Organic coffee is simply grown clean. Coffee raised without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Organic coffee means healthier farmers and environment, less pollution and dependence on chemical companies.
Shade grown coffee is grown traditionally. Coffee plants are interspersed under a shielding canopy of trees. Shade grown coffee creates more biodiversity and bird habitat with less need for chemical inputs. Full-sun and Technified coffees are hybrid varieties grown against nature's will without shade trees and with agro-chemicals. In the end we are left with more environmental destruction and less wildlife habitat. Simply put: Your coffee selection has the potential for powerful economic and environmental change.
A BIT OF A COFFEE COMEBACK HISTORY
"Shade Grown" and "Organic Coffee" are new terms that describe the rejuvenation of intelligent, old practices. Coffee, native to Ethiopia,
domesticated from a shade loving understory shrub. After Europeans brought coffee to the Americas it continued to be grown for centuries in an
environment that mimicked its natural habitat. This original shaded system maintained a natural balance with the canopy trees providing organic
material for the soil, habitat for birds and beneficial insects. Plus it added extra income from lumber and fruit after the harvest of the coffee
season. In the 1970's and 80's coffee mutated away from shade loving plants to "full-sun" varieties, as coffee breeders tried to increase
productivity. These new varieties hit the scene and have wreaked havoc on tropical forests ever since. Full-sun coffee is part of a "technified"
production requiring a clear cut of all or most trees, allowing the coffee plants to be placed closer together. Technified coffee is also chemical intensive, throwing the balance of the traditional system out of whack. Full-sun coffee growers require chemical fertilizers and pesticides to compensate for the loss of nutrients and biological diversity previously supplied by the canopy trees. With the onset of full-sun varieties, coffee became another Green Revolution "success story." The higher yielding plants were trumpeted as a technological advance that benefited everyone with cheaper coffee and higher profits. But that is certainly not the whole story; as coffee yields increased so did environmental, economic, social and health problems.
Full-sun coffee has increased productivity, but the new yields come at a cost. This cost is not found in economic reports, rather in the number of farmers poisoned by agro-chemicals, with the reduced migratory bird counts and in the increased dependence on agri-business by uninformed farmers. To top it off, flavor is sacrificed since organic and shade grown coffee matures at a slower and more steady pace imparting a sweeter, more stable flavor.
ORGANIC COFFEE SAVES FARMERS
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides seriously threaten the health of farmers that handle them, the people exposed to polluted drinking water and finally to consumers by consuming pesticide residue. In addition, when these chemicals are unleashed on the environment their impact on wildlife is typically disastrous. Nowhere is this issue greater than in the coffee regions of Latin America, where regulations on pesticides are lax and agro-chemicals are mishandled, causing poisonings and excessive runoff. Organic coffee farms incorporate a combination of old and new techniques to maintain fertility and control pests without the use of synthetic chemicals.
SHADE GROWN COFFEE SAVES BIRDS
The coffee regions of Central and South America are habitat to countless migratory and native birds. According to researchers at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, shade coffee farms are second only to undisturbed forest in their ability to support bird life. Full-sun systems, on the other hand, are no comparison. As few as one-half as many birds are crossing the gulf of Mexico now compared to 20 years ago. Reduced bird counts in North America have been attributed to lost habitat and deforestation in Latin America. The simple truth is that Shade-grown coffee reverses this trend.
Organic and shade grown coffee that is then fair traded is a component of sustainable communities, where ecology, economics and culture overlap. Organic coffee promotes healthy farmers and environments, shaded coffee farms increase biodiversity and bird habitat. Fair trade sustains vital communities, lifts families from poverty and makes us all better. These practices are closely interrelated. At Peace Coffee ALL our coffee is Shade Grown, Organic and Fairly Traded – we settle for nothing less.
Please drink nothing else.
