During the years I worked on this project, I lost a number of people close to me. Between 2006 and 2010, my parents Buff and Monica McCook and my brother Douglas McCook passed away. My parents were deeply committed to ensuring that their children had a good education, a commitment that is the foundation of my life as a historian. My grandmothers Edith McCook and Marion Sullivan also passed away during these years; they each leave me with fond memories of lively conversations, and so much more. My uncle Brian Blomme passed away in 2016; I miss his quiet sense of humor and his deep commitment to environmental issues. My father-in-law, Angel Antonio Viloria, who loved reading and had a boundless curiosity about the world around him, died just a few weeks before I submitted the final manuscript. I regret that they are not here to celebrate its completion.
I would like to give a warm thanks to my families by birth and marriage in Canada and Venezuela. My extended Guelph family—my sister Sue McCook and brother-in-law Robert Chin and their children Cameron, Becca, and Gabby—helped in many ways. In the final weeks of the project, we adopted a cat named Luna, who helped keep things in perspective by reminding me that (mysteriously) some creatures don’t care at all about the history of coffee, or the coffee rust. Alicia Viloria-Petit has been both a literal and metaphorical companion on this project’s long journey; her love and support have made it possible. Our daughter Lucía was born while this project was in progress, and happily has inherited her parents’ love of travel. She now knows far more about the coffee commodity chain than the average Canadian eleven-year-old. Without Lucía, the book would have been finished much more quickly, but my life would have been infinitely poorer. Lucía brings me joy every single day; in return, I dedicate this book to her.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
| AMECAFÉ | Asociación Mexicana de la Cadena Productiva del Café, A.C. (Mexican Association of the Coffee Production Chain) |
| ANACAFÉ | Asociación Nacional del Café (National Coffee Association; Guatemala) |
| CABI | Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International |
| CADA | Companhia Angolana de Agricultura (Angolan Agriculture Corporation) |
| CAFÉNICA | Asociación de Cooperativas de Pequeños Productores de Café de Nicaragua (Association of Cooperatives of Small Coffee Producers of Nicaragua) |
| CATIE | Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center; Turrialba, Costa Rica) |
| CBD | coffee berry disease |
| CEFCA | Comissão Executiva da Erradicação da Ferrugem do Cafeeiro (Executive Committee for the Eradication of the Coffee Rust; Brazil) |
| CENICAFÉ | Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de Café (National Center for Coffee Research; Chinchiná, Colombia) |
| CIFC | Centro de Investigação das Ferrugens do Cafeeiro (Centre for Research into Coffee Rusts; Oeiras, Portugal) |
| CIRAD | Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) |
| CRS | Catholic Relief Services |
| EMPBRAPA | Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) |
| ENA | Escola Nacional da Agricultura (National Agricultural School; Portugal) |
| FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |
| FNC | Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (National Federation of Coffee Growers; Colombia) |
| GERCA | Grupo Executivo de Racionalização da Cafeicultura (Executive Group for the Rationalization of Coffee Farming; Brazil) |
| GTZ | Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (German Technical Cooperation Agency; West Germany) |
| IAC | Instituto Agronômico de Campinas (Campinas Agronomic Institute; Brazil) |
| IBC | Instituto Brasileiro do Café (Brazilian Coffee Institute) |
| ICA | International Coffee Agreement |
| ICO | International Coffee Organization |
| IFCC | Institut Français du Café et du Cacao (French Coffee and Cacao Institute) |
| ICAFÉ | Instituto del Café de Costa Rica (Costa Rican Coffee Institute) |
| IHCAFÉ | Instituto Hondureño del Café (Honduran Coffee Institute) |
| IICA | Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (Interamerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture; Costa Rica) |
| INEAC | Institut National pour l’Etude Agronomique du Congo Belge (National Institute for the Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo) |
| INMECAFÉ | Instituto Mexicano del Café (Mexican Coffee Institute) |
| JIU | Junta de Investigações do Ultramar (Board of Overseas Research; Portugal) |
| MAG | Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock; Costa Rica) |
| NISM | Netherlands India Steam Navigation Company |
| OIRSA | Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (Regional International Organization for Agricultural Health; Mexico and Central America) |
| ORSTOM | Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer (Office of Overseas Scientific and Technical Research; France) |
| PIAC | Plan Integral de Atención al Café (Integrated Program for Coffee; Mexico) |
| PROMECAFÉ | Programa Cooperativo Regional Para el Desarollo Tecnológico y Modernización de la Caficultura (Regional Cooperative Program for Technological Development and Modernization of Coffee Production) |
| PSF | Permanencia Sostenibilidad y Futuro (Permanence, Sustainability, and Future; Colombia) |
| ROCAP | Regional Office for Central America and Panama, Office of USAID |
| SAGARPA | Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca, y Alimentación (Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Food; Mexico) |
| SENASICA | Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad, y Calidad Agroalimentaria (National Health Service, Food Safety, and Food Quality; Mexico) |
| SICA | Sistema de Información Cafetera (Coffee Information System; Colombia) |
| STICA | Servicio Técnico Interamericano de Cooperación Agrícola (Interamerican Technical Service for Agricultural Cooperation) |
| UPASI | United Planters’ Association of Southern India |
| USAID | United States Agency for International Development |
| WCR | World Coffee Research |
CHAPTER 1
The Devourer of Dreams
IT CAME as a surprise: a familiar nuisance suddenly turned an unfamiliar catastrophe. Over several seasons, coffee farmers from Peru to Mexico saw more and more yellow spots appear on the leaves of their trees. In previous seasons, the rust might have caused the occasional spot, but nothing serious. Now, however, leaves engulfed with lesions fell to the ground, leaving skeletal trees alive but entirely defoliated. The disease moved into highland areas that had previously escaped the disease. In February 2013, Guatemala’s Prensa libre interviewed smallholders whose farms had been devastated by the rust. “I never thought this would happen to me,” said Mauricio Méndez, whose farm had escaped the first rust outbreak in the 1980s. A smallholder named Bartolo Chavajay “could not contain his tears in the face of his rust-infested plot.” The rust had destroyed Chavajay’s entire harvest—his only source of income. Without the income, he wondered how he would feed his family. Yet another farmer, Moisés Misa, worried that the disease would harm his coffee’s quality, reducing the price he would receive from buyers and lowering his modest income. Over several seasons, similar scenarios played out in thousands of farms across the Americas. The rust, wrote the Prensa libre, devoured the hopes of farmers. Even five years later some farmers—and some countries—are still struggling to rebuild their coffee farms.1
This outbreak, now known as the Big Rust, was the latest episode in a much longer story. The coffee rust is caused by a fungus