There’s so much stuff at Sweet Maria’s web site, seems like every time you visit you find another nugget. I found a great table of information on when the peak harvest and best shipping times are for coffee crops around…
Background information
Why sustainable agriculture is important to biodiversity and the alleviation of poverty.
A little primer on the various botanical varieties of coffee — including most popular types of arabica coffee as well as some that include robusta heritage, and even some liberica.
Can people without a biology background — coffee roasters, importers, or retailers — make sound assessments of coffee plantations?
There are pros and cons to the shade certification process, including costs to farmers, and problems with applying one-size-fits-all biodiversity criteria to different regions. Therefore, some farms may meet or exceed certification criteria — and be excellent sanctuaries for biodiversity…
You can find many different coffee brands on supermarket shelves, and frequently multiple brands are actually owned by one of only a few corporate conglomerates. Some of these companies have poor records when it comes to environmental and social responsibility….
It is important to understand the various levels of growing coffee under shade. This lists the five most typical categories, from the most desirable, traditional growing method, to the least diverse, most modern and technified method.
In order to increase the yield of coffee shrubs and individual farms, coffee farmers were encouraged to replace traditional shade grown coffee with sun cultivation. Over 2.5 million acres of forests in Central America were destroyed to make way for monocultures of sun grown coffee.
Traditional, shade-grown coffee plantations harbor a diversity of many taxa — orchids, insects, and mammals, for example. But it is the research that showed the importance of shade coffee plantations to birds that caught the attention of the public, and…
There is no set definition of the term “shade grown.” Here are the two main certifications that deal with shade coffee.
If it’s certified Fair Trade… Over 80% of the coffee certified Fair Trade in the U.S. (by TransFair USA) is also shade grown. Organizations that certify shade grown coffee are the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and the Rainforest Alliance. Nearly…
Worldwide, habitat destruction is the leading cause of bird population declines and loss of biodiversity. The link between poverty and environmental degradation is inescapable. Making sure that coffee farmers receive a living wage is one way to help preserve habitat…
