Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand - February 2013

[ky]

@Giles:

and what a coffee it was (it has now passed through at least 2 mammals)…

the guys at Tuckshop will be having a taste of it soon too…

"sharing the shit around" i guess….???

[MikeC]

That must be a great job, following monkeys around until they shit, then you go dig thru it.

[Snowy]

It's kinda pretty easy to follow them around; they're usually in cages being over-fed coffee cherries;

http://sprudge.com/kopi-luwak-just-say-philippi-no.html

It's a bit of a problem for the industry.

[MikeC]

That's super fucked. I'll never drink that shit. I'm half Korean, but some of the shit Asians do with food is down right fucked up. It's like whaling in Japan (I don't condone the Sea Shepherd idiocy either).

[Snowy]

I'd love to see a free-range organic civet farm. It's hard for me to look at a different culture with different practices and start from there. Like you Mike, coming from a society that condones animal cruelty, this is utterly horrible. Somewhere in there the farmers are trying to make a living for their families.

My point, I don't see any easy answers to update/modify the industry, especially with different cultural backgrounds and a product that's perceived as cultural. The simple answer is not to buy any and let that lead to conversations/research by farmers….money talks, cash is king.

Apologies for the hijacking of a great holiday trip. Mods, feel free to delete if you feel this is inappropriate.

[Giles]

Holiday?  It was all feckin work - honest…..

[Snowy]

whistles oh right. It just looks like a holiday. Work is play, play is work?