Monday, May 19th - 7pm
Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
A documentary film screening presented by Films for Action and
sponsored by
TwoHandsWorldshop.com Liberty Hall 644 Mass St. $3.
Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.
But for every $3 cup of coffee, a coffee farmer typically receives only 3 cents. Most of the money goes to the four giant conglomerates which control the coffee market.
Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.
Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world's coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.
After seeing Black Gold, coffee will never taste the same.
Go to
www.blackgoldmovie.com for more info.