"Sustainable coffee is produced on a farm with high biological diversity and low chemical inputs. It conserves resources, protects the environment, produces efficiently, competes commercially and enhances the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole."
-- Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, First Sustainable Coffee Congress overview paper
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Birds, Biodiversity, & Shade Coffee- Birds that use coffee plantations
- The Grind over Sun Coffee
- The Case of the Disappearing Warbler
- Bird-Friendly coffee slide show
- WWF: Coffee and habitat conversion
- Shade certification issues
- Why Birds Are Crazy for Shade Coffee
- Audubon Magazine shade coffee article
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- Rainforest Alliance certification standards
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March 26, 2009: Nicaraguan shade coffee: Finca Esperanza Verde
My experiences on shade and bird diversity at Nicaragua's Finca Esperanza Verde.
December 4, 2008: Bird-friendly Galapagos Island coffee
The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has just announced that it has certified Hacienda El Cafetal coffee from the Galapagos Islands as Bird-Friendly, the most eco-friendly certification for coffee. Galapagos coffee has been on my "to try" list for quite awhile....
November 22, 2008: The world according to coffee
This map shows the countries of the world sized according to the amount of coffee they produce. Click the map and watch the world transformed by coffee. More maps like this, representing a host of different topics in groups such...
August 26, 2008: Research: Woodpeckers and ants in India's shade coffee
Vishnudas, C. K. 2008. Crematogaster ants in shaded coffee plantations: a critical food source for Rufous Woodpecker Micropternus brachyurus and other forest birds. Indian Birds 4:9-11. Rufous Woodpeckers are ant specialists. The Rufous Woodpecker is one of the twelve woodpecker...
August 19, 2008: Vietnam: Will replacing old coffee mean more deforestation?
Half of Vietnam's half-million ha of coffee trees will have to be replaced in the next 5 to 10 years. So far, farmers have ignored expert advice and cleared forests to plant cheap robusta coffee. What will they do now?
August 4, 2008: Research: Sumatran coffee weak on preserving forest biodiversity
Philpott, S. M., P. Bichier, R. A. Rice, and R. Greenberg. 2008. Biodiversity conservation, yield, and alternate products in coffee agrosystems in Sumatra, Indonesia. Biodiversity Conservation 17:1805-1820. The vast majority of field research on biodiversity conservation in coffee agrosystems has...
July 24, 2008: Coffee growing in Colombia
Juan Valdez, a half million small farmers, 1871 bird species, generic coffee, sparkling microlots, and the coffee and cocaine connection. There's a lot to tell in the Colombian coffee story.
April 20, 2008: Vietnam planting more coffee
From Vietnam's Thanh Nien News: [Robusta] Coffee bean prices [recently] reached a 13-year high of ... US$2.50 per kilo... As a result, the 434,000 hectares of coffee plantations in the Central Highlands, which produces 80 percent of Vietnam’s coffee output,...
April 12, 2008: Coffee growing on Hispaniola
The two nations of the island of Hispaniola -- the Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti -- tend to be forgotten lands in the minds of U.S. coffee drinkers. Each country has a long history of coffee growing, as well as...
March 30, 2008: Coffee growing in Kenya
Kenyan coffees are distinctive in (at least) two ways. They have a unique, wine-like flavor, and they are produced and marketed under a government-controlled auction system. Samples are available to bidders prior to the weekly auction, and the highest bidder...
March 13, 2008: Coffee growing in Australia
Coffee in Australia? Coffee was first grown in Australia over a century ago, without much economic success. The high cost of labor made commercial coffee growing unprofitable until mechanical harvesting became common in the 1980s. (If you are interested in...
February 14, 2008: Research: Spiders on Indian coffee farms
Kapoor, V. (2008). Effects of rainforest fragmentation and shade-coffee plantations on spider communities in the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Insect Conservation, 12(1), 53-68. Ants and butterflies are often the two most studied arthropods on coffee farms, so it was...
February 7, 2008: Coffee review: Doi Chaang Coffee
Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #33. The vast majority of the coffee grown in Thailand is robusta, grown in the southern part of the country and commonly doused with chemicals. In the late 1970s,...
January 23, 2008: Research: Butterflies in Indian coffee farms
Adult butterfly communities in coffee plantations around a protected area in the Western Ghats, India. J. Dolia, M. S. Devy, N. A. Aravind, and A. Kumar. 2008. Animal Conservation 11:26-34. Butterfly diversity was examined in 12 coffee plantations in India's...
January 15, 2008: Coffee everywhere
I'll be putting together some posts on our visits to Finca Hartmann, La Florentina, and coffee growing in general in the western Chiriqui region of Panama. Meanwhile, how about a few nice coffee photos? Maybe these will be in your...
January 10, 2008: Greetings from the Panama highlands
My husband and I are in the highlands of Panama, in Chiriqui province (in yellow on the first map) near the Costa Rican border. We are staying near the city of Volcan, on the western flank of Volcan Baru at...
January 3, 2008: Research: Tree species diversity in Veracruz coffee farms
Tree species diversity and vegetation structure in shade coffee farms in Veracruz, Mexico. A. M. López-Gómeza, G. Williams-Linera, and R. H. Manson. 2008. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 124:160-172. 10.1016/j.agee.2007.09.008 Fifteen shade coffee farms, under different types of shade management, and...
November 11, 2007: Kenya producing more organic coffee
A recent article notes that more producers in central Kenya are turning to organic coffee in order to take advantage of price premiums. This is welcome news, as over the last 15 years or so, Kenya has been one of...
October 28, 2007: Coffee growing in Brazil's Cerrado region
Coffee growing in Brazil, in brief: Coffee was first planted in Brazil in the early 1700s. By the mid-1800s, Brazil was already the world's #1 producer of coffee, a distinction is still holds today. However, it produces a great deal...
