Colombia’s National Coffee Organization Profits Off Climate Change Denial
From: vice.com
For more than three decades, Gustavo Patiño has been cultivating prized Arabica coffee beans at his Finca El Ocaso farm, which sits atop the misty, 1800-meter-high hills of Salento in remote western Colombia. On any given day, squawking parrots can be seen clambering along the branches of the surrounding cloud forest, as fatigued farm hands sweat and strain to load baskets with handpicked coffee below.
The 62-year-old Patiño claims to drink up to 15 cups of Salento coffee a day, but only in its purest, most potent form. His first taste came on his grandfather’s farm at the age of 10, served up with a dose of sweet agua panela, or boiled sugarcane juice.
