Coffee exports as ecological, social, and physical unequal exchange: A cross-national investigation of the java trade

Abstract

This study employs an unequal exchange perspective to assess if dependency on coffee exports in less-developed nations significantly impacts rates of deforestation, secondary schooling, and malnutrition, capturing specific dimensions of environmental, social, and physical well-being. OLS regression analyses reveal that dependency on coffee exports is positively associated with deforestation, malnutrition, and low participation in secondary level education in coffee-producing nations, net of other relevant factors. The findings thus demonstrate that specialization in coffee cultivation is likely to produce limited developmental benefits in poor nations.

Brewing Unequal Exchanges in Coffee: A Qualitative Investigation into the Consequences of the Java Trade in Rural Uganda

“…Austin's (2012) results corroborate case-study investigations indicating that increased pressure to produce coffee and the use of high-yield seeds results in less mixed cultivation with subsistence crops and higher rates of deforestation in some areas (e.g. Gillison et al 2004).…”

“…Of particular relevance to this study, a recent assessment by Austin (2012) finds unequal exchanges in coffee, or the relative flow of coffee exports from poor nations to core nations, leads to enhanced hunger, lower rates of educational enrollments, and heightened deforestation in coffee-producing nations cross-nationally. Austin's (2012) results corroborate case-study investigations indicating that increased pressure to produce coffee and the use of high-yield seeds results in less mixed cultivation with subsistence crops and higher rates of deforestation in some areas (e.g.…”

“…Even newer branches of research are also starting to consider what we might term "socially unequal exchange" to illustrate the negative well-being, health or gendered consequences of harnessing supposed comparative advantages in key primary or extractive products that are required for core consumption (e.g. Austin 2012Austin , 2013Dunaway and Macabuac 2007). Although this review of unequal exchange literature focuses on comprehensive global dynamics and international linkages that go beyond the scope of this specific study, the "structural qualitative fieldwork" approach taken here is deeply informed by the broad patterns exemplified in these macro-comparative perspectives (e.g.…”

Environmentalism in the Periphery: Institutional Embeddedness and Deforestation among Fifteen Palm Oil Producers, 1990 – 2012

“…Peripheral states occupy a subordinate position within the world economy generally (Emmanuel 1972;Wallerstein 1974) and in regard to environmental practices specifically (Austin 2012;Rice 2007). 12 Unequal exchange, or the disproportionate extraction of resources from poor nations to benefit the rich, is a key mechanism in maintaining global stratification (Chase-Dunn 1989;Raffer 1987).…”

The unequal exchange of Dutch cheese and Kenyan roses: Introducing and testing an LCA-based methodology for estimating ecologically unequal exchange

“…Coffee is exclusively a tropical and labor-intensive crop grown by less-developed countries but largely consumed in the developed world (Austin, 2012). Cut flowers are an important export-directed world trade commodity, are both capital-and labor-intensive, and have significant environmental and socio-economic impacts (cf.…”