Synopsis: While the state of Oaxaca produces superb coffee, maintaining that quality confronts two significant challenges which this talk will explore. First, climate change is already impacting coffee quality and this will only intensify as trees come under heat stress and, as a result, diseases spread. In addition, as women perform the labor-intensive steps that are most critical to high grade coffee production (picking, washing, drying, and selection), the low value and renumeration assigned to their work undermines its stability, making it difficult to sustain even in the face of the other benefits that accrue to women as coffee farmers.

Presenter: Tad Mutersbaugh is a Professor of Geography at the University of Kentucky. He has undertaken research on Mexican agrarian topics in Oaxaca and Tlaxcala since 1986, and has published over 40 articles, book chapters and presentations in English and Spanish.