Better-tasting coffee is not the only benefit which one derives from purchasing organic coffee. Discovering organic coffee and its connection to sustainability, environmental protection, good health, and social responsibility have reached the ears and hearts of the coffee drinking community.
More people are now aware of the benefits of growing organic coffee versus conventional production. Fair Trade in coffee is making efforts to raise awareness of producing organic coffee as well. They provide premiums to organic coffee growers, making growers more motivated than ever to sustain organic farming and find natural ways to increase production without utilizing herbicides, artificial fertilizers, and pesticides. Motivation is not their only mover but the more than sufficient premium provided by the Trade Fair to growers breaks the cycle of poverty among coffee growers.
Organic farming has much emphasis on sustainability, soil health, composting, and recycling. These are the four major elements that make a yield of coffee beans organic. People who resort to conventional coffee production find that they can triple their coffee yield by using inorganic fertilizers and herbicides in coffee growing. This results to faster growth and bean maturity, but then soil health and quality is compromised greatly by employing these dangerous and unhealthy methods of coffee production.
Organic coffee farming on the other hand adheres to agricultural permaculture. This coffee growing technique promotes sustainability due to the biodiversity of the environment where the coffee plants grow. Biodiversity increases sustainability since one living creature’s waste product is another species nourishment and energy source. This recycling method is known to affect the quality of coffee beans produced as well.
Coffee beans produced by organic means yield richer tasting cups of coffee because of the natural environment and conditions from where it grew. You don’t have to worry about sipping through your cup of espresso and thinking there might be traces of pesticides and harmful fertilizers in them. Organic farming does not use any form of fertilizers or pesticides to enhance their coffee production. Just make sure that you purchase your coffee packs from the grocery, and buy your cappuccino from commercial establishments and companies that have the Fair Trade mark on their products.
Shade-grown coffee beans produce the best organic coffees that are also under the Fair Trade mark. Since the shade-grown method only produce 1/3 of what most conventional coffee producers grow, becoming a Fair Trade member is somewhat crucial to the cycle of a coffee grower’s ability to continue producing coffee under environment-friendly and organic traditions.
With the increased awareness of people on the importance of growing coffee organically, more individuals are realizing the relevance of a healthy environment to sustain their needs and demands for healthy, safe, and better tasting coffee. This is why people are spreading the word of how important it is to grow organic produce. The problem caused by producing coffee by means of conventional methods is only a small piece of a bigger problem.
If people do not stop their use of fertilizers and pesticides in producing coffee, slow but gradual degradation of the earth’s soil will lead to massive and deadly erosion. Certain bird species may become extinct in the near future because of the lack of trees that envelop a tree farm. Shade-grown coffee farms houses a number of bird species, and if sun resistant coffee beans are developed through and through, the need to plant trees which act as shelters for birds will then be unnecessary.
There should be more emphasis on organic farming not only in the production of coffee, but also in the production of other crops. We might not feel the effects of unhealthy inorganic production presently, but we will surely be suffering some pretty bad consequences if we don’t stop our greedy ways of crop production.
