The True Price of a Cup of Coffee
By Luella Bond
The earliest known coffee-drinking is attributed to the 15th century. Yemen natives used it in religious ceremonies. Because these practices clashed with Christian beliefs, however, the Ethiopian Church banned the secular consumption of coffee until the 17th century. In 2004 coffee was the top agricultural export in twelve separate countries, making it the world's seventh largest cultural export in value by 2005. With this upward trend in global demand comes concerns over environmental responsibility in growing the world's favorite pick-me-up. Consequently, organic coffee has become a rapidly expanding market.
The consensus among scientists is that the coffee plant originated in Ethiopia, where it naturally thrived in the shady, high elevation in the understory of the rainforest, and provided habitats for many species. Original farmed coffee continued to be an understory crop, providing the usual wildlife niches typical of traditional farms using sustainable agricultural techniques. Composting, crop rotation, intercropping, and abstaining from chemical fertilizers and insecticides are examples of sustainable techniques.
Starting in the 1950’s, the frenzy for coffee spurred large-scale sun growth coffee farming. The result: unprecedented chunks of rainforests clear-cut for the sole purpose of growing coffee. When every coffee plant is forced to grow in direct sunlight without a canopy for protection direct environmental impacts include deforestation, erosion, heavy pesticide usage, and water contamination. On paper, sun-grown methods make sense because they create the highest yields. However, gone is all diversity and niches because these plants only support a narrow monoculture. This effectively creates many detrimental impacts on the region. Because monocultures tend to become so disease-prone, they create an exponential increase in pesticide use which synergistically creates even more extreme cases of water pollution when combined with increased soil erosion.
Despite knowing its detrimental impacts, sun-cultivated farming is widely practiced because it is promoted by powerful companies. It is common to see farmers who have lived on the same plot for years now forced to practice destructive higher-yielding techniques solely for corporation profit. This technique of sun-cultivated farming is responsible for the loss of 2.5 million acres and counting of tropical rainforest forest in Central America alone. Deforestation trends are just as serious throughout the coffee-producing lands of Latin America. Currently, Latin America’s tropical rainforests are critical in the protection of atmospheric dynamics, water quality, and wildlife species. Due to the degradation of rainforests, indigenous peoples have been able to watch the micro-climate change from rainforest to desert during the span of their lives. Entire sections of Latin America have completely dried up because cleared-away trees cannot harness the water cycle.
In recent years, shade coffee certification programs have gained attention from conservation and development organizations. It is unclear exactly how much impact these conservation programs have on conservation efforts due to a gross lack of research. A study conducted to estimate the impact of conservationist work in the Belete-Gera Regional Forest Priority Area in Ethiopia used remote sensing data to gauge the change of forest area from 2005 to 2010. Using this data, the propensity score was estimated, and it was found that forests under a coffee certification program were 1.7 % less likely to be deforested than forests without a program.
Because coffee is the world’s second largest trading commodity after crude oil, it can be argued that the institution of sun cultivation has been forced upon coffee farmers as a direct result of franchises including Starbucks, Panera and McDonald’s and their campaigns for morning coffee. Not surprisingly, 37 of the 50 most deforested countries in the world are also coffee producers. At first glance, these numbers seem extreme or unrealistic. However, the people demanding their quick coffee fix are not the same ones who are forced to destroy their homeland to grow one of the select crops deemed valuable by the first world. By perpetuating a coffee-dependent culture, we are effectively degrading rainforests beyond recognition. The disconnect needs to be closed between the natives, consumers, and corporate heads, and all parties need to be better informed of the direct impact their actions have on the environment.
[photo, Caffeine Rush, By Logan Brumm licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
By Luella Bond
The earliest known coffee-drinking is attributed to the 15th century. Yemen natives used it in religious ceremonies. Because these practices clashed with Christian beliefs, however, the Ethiopian Church banned the secular consumption of coffee until the 17th century. In 2004 coffee was the top agricultural export in twelve separate countries, making it the world's seventh largest cultural export in value by 2005. With this upward trend in global demand comes concerns over environmental responsibility in growing the world's favorite pick-me-up. Consequently, organic coffee has become a rapidly expanding market.
The consensus among scientists is that the coffee plant originated in Ethiopia, where it naturally thrived in the shady, high elevation in the understory of the rainforest, and provided habitats for many species. Original farmed coffee continued to be an understory crop, providing the usual wildlife niches typical of traditional farms using sustainable agricultural techniques. Composting, crop rotation, intercropping, and abstaining from chemical fertilizers and insecticides are examples of sustainable techniques.
Starting in the 1950’s, the frenzy for coffee spurred large-scale sun growth coffee farming. The result: unprecedented chunks of rainforests clear-cut for the sole purpose of growing coffee. When every coffee plant is forced to grow in direct sunlight without a canopy for protection direct environmental impacts include deforestation, erosion, heavy pesticide usage, and water contamination. On paper, sun-grown methods make sense because they create the highest yields. However, gone is all diversity and niches because these plants only support a narrow monoculture. This effectively creates many detrimental impacts on the region. Because monocultures tend to become so disease-prone, they create an exponential increase in pesticide use which synergistically creates even more extreme cases of water pollution when combined with increased soil erosion.
Despite knowing its detrimental impacts, sun-cultivated farming is widely practiced because it is promoted by powerful companies. It is common to see farmers who have lived on the same plot for years now forced to practice destructive higher-yielding techniques solely for corporation profit. This technique of sun-cultivated farming is responsible for the loss of 2.5 million acres and counting of tropical rainforest forest in Central America alone. Deforestation trends are just as serious throughout the coffee-producing lands of Latin America. Currently, Latin America’s tropical rainforests are critical in the protection of atmospheric dynamics, water quality, and wildlife species. Due to the degradation of rainforests, indigenous peoples have been able to watch the micro-climate change from rainforest to desert during the span of their lives. Entire sections of Latin America have completely dried up because cleared-away trees cannot harness the water cycle.
In recent years, shade coffee certification programs have gained attention from conservation and development organizations. It is unclear exactly how much impact these conservation programs have on conservation efforts due to a gross lack of research. A study conducted to estimate the impact of conservationist work in the Belete-Gera Regional Forest Priority Area in Ethiopia used remote sensing data to gauge the change of forest area from 2005 to 2010. Using this data, the propensity score was estimated, and it was found that forests under a coffee certification program were 1.7 % less likely to be deforested than forests without a program.
Because coffee is the world’s second largest trading commodity after crude oil, it can be argued that the institution of sun cultivation has been forced upon coffee farmers as a direct result of franchises including Starbucks, Panera and McDonald’s and their campaigns for morning coffee. Not surprisingly, 37 of the 50 most deforested countries in the world are also coffee producers. At first glance, these numbers seem extreme or unrealistic. However, the people demanding their quick coffee fix are not the same ones who are forced to destroy their homeland to grow one of the select crops deemed valuable by the first world. By perpetuating a coffee-dependent culture, we are effectively degrading rainforests beyond recognition. The disconnect needs to be closed between the natives, consumers, and corporate heads, and all parties need to be better informed of the direct impact their actions have on the environment.
[photo, Caffeine Rush, By Logan Brumm licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]