FROM THE PUBLISHER

SOME PEOPLE FIND great comfort in organizing the things in their lives into compartments; in fact, this is a natural brain function that is often capitalized upon by advertisers and marketers. Many studies have shown that people naturally associate new items with existing partitions in their brains. Present them with a new product—for example, a new morning drink to get their day moving—and they naturally want to classify it in a familiar category, perhaps “coffee-like,” “tea-like” or “energy drink–like.”
     One form of advertising encourages this behavior (perhaps naming your new product “Java Bull”) to influence people to buy something new, but still familiar. Another approach strives to first create a new psychological bucket in people’s minds and then present a product as the sole resident of that bucket to emphasize the exclusivity (had anyone heard of Vitamin Water 10 years ago?).
     Given this natural brain function, it’s no wonder that people may be feeling a bit uneasy with what seems like a recent phenomenon of categories of things blurring together. Notice a less clear distinction between work and leisure time? How many companies both cooperate and compete with each other? The idea of home and office being the same place can certainly stir uneasy feelings in many people.
     Examples of the breakdowns between compartments are certainly evident these days at Roast. How many years ago was it that publishing was either electronic or traditional print? Those compartments no longer exist or, more accurately, they have merged. Business must recognize this, and so starting this year, full issues of Roast will now be available to subscribers in both print and electronic formats.
     Another striking example of the swirling of concepts is how business and environmental sustainability used to be thought of as separate and many times opposing entities. Not long ago, if you polled a group of 100 random people, the majority would have agreed with the statement that an idea is either good for business or good for the environment. Today, those attitudes are changing, and there is a new category that promotes ideas as mutually beneficial to business and the environment. Roast has been committed to establishing this new “bucket” in people’s minds in the roasting community through our editorial content and through our Roaster of the Year award. To further promote these ideas at origin, Roast is excited to introduce the first Coffee Conservation Award to recognize coffee farms that are making a significant contribution to global biodiversity preservation. The winner of the inaugural award will be announced in April 2010.
     We can’t stop our natural, subconscious tendency to create containers in our minds and to classify new things according to those containers. We can, however, recognize that this is a human trait and consciously remind ourselves that we need to be open and willing to create new compartments, and that doing so will induce a sense of calm and understanding in a rapidly changing world.

     Warmest Wishes,
     Connie