New digital column tracks the coffee industry as it adopts social networking tools.

Episode 1: YouTubing for Profit

Green coffee markets are forever in flux.

In 1883 Karl Marx wrote that “Business always appears excessively sound right on the eve of a crash.”*

And so it was in January 2008.

Estimates placed the number of coffee shops at 25,000, a dramatic increase since 2002 when there were 9,470 coffee shops operating in the U.S. according to the Economic Census. The...

Mom drinks tea, white. Dad drinks coffee, black.

My Canadian wife drinks Red Rose with its fondly remembered slogan "Only in Canada, you say? Pity...." humorously delivered by a disappointed Brit with a stiff upper lip.

Dan is founder of the Natural Food Network. He launched the Certified Organic Food Directory in 2003 and Natural Food magazine in 2005. In 2008 Dan was named editor-in-chief of Specialty Coffee Retailer.