"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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Sustainable coffee: Coffee growing: Retail coffee: All the rest:
Related links
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
- "Bird-Friendly" certification standards
- "Bird-Friendly" farms
- Rainforest Alliance certification standards
- Rainforest Alliance certified farms
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May 16, 2009: When birders drink Folgers, part 2
Multiple studies have shown that birders can well afford to drink sustainably-grown coffee that supports the birds they enjoy so much.
February 2, 2009: When birders* drink Folger's
An editorial recently appeared in the scientific journal Conservation Biology. It was titled "When swordfish conservation biologists eat swordfish." As the title implies, it's a riff on the hypocrisy of avowed conservationists when their own lifestyles are inconsistent with the...
October 15, 2008: Fight poverty: Quit drinking corporate coffee
If you are one of the 160 million coffee drinkers in the U.S., you can make a decisive, positive impact on poverty by refusing to buy coffee from Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Kraft, and Sara Lee. They purchase over 40%...
September 21, 2008: Folger's finds another way to make poor beans taste "better"
Folger's says it is introducing a new roasting method that they say is "the biggest innovation since the launch of decaf". Technically, it's true that the "pre-roasting" method improves the taste of Folger's coffee -- because they use low-quality beans to begin with, a fact disclosed in their patent applications.
July 30, 2008: Walmart's deceptive coffee claim
Walmart claims that if every Walmart shopper bought a bag of Sam’s Choice Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified coffee, it would preserve 135,000 acres of land.
And that's bull.
June 29, 2008: Responsible Shopper ranks big coffee corporations
When I write about corporate coffee, I often refer or link to Co-op America's Responsible Shopper corporate profiles. They've now done summaries of many industries, comparing top companies in broad categories, including grading the largest coffee corporations. Companies get a...
June 24, 2008: Nestlè distributes mass-produced robusta clones
A report recently announced that Nestlè's research and development facility in France has developed clones of Robusta coffee plants specific to particular countries. They are distributing them to "countless coffee growers across the globe." These producers are suppliers of green...
April 6, 2008: Sara Lee's "sustainable" coffee
Another one of the Big Four multinational roasters is jumping on the green bandwagon. Sara Lee's foodservice division is introducing its "Good Origin" line in the U.S. This line of six coffees will UTZ Certified (formerly Utz Kapeh). Sara Lee...
February 28, 2008: Einstein's Bros. and Noah's coffees
Feb 29 cheap coffee promotion, and where it all comes from In honor of leap day/year, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Noah's Bagels, both owned by Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc., are offering regular coffee for 29 cents on February 29...
December 15, 2007: Habitats still destroyed for cheap corporate coffee
Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post discussing a World Wildlife Fund report revealing that robusta coffee was being illegally grown in southern Sumatra, with most being purchased by large coffee producers such as Kraft and Nestlé (press release...
December 2, 2007: Tim Hortons coffee and the environment
If you are Canadian or live in a U.S. border state, you know Tim Hortons. This coffee and donut/fast food shop completely dominates the carry-out coffee market in Canada, with over 2,700 locations serving around 3 million cups of coffee...
August 24, 2007: More bad news from corporate coffee
Kraft Foods recently announced that beginning this fall, all of its Maxwell House brands of coffee (except instant and Master Blend) will be 100% arabica beans rather than a blend of arabica and robusta. Robusta is the lower quality coffee...
August 17, 2007: P&G to provide Dunkin' Donuts coffee
Big corporate coffee monger Procter & Gamble has partnered with Dunkin' Donuts to offer a Dunkin' Donuts branded coffee for sale at retail outlets including Wal-Mart, Costco, CVS, and Kroger. Although some articles say that P&G will "produce" the coffee,...
May 21, 2007: Wendy's and Folgers
Greg at The Shot more than adequately sums up the puzzling move by Wendy's burger chain to begin serving Folger's coffee (owned by Procter & Gamble, the company which states in its sustainability report that "P&G does not track biodiversity...
March 12, 2007: Coffee review: Millstone's organic line
Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #18. I introduced the Millstone (Procter & Gamble) organic line of coffees in a previous post. This is a review of four of the five of the coffees in...
March 5, 2007: The odd bedfellows of Dunkin' Donuts
Dunkin' Donuts is a coffee and donut chain that originated in the northeastern U.S. which now has 7,000 stores worldwide. The company reports that it serves 1 billion cups of coffee annually. Last year, Dunkin' Donuts announced an aggressive expansion...
March 1, 2007: Millstone's organic line
Last month, a number of coffee bloggers, including C&C, received an offer from a public relations firm offering samples of Millstone Coffee Company's organic line. Millstone is a coffee brand of the global conglomerate Procter & Gamble. There are five...
January 22, 2007: Nestle and Starbucks respond to illegal coffee report
In an article in an Indonesian newspaper, Nestlé and Starbucks both responded to the report that they had been purchasing robusta coffee beans illegally grown in a Sumatran national park in Lampung province. Nestlé A spokesman for Nestlé Indonesia made...
January 17, 2007: Illegal coffee growing threatens wildlife, Kraft major buyer
In a well-investigated and detailed report (pdf) released yesterday, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) revealed that robusta coffee is being illegally grown in southern Sumatra, with most being purchased by large coffee producers such as Kraft and Nestlé. "Illegally grown...
January 15, 2007: Wal-Mart and Sam's Club coffee
Take a look at where much of Walmart and Sam's Club coffee comes from.
January 6, 2007: Coffee Review reviews supermarket coffees
The latest at Coffee Review is a look at mainstream supermarket coffees. Reviewing prepackaged, pre-ground coffees is a departure for Kenneth Davids' site, which is the best source on the web for reviews of specialty coffees. Davids was honest, perhaps...
December 26, 2006: Genetically-engineered coffee
Nestlé, whose coffee brands include Nescafe and Taster's Choice, has obtained a patent on a genetically modified coffee plant that will improve the solubility of instant coffee powder made from its beans. The patent also includes other aspects of the...
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...
October 12, 2006: Yuban ad campaign
Yuban coffee may carry the Rainforest Alliance seal, but only 30% of its beans are certified. Do you know where the other 70% come from? Or what kind of company you are supporting when you purchase this coffee?
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,...
February 23, 2006: Coffee sales drive Nestlé profits
From BBC News: Price increases and sales of Nespresso coffee have helped Nestlé to report record net profits in 2005. ...Sales of the high margin Nespresso coffee rose an underlying 36.2%. Nespresso is the espresso pod division; one of the...
February 20, 2006: Who owns what?
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....
February 8, 2006: The Coffee Crisis
The "coffee crisis" inevitably comes up in any talk of the coffee industry, especially Fair Trade issues. Here's a summary of what it's all about. Prior to 1989, coffee prices were controlled by a cartel, much like OPEC for oil....
February 5, 2006: 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...
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