Pam Mizuno was excited to be named one of Ernst & Young’s Earthwatch Ambassadors. As such, she recently got to spend a week learning about sustainable farming on a Costa Rican coffee cooperative.

It was a perfect assignment for the 25-year-old paralegal in Ernst & Young’s downtown L.A. office. Well, except maybe for the part about being among all those coffee shrubs. She never much cared for the drink.

On the plantation, she spent days collecting diseased leaf specimens to help a Ph.D. candidate research a fungal disease that has hit coffee shrubs. And she spent evenings helping the co-op members learn about corporate governance and other good business practices.

She was impressed with the energy and passion the people put into their work; each coffee bean is picked by hand to get the ripest ones. And she admired the sustainable practices they employ. Water used to wash the beans, for example, is reused to irrigate the plantation.

“It’s a way of life,” she said.

Along the way, she learned to love coffee. In fact, she brought back a suitcase filled with 10 types of beans and even bought a French press when she returned to Los Angeles.

And, of course, she’s become an unabashed ambassador for the brand.

“Costa Rican coffee is, hands down, the best coffee in the world,” she declared.

Winning the Name Game

It’s good to be David Murdock, even if you’re not that David Murdock.

That’s what David K. Murdock, 43, has found since moving to Southern California three years ago. He settled in Westlake Village, home to billionaire David H. Murdock’s Dole Food Co. and close to the 90-year-old’s Thousand Oaks ranch.

“In Westlake, I probably get it weekly,” said the younger Murdock, managing partner in the Century City office of Silvercrest Asset Management. “I often get asked if I’m a son or if I’m related.”

That might sound like an annoyance, but it occasionally pays off – for instance, when calling for restaurant reservations.

“When I call to get reservations, people don’t know my voice over the phone,” he said. “I’ve had instances where the maître d or the sommelier comes over and thinks Mr. Murdock is going to be joining us shortly. Of course, that’s after they’ve given me one of the better tables.”

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren contributed to this column.
Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].