Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away

I travel to Colombia’s Huila region to answer a question that’s puzzled me for years: if specialty coffee pays more, is better for the environment, and brews tastier cups—why don’t more farmers grow it? I speak with two producers in the same region whose choices couldn’t be more different. One stakes his future on specialty. The other opts out. Their decisions come down to more than passion or a hard work ethic. Instead, I uncover two starting conditions—often invisible to us buyers—that strongly shape whether a farmer chooses specialty at all. If we want to see more speciality coffee grown, we need to bring down the barriers to specialty. But first we need to understand what those barriers really are. The answers might surprise you. They surprised me. Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter Find your next favourite Colombian coffee from The Coffee Quest Taste coffees from Erick Bravo’s award winning farm, Finca El Chaferote Nerd out on my farm profitability estimations Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations: The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat Check out Standart , the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here . How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out. Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single . What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here .

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Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away is an episode from Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries by James Harper.

This episode is 46:45 long.

This episode was published on Jun 9, 2025.

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