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Do
You Know What You Drink? Most people
drink coffee, yet few recognize that buying some coffee
supports just wages and good environmental practices while
buying other coffee supports exploited labor, high profits for
a few and growing in a way that destroys the environment.
Coffee grown in Central America in the traditional way
under the shade of a forest supports the ecology of that forest
which provides home to over 150 species of birds.
These include common North American birds like the wood
thrush and the ruby-throated hummingbird.
The shade grown coffee forest has species diversity
significantly greater than any other agricultural land and
exceeded only by undisturbed tropical forest.
Coffee grown by many large corporations is grown on
cleared land. Its
cultivation takes large doses of chemicals, harming the land,
workers and leaving residues for coffee drinkers.
These chemicals include several banned in the U.S.
because of harmful health and ecological impacts.
Small farmers grow much coffee.
Often these farmers can barely survive because coffee is
traded as a commodity and is subject to the great variations in
price of the international market.
Currently coffee, the second biggest commodity next to
oil, is trading at a 100-year low, producing less than 30 cents
a pound for growers.
Three guidelines are important when purchasing coffee: Fair Trade: The importer guarantees a minimum price of $1.26 a pound to the grower. These coffees carry the logo of the Fair Trade Federation. Eighty-five percent of Fair Trade Coffee is organic and most is also shade-grown.
Certified Organic: No toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are used, protecting the environment, workers and you. Shade-grown or bird friendly; Coffee trees are left in their natural habitat underneath the larger trees of the forest, thereby protecting valuable habitat and ecological diversity. For those preferring decaffeinated coffee, it is important to buy coffee processed by a water or carbon dioxide process. Other forms of decaffeination use harmful chemicals. Currently among national grocery chains only Safeway and Trader Joe’s carry Fair Trade Coffee. In the Philadelphia area, only The Bucks County Coffee Roasters is Fair Trade certified. Starbucks carries Fair Trade coffee in bags but one must make a special request to brew it by the cup at no extra charge. Ten Thousand Villages in Bryn Mawr, Ephrata and Souderton also carries Fair Trade Coffee. Coffee can be mail-ordered from a number of companies including Thanksgiving Coffee Company, Equal Exchange, and Global Exchange. For others see www.transfairusa.org .
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