Organic Coffee Beans and Sustainable Farming

Organic coffee beans, they are not just about watching over your health. Choosing organic coffee beans means taking responsibility into your own hands about the welfare of the farmers who grow them for you.

Since organic coffee beans are grown without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals that permeate the bodies of the farmers and their families. This means that growing organic coffee beans result in healthier lives for farmers and their children. Therefore, choosing to purchase organic coffee beans is about helping others and not just yourself.

Sustainable farming; sustainable coffee which is grown and traded in a manner that displays respect and kindness to the environment and those involved in growing and trading the coffee. Its only real definition is sustaining the lives and the land of the farmers. It may also be defined under fair trade, which stipulates that the farmers be compensated fairly for their efforts and that healthy farming conditions are implemented.

Organic Coffee Beans: What is Involved?

Organic coffee beans account for approximately just a sixth of all coffee production right now. They are grown without pesticides such as benoyml, chlordane, cabrflurane, DDT, endulfan, paraquat, and zineb. And without the use of high nitrogen fertilizers which can pollute the local water supply and leach important minerals out of the soil rendering them useless to the local plants.

Even though coffee is the third most heavily sprayed crop, it is only preceded by cotton and tobacco. By the time the coffee cherries are removed from the seeds and they are washed, dried, roasted, and sent to grinders most of those toxic chemicals are gone. The tests have shown that any pesticide residuals are negligible. What's scary is the lives of those farmers and their families. Communities which grow coffee beans are traditionally poor and impoverished.

Growing and selling coffee beans may be their only means of income and sustainment. They often do not have access to proper protection gear such as respirators, face masks, goggles, special clothing or suits that would protect them from absorbing the pesticides. Nor are they educated on proper applications or safety procedures for pesticide, herbicide, or fertilizer use.

These pesticides are then breathed in, absorbed through the skin, and taken home on their bodies where it is spread throughout their homes and finds its way onto their children and food. Additionally, the pesticides leak into their water and food supplies. This means that the lives of coffee farmers are often sick and die prematurely. Cancer, reproductive harm, and disease can run rampant in the homes and communities of these farmers.

Sustainable Farming: What is Involved?

Sustainable farming involves giving back to the land and people who provide the world's second largest traded commodity. It does so by seeking independence from non-renewable resources, and using renewable resources as much as possible. This means minimizing pollution during the growing, harvesting, and processing the coffee bean and taking steps to care for the farmers and processors, especially in third world countries.

These self sustaining practices include reusing the coffee husks and berries for fuel and fertilizer and filtering the water used in processing and then reusing that water to in turn water the crops. It also means implementing new sustainable technology and practices such as pollution free dryers which use solar energy, and specialized growing techniques which reduced the need for pesticides.

By reusing the husks as fuel this reduces the need to cut down trees for fuel which saves the forests and trees. This in turn, provides shade for the coffee plants and a habitat for bird species. Shade grown coffee grows slower and has a richer taste. While shade growing allows a habitat for birds and means those insects and other pests will be eaten by those birds and pesticides will not need to be used.

Reusing the husks and berry pulp as fertilizer in turn, makes the solid more mineral rich and better for the plants and coffee crops in the long run. While chemical fertilizers feed the crops for a season, using the pulp builds the soils nutrient and mineral content and eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers altogether. This also results on larger yields over time as well as better growing soils for future crops. The result is better tasting coffee and a safer environment.

Reusing the water to water the crops means less pollution in the rivers, lakes, and water supplies. The water used in washing and fermenting the beans will no longer spoil the water for the environment or for the people that live there. Additionally, new fermentation techniques also implement the use of dry fermentation where no water is used at all. The coffee has been said to tastes better using this method and it cuts down on water usage.

Sustainable farming also means research and implementation of renewable resources, promoting education programs for farmers, workers, and communities, medical care for farmers and processing plant workers. It also provides decent compensation and living conditions for all those involved in growing and processing the coffee and the communities in which they live.

Organic and Sustainable: Interconnected Issues

Organic fair trade coffee means that the farmers are paid a fair price for their hard work. It also means that the living conditions and growing methods ensure a sustainable environment and community. Growing organic coffee with sustainable farming means that we take responsibility through our purchase choices that takes into consideration both the ecosystem in which the coffee is grown and the lives and communities which work to produce it.

Farmers have no control over the price they are paid for their hard work and while the price of coffee has been increasing over the years, the farmers have been seeing a decline in their compensation. This means the middle man is taking a larger and larger chunk of the profits.

Therefore, when we purchase organically grown, fair trade, and sustainable farming coffee, we take into account the lives of the people and animals in the third world countries who have worked hard to produce our daily cup of joe. We take into consideration not just the present desired outcomes, but also the next generations of coffee producers. And we get better tasting coffee as a result. This results in more equality to all.