Javatrekker

In each cup of coffee we drink the major issues of the twenty-first century - globalization, immigration, women's rights, pollution, indigenous rights, war and peace, and self-determination - are played out in villages and remote areas around the world. In Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, a unique hybrid of Fair Trade business, adventure travel, and cultural anthropology, author Dean Cycon brings readers face-to-face with the real people who make our morning coffee ritual possible.

In this groundbreaking and compelling book, Cycon takes the reader on a tour of ten countries in nine chapters through his passionate eye and unique perspective. Cycon, who is himself an amalgam - equal parts coffee entrepreneur, activist, lawyer and mischievous explorer - has traveled extensively throughout the world's tropical coffeelands, and shows readers places and people that few if any outsiders have ever seen. Along the way, readers come to realize the promise and hope offered by sustainable business principles and the products derived from cooperation, fair pricing, and the direct development model that Cycon pioneered. He introduces us to the Mamos of Colombia - holy men who believe they are literally holding the world together - despite the severe effects of climate change caused by us, their "younger brothers". He takes us on a trip through an ancient forest in Ethiopia where many believe that coffee was first discovered 1,500 years ago by the goatherd Kaldi and his animals. And readers learn of Mexico's infamous Death Train, which transported countless immigrants from Central America northwards to the US border.

Javatrekker won the Gold Medal as The Best Travel Essay Book by the Independent Publishers Association, and has been published in English, Korean and Chinese. A Bonus Chapter has been added to this audio book.