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Check out ITDP's latest feature in the official Bangkok Airways magazine and help spread the word! This article features Mike and Becky Mann’s family being part of the Arabica Organic Coffee revolution in Thailand.
"If we can ensure a market for their-coffee, we can lift a family out of poverty in five to six years," says Michael Mann while watching Net at work. The American agricultural expert should know: his father remains a legend in the hills for having spurred this conversion from opium to coffee among thousands of upland ethnic people. Michael has followed in his father's footsteps.
The result of this year's labour by the village farmers, he calculates, will be about 700,000 cups of mostiy organic coffee, some of it savoured at Starbucks outlets. Their efforts will help fuel a vibrant coffee culture in the city of Chiang Mai and beyond while substantially improving the lives of Huay Som Poi's Karen ethnic minority.
Similar scenarios are being played out across the provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, Thaiknd's prime coffee country, where the Akha, Karen, Lisu, Lahu and other hilltribes have taken to the crop with the gusto of a caffeine lover savouring his morning fix.