Combating “The Thin Months” In Coffee Growing Communities

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In coffee growing communities
throughout Central and South
America, the months between
the end of one harvest and the beginning of another are often referred to as
"los meses flacos" or "the thin months." This can be anywhere from three to
eight months a year, when families don’t have enough food to go around. Green
Mountain Coffee Roasters recently funded a short documentary about this
seasonal problem for coffee growers. We talk with Rick Peyser, their Director
of Coffee Community Outreach and Social Advocacy, and with Bill Eichner, who
along with his wife, Julia Alvarez, owns Café Alta Gracia, a small coffee farm
in the Dominican
Republic.

  

Also on the program, last
month, a special legislative joint fiscal committee hired a California firm to conduct a study reviewing Vermont’s educational funding method, which is currently
based on Act 60, passed in 1997, and Act 68, passed in 2003. We talk to Washington
County State Senator Ann Cummings, the chair of the committee, about the
decision to commission the study, and what the state hopes to gain from it.

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