mindful eating and drinking and thoughts over my morning coffee

[Victoria Pich]

We are working on being really present and mindful when we eat. This morning I am enjoying some organic Ethiopian coffee roasted by a friend who has a roastery in Portland. This is a lighter roast than I usually like, but I decided to explore it and found that the aroma of the ground beans (before putting on the hot water) is really "vegetable-y". It smells like a bean, like something you would find outdoors! My roaster friend is the one who opened my eyes to the GMO coffee out there. Almost all of it is coming from Brazil, much of it made by Syngenta. No one really knows what its properties are, it's all very hush-hush.
He also informed me, on the positive side, that almost ALL coffee from Peru is actually organic, though very little is certified. The farmers there are quite poor, and they can't afford pesticides or chemical fertilizers, so they have to grow organic, but the certification is too expensive for them, too. There is a silver lining in the cloud of poverty.
Another piece of information I got - the Central American coffee producers are in big trouble, as there is a disease ravaging their plantations. They may lose as much as 70% of their plants this year alone. I suspect monocultures, non-organic practices, and weakening of the plant stock are to blame.