For some, breakfast is not complete without a cup of coffee, but to others, it's a subject that needs to be carefully studied.
Pushing for the development of the local coffee industry, De La Salle, through its La Salle Food and Water Institute, has introduced the country's first multidisciplinary coffee in collaboration with Gourmet Farms.
Dr. Mel Garcia, a chemistry professor at the DLSU, bared that the elective centers on the chemistry of coffee and involves a multidisciplinary approach to addressing issues, research gaps, and concerns surrounding coffee.
"It is a multidisciplinary elective course that the Chemistry Department of the university offers. As a multidisciplinary course, theoretically, anyone from the undergraduate can enroll in this course," Garcia told the Daily Tribune.
"Chemistry yung pinaka-core niya na activities pero as a multidisciplinary course, pwedeng iba-ibang students yung mag-enroll, eventually professors from different academic departments, pwede ring magturo (Chemistry is the core of this elective, but anyone can enroll, and eventually professors from different academic departments can also teach the subject)," he added.
DLSU and Gourmet Farms signed a memorandum of agreement and deed of donation last 6 January.
The 10-year partnership involves the further development of the pioneering program under the Department of Chemistry for all students in the university.
Garcia shared that the program is a product of years of working and exchanging notes with members of the coffee industry and is aimed at responding to the clamor of these industry actors.
"Ang gusto rin kasi naming mangyari dito (What we want to happen here is), people understand the core, the essential science and also look at it from the different lens, fields. Kasi alam naman natin na (Because we know that) coffee is not just a beverage, it's actually something that's tied or cuts across disciplines, may mga (there are) political issues sa (in) coffee, mayroong mga (there are) geopolitical, mayroong mga (there are) cultural, may poverty issues, may (there are) economic issues, all of these things," Garcia explained.
"So we're hoping that by offering the course, it provides the venue for academics from various disciplines to identify and address gaps and problems and issues in the coffee industry," he added.
He noted that the program is "not like any of the Coffee 101s," but rather digs deeper into the bases of both the fundamentals as well as the current state-of-the-art.
"The goal of the elective is to, on the surface of what people see, is that it makes an interesting way of learning chemistry or science in general," he continued.
"Pero actually, underneath that, there's a deeper objective of the people behind it na magkaroon ng venue yung mga member ng academic institutions, students, and faculty members na maging aware tsaka maintindihan yung mga (so that we members of the academic institutions, students, and faculty members could have a venue, become aware, and understand) the nuances in coffee so that they would be able to identity gaps doon sa coffee industry,"
Helping local farmers through research
How would this elective help local coffee farmers? Garcia said they aim to establish a culture of knowledge generation through facts and data that would fuel policies and introduce reforms.
"Hopefully kapag marami nang estudyante at faculty members na ang na-teach nito ng iba't ibang discipline (Hopefully when many students and faculty members from different disciplines have been taught), we will be able to generate more research from more disciplines," Garcia explained.
"Isa sa pinakamalalaking hamon ng coffee industry ay yung lack of new knowledge, generation of new knowledge. So paano ka gagawa ng reform? Paano mo pauunlarin yung coffee industry kung wala kang reporma? Paano ka makakagawa ng reporma kung wala kang polisiya? Paano ka gagawa ng polisiya kung wala kang datos? Saan manggagaling yung datos? Sa research diba (One of the biggest challenges of the coffee industry is the lack of new knowledge, generation of new knowledge. So how do we make reforms? How do we develop the coffee industry if we don't have reforms? How do we make reforms if there are no policies? How do we make policies when there are no data? Where do data come from? From researches, right?)," he added