Why You Should Buy Organic Coffee By: Matt Fluck and Akiko Mack
Organic Coffee u u u Organic coffee is that which is cultivated and/or processed without the use of chemicals of any sort including insecticides, artificial coloring or flavoring and additives. Coffee beans are seeds from berries that grow on shadeloving understory bushes. These bushes need the shade of mature trees, the same trees that provide habitat and food for many birds and insects. Coffee plantations have been called “one of the most sustainable and environmentally benign agroecosystems in Central America. ” Traditional Coffee Plantation
Benefits of Shade-Grown Coffee Shade trees • • • Photo Showing a Traditional Coffee Plantation where shade coffee is grown. The picture shows small coffee shrubs underneath a forest of trees. protect the understory coffee plants from rain and sun help maintain soil quality reduce the need for weeding aid in pest control. Organic matter from the shade trees also provides a natural mulch, which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, reduces erosion, contributes important nutrients to the soil, and prevents metal toxicities.
Sun- Tolerant Coffee Producers u u u Starting as early as the 1970’s, coffee growers began breeding plants that prospered in the full-sun, rather than the shade. With sun-tolerant coffee bushes, growers could remove trees, slightly increasing the profitable area of their fields and the yield of each plant. Sun-tolerant coffee plants require a steady diet of agricultural chemicals. Fertilizer- there is no leaf-litter to enrich the soil Herbicides- due to sun exposure, weeds invade the fields Fungicides- also important to stop growth of fungi u These chemicals affect the health of plantation workers and the health of the wildlife that live in the plantation.
Migratory Birds and Coffee u u u Common Migratory Bird Species Traditional coffee plantations can be thought of as modified forest habitats. In the midst of altered and shrinking habitat in both North and Latin America, migratory birds have found a sanctuary in the forest-like environment of American Redstart traditional coffee plantations The studies that have been conducted have found that the diversity of migratory birds plummets when coffee is converted from shade to sun. A leading team of bird surveyors around Mexico and Yellow-throated Warbler the Caribbean Basin, found that cacao and coffee plantations supported the largest numbers of forestdependent migratory birds of any agricultural habitats. Blue-headed Vireo In the regions most heavily used by migratory birds, coffee plantation "forests" cover 2. 7 million hectares, or almost half of the permanent cropland. This provides critical woodland habitat in midelevation areas where most large reserves have Black-throated Green been destroyed. Warbler
Why Care? The Decline of Migratory Birds Migratory birds play a major role in the health and functioning of ecosystems: • • • as consumers of insects (especially those that defoliate trees) dispersers of seeds as pollinators of flowers. They are also of considerable value to regional economies. When forest birds eat insects, the result is greater tree growth and a longer period between insect outbreaks services that may be worth as much as $5000 per year for each square mile of forest land. Millions of people watch birds as a hobby and many of them flock to areas where birds concentrate, where they spend millions of dollars on ecotourism.
Major Coffee Companies u Starbucks: agreed to offer certified organic coffee in their 2, 700 outlets only four days before planned demonstrations. (Even so, the outlet still buys fewer than 1 million pounds of this type of coffee, a mere 1% of the coffee it buys annually. ) u Maxwell House, Folgers & Nestle: together they represent about half of U. S. coffee sales, but the executives of the company have not taken actions towards purchasing organic, shade-grown coffee.
Some Organic Coffee Companies
Sources u u u u http: //macserv. murdoch. edu. au/HK/research_interests/pr ojects/east_timor/pictures/big_pics/slide http: //highered. mcgrawhill. com/sites/0072452706/student _view 0/chapter/additional_case_studies. html#organic http: //natzoo. si. edu/conservationandscience/migratorybird s/fact_sheets/default. cfm? fxsht=1 http: //www/watershedradio. org/may 2001/051101 migra. ht m http: //www. gcrio. org/CONSEQUENCES/vol 3 no 1/songbirds. html http: //www. counterculturecoffee. com/sanctuary_info. htm# art 1 http: //www. fordfound. org/publications/recent. articles/docs/ Solution_57 -62. pdf
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