May Coffee News

-Living Green is Hot
-Paul Hawken, excerpt on the world's largest movement

Living Green is Hot!
We're recovering from a very exciting (but exhausting) weekend at the Living Green Expo. We've participated in the Living Green Expo since it started 5 years ago. We were in a cold windy tent that first year (yes it did snow in May that year!) Some of our most loyal customers have found us through this excellent event that showcases everything "green." But we've never seen so many people as we did this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, we both talked non-stop from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm with what was surely at least a thousand people who stopped by our booth to learn about Velasquez Family Coffee and see pictures of the farm and our family.

Organizers of the event said that on Saturday alone 11,000 people attended -- double the attendance on both days last year. And Sunday was just as busy if not more so. We know that we sold twice as much as before too. What an exciting thing to see so much interest in the environment, local foods, renewable energy, and sustainability.

It is exciting to be one small part of this movement that is transforming not just the Twin Cities, but the planet, as Paul Hawken writes in the latest issue of Orion Magazine, in his article "To Remake the World."

"I have come to these conclusions: this is the largest social movement in all of history, no one knows its scope, and how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye. What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world."

If you are in need of some hope, this is a must read article. You can read it on-line at

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/265

Thank you for being part of helping us create connections across country boundaries. Together we are taking small steps to create the economy that we want to see, one based on fairness and sustainability and mutual benefit. Gracias!