Students help build a more equitable coffee supply chain through innovative design challenge
By Ann Marie Deer Owens
Imagine going to a coffee shop and ordering your favorite drink. You see a QR code next to your menu item. The code’s link connects you to global music from where the coffee beans were grown, as well as information about the local farmers who harvested the beans. That is a partial description of “Kopi Sori: Sound of Coffee,” by junior Lena H. Kim, one of nine pitches—six by College of Arts and Science students—during the 2024 Coffee Equity Design Challenge.
Students were paired with coffee industry professionals for mentorship and support during the challenge. Each student had to identify a specific justice or sustainability problem within the global coffee supply chain. They then collaborated with their mentor to present a solution.
The challenge was a highlight of spring programming in the Coffee Equity Lab, led by College of Arts and Science alumnus Conley Ku, BA’23. The lab, now housed within the Program in American Studies, was co-founded by Ted Fischer, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology, and Hanes Motsinger, former assistant director of social innovation at the Wond’ry.
“The Coffee Equity Lab provides an enriching experience for students seeking real-world perspectives on the business of coffee,” Ku said. “We invite faculty and guest lecturers to share their expertise in wide-ranging areas, including field crop production, roasting, economics, marketing, and much more.”
Kim’s pitch for the challenge sought to “build bridges” between coffee farmers and coffee drinkers. “Even though the coffee market is growing, the amount of revenue going to the farmers is stagnant, with little awareness by consumers,” said Kim, who enjoys trying out new coffee shops with friends in her hometown of Los Angeles. “I proposed working with local coffee shops to provide easy access to the music of coffee-producing nations. Customers who scan the QR code next to their menu selection would hear global music as well as snippets of information from farmers and importers. The link also provides an option to donate directly to coffee farmers.”
Kim is double majoring in neuroscience and medicine, health, and society, with a minor in cello. She was excited to work with her mentor, Jenn Rugolo, curatorial director for the Specialty Coffee Association. Rugulo, who earned a master of arts in ethnomusicology, shares Kim’s interest in examining music within its social and cultural contexts.
Sophomore Alea Clark, of Nashville, researched genetic diversity within the commercial coffee crop and the risk of coffee rust disease. “Coffee rust is essentially a type of fungus that sickens the tree over a few years, reduces the yield, and eventually kills it,” she said. “The rust is practically ubiquitous in areas where coffee is grown. Considering that coffee trees can take two to four years to grow, that is a huge crop loss for small farmers.”
Clark, who is majoring in neuroscience, proposed creating a hybrid to introduce genetic diversity within the crop. “The main species for specialty coffee is Arabica, and it has a different number of chromosomes than other coffee species, and that difference in chromosomes is what makes it generally incompatible with other coffee species,” Clark said. “My idea is to take two of the ancestral species and essentially rehybridize Arabica. Then it could breed with other coffee species, creating many new species to be distributed to farmers. When coffee rust strikes, there would be a wider variety of biological mechanisms to fight it.”
Clark appreciated the guidance of her mentor, agronomist Taya Brown, who is doing a postdoctoral study on cultural management of leaf rust in Hilo, Hawaii. “Like Taya, I’m interested in continuing to do research on coffee rust. I hope to pursue a doctorate in immunology or neuro-immunology,” Clark said.
Sophomore Ishan Singh, of Fresno, California, said that while there are many good reasons to highlight issues at the start of the coffee supply chain, he went in a different direction: putting a spotlight on the end of the process. His pitch was “Beyond the Cup: Transforming Used Coffee Grounds into Sustainable Solutions.”
Landfills are the dumping ground for 75 percent of all coffee waste, with only 25 percent being repurposed. In addition, spent coffee grounds create acidic leachate, damaging the soil as soon as they touch the dirt, according to Singh, who is double majoring in medicine, health, and society and human and organizational development.
“Composting is a solution, but it’s not practiced well,” he said. “To secure the future of coffee, we must channel investment into innovative practices that transform spent coffee grounds into marketable, reusable materials and adopt agricultural methods that repurpose coffee pulp.”
Alternatives include converting used coffee grounds into multipurpose clay and brown-colored coffee cups. Singh found examples of coffee grounds used to make sunglasses in Ukraine. Advising Singh on his project was Lane Mitchell, an expert on coffee sustainability who works in marketing and business development for Carrboro Coffee Roasters.
The students delivered their pitches on campus to a panel of professionals who watched on Zoom. This year’s winner, Samuel Ea, is invited to present his project, “Decolonizing the Flavors of Coffee,” at a national industry event called Bloom this fall. “My pitch centered on a flavor wheel that the coffee industry has used to try to standardize flavor,” Ea said. “However, the flavor wheel is not easily accessible to the countries that grow the beans, which results in the farmers not knowing important information from a value perspective. If the farmers do not understand what their coffee tastes like to the consumer, they cannot demand its fair value.” One example would be a flavor called Blueberry Jam on the wheel. Many coffee farmers have never tasted blueberry jam.
Ea proposed sending the farmers what he called a “dialogue kit,” containing instant coffee and water supplements for brewing the coffee. The next step would be a zoom call with a professional taster to discuss flavors. Ea’s mentor, whom he described as incredibly helpful, was Susan Heller Evenson, Atlas Coffee Importers’ trader for Africa and mainland Asia.
Ku noted that some students are using their challenge as their Immersion Vanderbilt experience, which he did as an undergraduate. Ku majored in economics and minored in history, where he read about coffee’s colonial roots. He learned even more when he participated in the 2021 Coffee Equity Design Challenge as a student.
“My pitch was a framework for coffee retailers to self-report information about where their coffee comes from, who produces it, and how they communicate with the growers,” Ku said. “Connecting information along the value chain is important because farmers are expected to offer certain characteristics in their beans, but often have no way of keeping up with changing taste preferences. So their market value is unknown and unstable.”
His experience as an undergraduate participating in the design challenge and working with the Coffee Equity Lab sparked his passion and inspired him to lead the lab after graduating. Ku aims to expand the challenge in the future by exploring even more partnerships within the coffee supply chain.
“Many of us drink coffee every morning, but rarely consider the environmental, economic, cultural, and social implications of this habit,” Ku said. “This challenge exposes students to the globally interconnected world of coffee and how they can play a part in making in the industry more just and sustainable.”