Part of the Ronald and Janette Gatty series

Sarah G. Grant, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, California State University, Fullerton

This talk traces the emergence of “dirty coffee” in Vietnam across the 1990-2000s coffee production and export boom. I use the term “dirty” to position several iterations of Vietnamese coffee in the past decade: green Robusta (Coffea canephora) coffee beans that commingle with twigs, pebbles, and other debris; “fake” coffee, or coffee that has been adulterated with additives such as corn, soybean, or manganese dioxide; and the microbial worlds of coffee where mycotoxins lurk, threatening farmer livelihoods and consumer health. I explore the ways in which industrial coffee production perpetuates food safety scandals while simultaneously maintaining regulatory systems of governance. Drawing upon ethnographic data, I argue that when coffee is subject to the scrutiny of the state, it is part of a dynamic governing logic, ultimately becoming a way for regulatory authorities to perform effective rule while reinforcing the notion that Vietnam produces clean and safe coffee for domestic and global consumption.