Your Sustainable and Eco-friendly Morning Cup of Coffee

cup of coffee I was in my local market the other day to pick up some essentials, with coffee at the top of the list. Without my morning cup of “joe”, well, I’m just not myself. (sound familiar?)

Amongst all the varieties of coffee on the shelfs, I saw cans of Yuban imprinted with a little green sticker indicating that it was “Rainforest Alliance Certified”.

Now, I usually looked for coffee that indicated it was shade grown or otherwise produced in an eco-friendly and sustainable manner, but I had never seen Yuban with this green certification before. To be honest, when I thought of Yuban coffee, the image of sustainable had never come to mind.

Nonetheless, I bought a can, trusting that the Rainforest Alliance wouldn’t allow their name to be used for mere “green marketing” and that Yuban really did practice sustainable production methods.

But this got me curious, so I did a little research; both with the Yuban story and “green” coffee in general.

coffee beans The coffee bean is an understory plant (one the lives under the canopy of taller trees) originally found in the rainforests of Africa. Obviously, the coffee plant became one of the most important cash crops in the world, helping to drive the economies of more than 50 countries, and is the primary source of income for many poor, rural regions of the world.

The World Bank estimates that between 17 and 20 million families grow coffee, usually as their principal means of survival. The coffee trade reaches from the small family farm in rural third-world communities all the way up to the globalized commodity market.

This makes it tough on the small family farm. The collapse of the International Coffee Agreement 1975-1989 led to a precipitous drop in the price of coffee on the commodity market, dropping to only $0.43/pound. This forced many farmers out of business or into harvesting illicit crops.

A slow (some might say painfully slow) turnaround is taking place with co-op farming and fair trade coffee exchanges helping to bring back a sustainable income for small farmers.

While coffee has often been grown as a mono-crop in cleared land and full sun, the plant is actually perfectly suited to growing in the rainforest (after all, that’s where it came from). Shade grown coffee shares the land with a rich biodiversity of flora and fauna, in tune with the environment instead of in spite of it. Many environmental groups, from activist organizations to entities such as the American Birding Association promote and endorse sustainable, organic, shade-grown coffee farms over the mono-crop, full sun variety. After all, where there’s shade, there’s trees, and where there’s trees, there’s birds.

Which brings us back to the Rainforest Alliance Certification for the cup of Yuban coffee that I’ve got sitting here on my desk.

The Rainforest Alliance, with the support of the Sustainable Agriculture Network, works with NGO’s and other partner organizations to help farmers bring their operations up to the standards set forth by the Alliance in the protection of land, wildlife, local communities, and workers’ rights. Complying with these standards is wholly voluntary and the process of eco certification begins with an application from the farmer.

The green Rainforest Alliance Certification label on my can of Yuban wasn’t awarded to the Yuban Corporation per se; it was awarded to the farmers that supply Yuban with their product.

So the next time I’m in the store looking for a can (or bag) of coffee, I’ll look for the green Rainforest Alliance Certification, or otherwise look for coffee that is grown in a fair trade, shade grown environment.

It’s good for everybody; and we're all happier after a good cup of coffee.

Sources and Further Reading
The Rainforest Alliance
CoffeeResearch.org
Wikipedia - Coffee
GlobalExchange.org

List of Fair Trade Coffee Retailers

( Add your comments )

Recent Entries:
· Planet 100: Oil Minefield in the Gulf of Mexico
· Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics
· Fake plastic cups make a great conversation starter

[ READER COMMENTS ]

Your Sustainable and Eco-friendly Morning Cup of Coffee

Add your comments...

We kindly ask that you keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Abusive or inappropriate comments or comments that are specifically promotional in nature may be removed.