October 18, 2007: Starbucks Black Apron Costa Rica
Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #29. Starbucks Black Apron Exclusive: Organic Lomas Al Rio (Costa Rica). This review is a tad out of the ordinary for two reasons. First, I don't buy coffee from...
September 5, 2007: Research: Mammals in coffee plantations in India's Western Ghats
The mammalian communities in coffee plantations around a protected area in the Western Ghats, India. A. Balia, A. Kumarb, and J. Krishnaswamy. 2007. Biological Conservation 139: 93-102. This study looked at the number of mammal species found in 15 coffee...
August 5, 2007: Article on Nicaragua
The current issue of Fresh Cup magazine has a very good article on coffee growing in northern Nicaragua. It features the CECOCAFEN cooperative, now representing over 2,000 farmers, agro-tourism, fair trade, and coffee growing methods.
July 18, 2007: Coffee review: Papua New Guinea coffees
Recently, I posted a backgrounder on Papua New Guinea coffee. One of my favorite coffees is Allegro Coffee Roaster's PNG Sigri Estate, which is not reviewed here because the crop ran out and it was unavailable at my local Whole...
June 24, 2007: Papua New Guinea coffee
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the eastern half of a large island north of Australia and associated smaller islands (click on map to enlarge). PNG is one of the least explored places left on earth, with dense rainforests, rugged mountains,...
April 20, 2007: Tanzanian coffee
It was over a year ago when I did an overview of coffee growing in Africa, and since then most of our African coffee discussions have been about Rwanda or Ethiopia. I'd like to focus on Tanzania, as a prelude...
April 10, 2007: Research: Forest birds using Costa Rican coffee farms
Persistence of forest birds in the Costa Rican agricultural countryside. C. H. Sekercioglu, S. R. Loarie, F. Oviedo Brenes, P. R. Ehrlich, and G. C. Daly. 2007. Conservation Biology 21:482-494. This study radiotracked several species of resident forest birds in...
February 20, 2007: A sustainable Costa Rican coffee
In my post on coffee growing in Costa Rica, I described the difficulty in finding organic or truly shade grown coffee from this country. The folks from Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History recently visited a true organic, shade...
January 31, 2007: Saving the Cerulean Warbler campaign
I last wrote about the Cerulean Warbler and shade coffee in August 2006, when the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) announced they would be working with coffee growers to preserve critical wintering habitat around the new 500-acre Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve...
January 24, 2007: Coffee growing in Costa Rica
Costa Rica, more than any other Central American country, has embraced technified sun coffee. The National Costa Rican Institute of Coffee (ICAFE) notes that 30% of coffee grown in the country is sun coffee. Not only is a 30% rate...
December 19, 2006: Nasty old Brazilian coffee
My inability to completely connect the dots here is a testament to the lack of transparency of the big four mega coffee roasters and where they get their beans. Dot 1: Brazil, the world's #2 coffee grower, has experienced drought...
December 12, 2006: Bolivian Cup of Fair Trade
The C&C tasting panel's favorite coffee, among tough competition, is still Paradise Roasters' Calama Marka Bolivia Cup of Excellence, which is now, sadly, sold out. In that review, I discussed the cancellation of the 2006 Bolivian Cup of Excellence, due...
November 1, 2006: Coffee review: El Salvador coffees
Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #9. El Salvador is a small Central American country with a troubled past. It has been largely deforested, with coffee plantations providing most of the remaining "forested" areas in...
October 25, 2006: Learn more about Ethiopia's coffee
In my post about Starbucks Black Apron Ethiopia Gemadro Estate, I suggested Denver's Novo Coffee as a source for a great variety of Ethiopian coffees (20% off your first online order, too!). Novo's Ethiopian coffees -- and approach to selecting...
October 6, 2006: Veracruz, Mexico
I am attending the North American Ornithological Conference in Veracruz, Mexico. Coffee breaks are catered by Consejo Regulador del Cafe Veracruz, the organization that regulates and certifies "Cafe Veracruz" labeled coffee, guaranteeing origin and quality. Veracruz state is on the...
October 3, 2006: Another Bolivian coffee competition
In our review of Paradise Roasters Calama Marka Bolivia Cup of Excellence coffee, I discussed the cancellation of this year's program, and the politics behind it. I just received a comment from Michael Sheridan of the CRS Fair Trade program...
September 24, 2006: Research: American Redstarts in Jamaica
Johnson, M.D., T.W. Sherry, R. T. Holmes, and P.P. Marra. 2006. Assessing habitat quality for a migratory songbird wintering in natural and agricultural habitats. Conservation Biology 20:1433-1444. This study examined American Redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) in natural and agricultural habitats in...
September 13, 2006: Poor quality Vietnamese beans (that end up in grocery store coffee)
A short article entitled "Quality of Vietnamese coffee poor" appeared recently on a Vietnam news site. It notes that Vietnam is the world's second largest producer of coffee, but that 89% of its crop is low-quality robusta. And it adds,...
August 25, 2006: Cerulean Warblers and shade coffee
The Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea) is a bird in trouble. It breeds in the eastern U.S. and winters in South America, and populations have been on the slide in recent decades -- faster than any other eastern warbler. It is...
August 8, 2006: NYT Rwanda coffee article
On Sunday, August 6, the New York Times business section had an excellent article on coffee growing in Rwanda (stable, no registration link). The article gives background on how financial help from U.S. AID, via the PEARL Project I've written...
August 6, 2006: Coffee review: Coffees from East Timor
Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #7. In a previous post, I discussed the political situation in East Timor, and the role of coffee in the economy. I promised short reviews of several Timor coffees,...
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