Women make the best coffee. Here’s how they are transforming the industry.
provide 70% of the labor involved in global coffee production and run 20-30% of coffee farms. Men in the industry, however, continue to have more access to capital and land, which allows them to reap more economic rewards.20 million coffee farmers live in poverty, many of them women.
While there is still a long way to go, a shift is taking place. The global coffee industry is projected to reach more than $143 billion by 2025, and women are demanding their share of the wealth.Women’s work is being increasingly recognized, and more and more women are entering the field, whether as roasters, growers, shop owners, or executives.
With this influx has come a renewed focus on equitable, sustainable practices that emphasize fairness throughout the entire supply chain, from seed to cup.The world of coffee is increasingly becoming an industry made up of fierce, resilient women all over the world, women focused on equity, on empowerment, and of course, on making damn good coffee.Two of these fierce, tenacious women are married couple Jodie Dawson and Kristine Petrik, who opened their coffee shop, Java Love, in 2011.At first, they didn’t know what they were doing.
They also didn’t know that their one tiny location would soon become four, or that customers from New York City would begin flocking to their store in the New York Catskills to stock up on as much coffee as they could carry.Dawson and Petrik discovered both coffee and entrepreneurship by accident.
