The problems with sun coffee

Coffee (Coffea arabica) is an understory tree or shrub which naturally grows in shade. 

In order to increase the yield of coffee shrubs and individual farms, and to prevent crop loss from coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), there was a movement over the last 20 years towards the "technification" of coffee farming, which replaced traditional shade grown farming with sun cultivation.  Over 2.5 million acres of forests in Central America were destroyed to make way for monocultures of sun grown coffee.  This caused an immediate loss in biodiversity, both in the many types of trees and plants that were eliminated, as well as the animals that depended on them. 

The World Wildlife Fund notes that of the 50 countries in the world with the highest deforestation rates from 1990 to 1995, 37 were coffee producers. Ecosystems in tropical areas, where coffee is grown, are particularly complex, and this loss is devastating.  (For more on the degrees of sun or shade under which coffee is grown, see "What is shade grown coffee?")

Other than the loss of biodiversity that is a result of fewer trees and reduced complexity, there are other negative environmental impacts of growing coffee in full sun.

• In shade plantations, dead leaves from the overstory trees provide nutrients to the coffee shrubs as they decay.  In sun plantations, these nutrients are not available, so fertilizers must be used, especially nitrogen (since many traditional overstory trees are nitrogen-fixing legumes), which is essential to coffee growth.
  
• There are fewer weeds in shade plantations, because fallen leaves from overstory trees in shade plantations act as a natural mulch.  Herbicides are needed to control weeds in sun plantations.
• Soils in sun plantations are more exposed to the elements, particularly drenching rains typical of tropical areas.  This means more erosion of topsoil, and the leaching of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides into local watersheds. Erosion and water pollution are serious consequences of growing coffee on sun plantations.
• Coffee plants in sun plantations grow faster and age more quickly than those grown in shade, and therefore must be replaced more often, specifically at about  6 versus 30 year intervals, respectively.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has a thorough examination of the environmental dimensions of coffee production (and here), as does the World Wildlife Fund.

  

Comments

[Bharat Chevur]

Coffee grown in India is entirely shade-grown and very environmental friendly. Infact, to a layman, coffee plantations look like forests. Bird life thrives on these plantations.

Most of these plantations are at an altitude of 2500-4000 feet.

What are altitudes at which 'sun' coffee is grown?

[BirdBarista]

If the sun is robusta, it can be grown at lower altitudes, say 1000 meters. Arabica varieties of sun coffee are grown at the nearly the same altitudes as other coffee. However, the goal of sun coffee is higher yield, so in addition to growing in monocultures in the sun, producers want to be able to harvest by machine. This is more difficult in rugged terrain, which is more common at higher altitudes.

I am planning an in-depth look at coffee in India when I have more time, because the coffee systems often do preserve a lot of biodiversity. Indian coffee is not very common in the U.S., especially in stores and retail outlets. But I want to cover it anyway! Thanks for stopping by Bharat!

[Darren Alexander Green]

I'm currently on a coffee farm in south kona on the big island of hawaii. we are an organic farm with lots of shade and lots of non-shade coffee. This article mentioned that herbicides are need to control weeds on sun plantations" and this is simply not true for the entire world. We do not use non-organic chemicals on our farm and we weed by hand. Also, it was mentioned that sun trees need to be replaced about every 6 years and this is simply not true. We have sun trees that are 40 years old on our farm. Plus, shade coffee trees look more full at the same time as sun coffee trees, but sun coffee trees, as mentioned, produce a higher yield. I am for increasing biodiversity across the globe, but why is coffee singled out? yes, it's the second most traded commodity, but other crops should also use shade.

[BirdBarista]

Thanks for your comment, Darren. In speaking of "sun coffee" in this context, it is generally meant to mean the large, technified farms. These big plantations in particular are not hand-weeded, but use herbicides as well as other chemical inputs such as non-organic fertilizers. This push to produce artificially higher yields is one reason trees are replaced much more often -- when they produce less they don't give a good enough return on investment (cost of all the inputs); often these trees are also of varieties that do better in sun and are high-yielding, but may not be as long-lived as other varieties. In this context, the statements are indeed true -- for more information you can read the material at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and World Wildlife Fund.

Why single out coffee? Because unlike the majority of major crops in the world, it is essentially a forest crop, and expansion of technified coffee nearly always involves deforestation. And it grows in tropical areas that are frequently the world's biodiversity hotspots. Browse the archives here, and you will find a lot of information and links that make this case very strongly.