Guatemala praying to an effigy i (more…)
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Coffee, Dispatches, Fair, From, Javatrekker, Paperback, Trade, World
September 15th, 2009 at 11:54 am
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Travel Book with a Socially Conscious Message: How to Make Coffee Better for the Farmers
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.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where do I sign up to be a Javatrekker?!
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…
September 15th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
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
September 15th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
2.0 out of 5 stars
Everything You Ever Wanted to know about Dean….and then some
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.
September 15th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
3.0 out of 5 stars
Readable travelogue but not a lot moreIf 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.
September 16th, 2009 at 1:02 am
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…)
September 16th, 2009 at 2:12 am
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real eye-opener…just like your 1st cup in the morning…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…
September 16th, 2009 at 6:14 am
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.