To order your copy of this book, please click on the DonateNow button to the right, or at the bottom of this page, and make a donation to support our cause. Suggested donation is $25.
It's a great combination of personal narrative, theological reflection, macro-level analysis, and instructive inspiration. I have no doubt that it is going to be a very effective resource--for both Just Coffee outreach and folks who want to learn about U.S.-Mexico migration and its relation to a larger political-economy.
"The U.S.-Mexico border and unauthorized immigration are typically reduced to law-and-order and security concerns. Just Coffee: Caffeine with a Conscience exposes the moral and analytical poverty of such an approach. In focusing on a specific case study, this indispensable book powerfully illustrates the political-economic factors that drive much immigration while offering inspiring, instructive, and practical ideas for redressing the underlying poverty and injustices. This is a must-read for all those interested in building relationships between the peoples of the United States and Mexico and beyond based on mutual respect and cooperation."
--Joseph Nevins, author of Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2008)
Cafe Justo is a story of hope, faith and a small community spread between Chiapas and Arizona that asked, "What if?"
Set in a turbulant era of border migration, economic stress, and fear, coffee growers and faith communities teamed up to supply fine coffee at a fair price reducing outmigration and stabilizing communities south of the border. This book gives weight to Margaret Mead's opinion "that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world." Read this book to meet the people who bring you Cafe Justo and to better understand what's happening on our borders and in the global coffee market.
--Georgia Ehlers, Director of Fellowships and Community Engagement, Graduate College University of Arizona
Just Coffee is the inspiring and seemingly improbable story of faith-based economic and community transformation that begins with the prophetic words of an economic exile from Chiapas and is today an example of just relations across political, cultural and economic borders. The creation of Cafe Justo Salvador Urbina Cooperative is a story of miracles that broke the underlying economics of forced migration, reunited families and resulted in the vertical integration and ownership by the coffee growers of all parts of the binational commodity supply chain. Here is a lesson in humane economics that can teach real entrepreneurship to college students and demonstrates the missional church at its best. Just Coffee is an exciting witness to faith, hospitality, hope, trust and God’s power.
—Marshall Worden, Director
University of Arizona Science & Technology Park
The adventures of the Just Coffee Cooperative are an inspiring story for everyone concerned about the meltdown in the global economy. Coffee farmers, trapped by world commodity prices, banded together and connected directly with their customers, individual coffee drinkers who want to buy directly from a pure source, bypassing industrialized food.
The history of Daniel Cifuentes, his siblings, and neighbors makes the case to take one's daily buying habits seriously. The ripples of small purchases reach far and have powerful consequences. Here, coffee sold by the pound creates a heartening transformation of a village in Southern Mexico.
The link between fair trade and labor migration is clear. How to create a production and marketing network across international boundaries to receive a fair price for one's labor is not easy or obvious, but a network of farmers, marketers, faith communities, and coffee drinkers have done it. This book provides a road map to achieving autonomy and a decent living. I salute a great achievement.
--Laura Huntoon, PhD AICP
Associate Professor
Director of Graduate Studies
Degree Program in Planning
College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
University of Arizona
What a story! Some creative entrepreneurs bring to reality a business idea that helps the poor, transforms communities, saves lives and addresses the immigration crisis—and you can be part of this story every morning! A great read about a great dream that is coming true today.
--Brian McLaren, Author/Activist
brianmclaren.net
everythingmustchange.org
Mark Adams and Tommy Bassett, along with their CafeJusto colleagues from Mexico, tell a compelling story about forging a global community to match the global economy. This book is a fascinating primer in how to respond proactively to global economic forces that leave most of us feeling totally powerless. This book is for those who know that Jesus calls us to create the reign of God right here on earth, right now.
Tommy Bassett’s description of the way that the community of Salvador Urbina offers the real hope that Jesus’ are not a distant dream but instead an achievable possibility.
If, like me, you are not a coffee drinker, this may just be enough to make you start now.
I’ve visited the CafeJusto office and coffee roaster in Agua Prieta, Sonora dozens of time. Still, this book tells parts of the story I didn’t know. When I arrived at the end, I felt as if I had a relationship with the people of Salvador Urbina, Chiapas.
Following Jesus in a time of empire building and globalization is as hard as anything I can imagine. This book presents a case study for how to go about it.
--Rick Ufford-Chase,
Moderator, 216th General Assembly, PC(USA)
To order your copy of this book, please click on the DonateNow button below, or at the top of this page, and make a donation to support our cause. Suggested donation is $25.