Podcast Number 15 - Special Edition: The PEARL Project Pick your link below and right-click and select Save As (on PC) or Control-Click and select "Download Linked File" in MacOS to save it to your hard drive... OR click the "podcast" icon above for the RSS podcast feed (AAC format).Special guests:
Dan Clay, Director of the Institute of International Agriculture, Michigan State University, and creator of the PEARL Project.
Anne Ottaway, PEARL Project marketing and communications specialist
Peter Giuliano, Director of Coffee, Counter Culture Coffee, Durham, NC
Write your letters to:
Andrew S. Natsios
Administrator
U.S. Agency for International Development
Ronald Reagan Building
1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20523
FAX: 202-216-3455
E-mail: magarcia@usaid.gov
Your Representative (look them up on www.house.gov)
U.S. House of Representatives
(Street address)
Washington, DC (ZIP)
Your Senator (look them up on www.senate.gov)
U.S. Senate
(Street address)
Washington, DC 20510
Call the USAID office at 202-712-0000
Call your Representatives and Senators as well!
Feel free to copy us on any emails you send out: PEARL@portafilter.net
TWO DIFFERENT FILES, but the same show... your choice (the AAC version sounds better and includes "bookmarking" for iTunes and iPods: if you stop midway, you can come back to where you left off) both: 1 hour 2 minutes and 19 seconds, 32 kbps bitrate, 32 kHz (22.05 kHz for MP3) sample rate.
MP3 format, 14.3 MB,
AAC format, 15.0 MB
Click here to go to the Portafilter Podcast on iTunes Music Store.
-- AAC XML feed -:- MP3 XML feed --
Questions? Comments? Hate mail? Email us at podcast@portafilter.net, and we might read your email during the next show.
Here is my letter to Mr. Natsios:
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Natsios:
It was with amazement and great sadness that I heard the news that funding to the PEARL project, a USAID project in Rwanda, would be terminated and the project would end earlier than planned. I write this letter to encourage you to reverse this decision, and help the PEARL project survive.
As a coffee buyer for my coffee roasting company, I travel frequently in developing countries, and get the opportunity to see many development projects, including many USAID projects. I have been in the coffee industry for 19 years, and I have never been inspired by any development project as I was by the PEARL project. In my view, the PEARL project has addressed sustainability, quality, education, and economic development more effectively than any coffee project I have ever seen. I consider it a model of public/private partnerships, and I have become heavily invested in the project and a strong advocate of it.
This year, I will purchase many thousands of pounds of high-quality coffee from Rwanda, a coffee source which did not exist for the quality coffee buyer even a few years ago. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Rwandan specialty coffee industry was created by PEARL. I have traveled twice in the past year to Rwanda, investing a tremendous amount of time and money to help train and develop coffee people in Rwanda, and collaborate with PEARL in maximizing sustainability, empowerment, and economic development. My company has marketed Rwandan coffee heavily, making people aware of the exciting things USAID was supporting in developing countries. I did this with the understanding that USAID was committed to supporting strong public-private partnerships. It is shocking to have the program prematurely cut, especially when my peers and I have invested so much in it.
I strongly feel you are threatening to eliminate the best coffee project USAID has ever undertaken. It will be difficult to invest in future public-private partnerships with the awareness that this can happen so suddenly.
I hope you will consider reversing the decision to eliminate the PEARL project’s funding, and instead champion it as the best work USAID can do.
Sincerely,
Peter Giuliano
Vice President, Director of Coffee
Counter Culture Coffee
Feel free to cut and copy at will, if you desire.
PG
Is there anything we Canadians can do to help?
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for a similar project from Canada but can't find one... yet.
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