Mark Pendergrast: Beyond Fair Trade

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Cover: Beyond Fair Trade by Mark Pendergrast

BEYOND FAIR TRADE:
HOW ONE SMALL COFFEE COMPANY
HELPED TRANSFORM A HILLSIDE VILLAGE
IN THAILAND

Mark Pendergrast
Greystone Books, November 7, 2015, $18.95
ISBN-10: 1771640472
ISBN-13: 978-1771640473

Pendergrast reports:

I was first attracted to the Doi Chaang story because it was so unusual. I had never heard of excellent coffee coming from Thailand. Having written Uncommon Grounds, the history of coffee, I would have been an obvious person to know about it.

Mark Pendergrast

I wrote an article for my semi-regular coffee column in The Wine Spectator magazine, focusing on the quality and characteristics of the coffee. I found myself fascinated by the story of the Akha hill tribe, one of several tribes that migrated into the northern Thai mountains.

The Akha had no written language, and, until a few decades ago, had little contact with the outside world. They had an elaborate set of spiritual beliefs, and phenomenal memories. They were a peaceful, egalitarian people who usually preferred to flee rather than fight.

In Thailand, however, as more hill tribes immigrated, more children were born, and Thai loggers destroyed the forests, the Akha ran out of land. They resorted to growing poppies as a cash crop, scraping opium from the scored seed pods, an activity that increased their contact with Thai authorities. They were in poor health, with high child mortality.

All of that changed through the work of two remarkable people — an aging hippy Thai entrepreneur, Wicha Promyong, and a wealthy Canadian businessman, John Darch. Darch started a Vancouver coffee company specifically to roast Doi Chaang beans, giving half of the profits to the Akha.

This book — part anthropology, part business saga, part adventure travel, part science of opium and coffee — is the result. In writing the book, I traveled to both Vancouver and Doi Chang, Thailand, to see for myself what the company is doing and how it is doing it.

Darch helped fund my travel, with the written agreement that he would have no censorship power over the final product. Although I was nervous about this arrangement, he proved to be good to his word, and, fortunately, also proved to be quite an interesting character.

One of the people I interviewed in Vancouver was a neighbor of Rob Sanders, who owns Greystone Books, which specializes in works of social import and sustainability. My book was a natural fit, and I required no agent.

Contact Info:

Mark Pendergrast, 802-497-1570, markp508@gmail.com, www.markpendergrast.com.
Publicist: Andrea Damiani, 866-924-2264, andrea.damiani@greystonebooks.com.
Book websites: www.markpendergrast.com; http://www.greystonebooks.com/book_details.php?isbn_upc=9781771640473.

NASW members: will your book be published soon? Take advantage of this opportunity for shameless self-promotion. Submit your report for Advance Copy.

Tell your fellow NASW members how you came up with the idea for your book, developed a proposal, found an agent and publisher, funded and conducted research, and put the book together. Include what you wish you had known before you began working on your book, or had done differently.

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Thinking of writing a book? If you are a NASW member, you may access a list of more than 150 books and online resources to help you craft your book proposal, find an agent and funding sources, negotiate your contract, learn about self-publishing, publicize and market your book, and more at https://www.nasw.org/article/write-book.

Send book info and questions about book publishing to Lynne Lamberg, NASW book editor, llamberg@nasw.org.

Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines for information on submitting your report.

Publication of NASW author reports in Advance Copy does not constitute NASW's endorsement of any publication or the ideas, values, or material contained within or espoused by authors or their books. We hope this column stimulates productive discussions on important topics now and in the future as both science and societies progress. We welcome your discussion in the comments section below.