Background information

Background information / Birds and other biodiversity

Coffee and biodiversity hotspots

The image above (click to enlarge) is from the May 2002 issue of Scientific American (“Rethinking Green Consumerism” pdf) and shows the overlap of coffee growing areas and biodiversity hotspots (defined as spots housing 44% of all vascular plant species and 35% of all land-dwelling vertebrate animal species). I think this handily illustrates the importance of encouraging — through our purchasing power — coffee farms that preserve habitat, do not use harmful chemicals, and cultivate coffee in a way that is as close as practical to nature.

In 2007, resolve to buy coffee that protects and and cherishes the health of the people who grow it and the environment in which it is grown.  Happy New Year.

Background information / Coffee and the environment

Pesticides used on coffee farms, part 2: Common coffee pests

Coffee is equipped with an excellent defense against herbivory: caffeine. Caffeine is one of many alkaloids that evolved in various plants to prevent them from being eaten by insects.  Evolution doesn’t stand still, however, and some insects have fought back. Coffee is attacked by several pests and diseases. Here are the most important, the ones that are most frequently combated with pesticides.

Coffee cherry/berry borer or “Broca” (Hypothenemus hampei). Native to Central Africa, but now found in many coffee-producing nations. The female of this tiny beetle (shown here on a green coffee bean) bores into the coffee cherry and lays about 15 eggs; the larvae feed on the developing bean. Usually, the cherry drops from the tree. The best defense is making sure there are no unpicked beans left on the trees or laying on the ground. Because they spend much of their life inside the cherry, controlling borers with insecticides can be difficult or downright ineffective.

Coffee leaf miner or “bicho mineiro” (Leucoptera coffeella). The leaf damage from the larvae of this small moth means less leaf surface is available for photosynthesis, resulting in stunted plants and reduction in yield. Native to Africa, but now found in many coffee-producing nations. This insect has developed resistance to insecticides in some areas.

Other insect pests include root nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.), green scale (Coccus viridis), and twig borers (Xylosandrus compactus).

Although not an insect, the next pathogen also prompts chemical onslaughts:

Coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix). A fungus that causes yellow spots on leaves, reduced photosynthetic ability, and eventually leaf drop. This causes a lack of nutrients going to growing shoots, and so can impact future growth of the plant. Spores require rain to germinate (high humidity is not adequate). Disease spreads more quickly in dense plantings and is less severe in shaded plantings, as the spores require a certain light intensity to germinate. Temperatures at farms at higher elevations are often too cool for the fungus.  Native to Africa, but now found in many coffee-producing nations. Some coffee cultivars have resistance, notably the catimor variety, and also catuai and mundo novo.

Next in this series: Common pesticides used on coffee farms.

Coffee berry borer on bean photo by P. Greb.

Background information

Coffee basics

Coffee & Conservation is all about helping consumers make the right choice when it comes to picking great coffee that is good for the environment.  Coffee reviews are by regular folks using, we hope, understandable language and ordinary techniques.  Still, it seems like it would be helpful to have a post that provides links to definitions of some of our terms, and how-to’s on making coffee.  This is that post!

Roast levels
Coffee retailers use a lot of terms to describe the roast color/level of their coffee.  Many Americans are used to a fairly dark roast (the place isn’t called “Charbucks” for nothin’). Dark roasts can overwhelm the delicate flavors of some beans, or caramelize sugars and lend a hearty smokiness.

Here at C&C, we try to provide the roast level indicated by the retailer, and then describe the color and whether or not oils are present on the surface of the beans.  Here are some guides to roast levels:


Grinding
Grinding is probably the most neglected step in coffee preparation.  Ground coffee gets stale in a hurry, and to really enjoy coffee, you have to have fresh beans that you grind before you make the coffee.  It is the simplest single thing to do to vastly improve your enjoyment of coffee.

Coffee grounds must be uniform at a fineness appropriate to your brewing method in order to have proper contact between coffee and water so that essential oils and flavors are released.  Blade (“whirly”) grinders grind unevenly.  Burr grinders are better.

At C&C we always grind our coffee immediately before preparation (2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 ounce cup), with either a decent blade or burr grinder.

Brewing methods
There are plenty of ways to make coffee.  For our reviews, we nearly always start off with a press pot (French press) to bring out all the flavors of a coffee.  We also try the coffee brewed, in a typical, middle-of-the-road drip coffee maker (like most people have at home) using unbleached paper or a gold filter. Occasionally, we also use an Aeropress or Eva Cafe Solo. Here is the low-down on these methods:

  • French press. Water just off a boil is poured over freshly ground coffee, steeped for about 4 minutes, after which a mesh plunger is pressed down, separating the grounds from the coffee.
  • Automatic drip.  Ground coffee is placed in a filter basket, and water drips through it.  Good coffee makers heat water to the proper temperature, distribute the water evenly over the grounds, and deliver the water at a speed that insures proper exposure time.  Because the water is in contact for such a brief time and the filter removes particulates (and even oils, in the case of a paper filter), coffee from a drip pot is clean and mild.  Temperature is a key component in this method — most cheap pots don’t heat the water hot enough (190-200 degree F).
  • Aeropress by Aerobie. A small device that forces the water through the coffee and a filter using air pressure, producing very smooth, full-bodied coffee in about a minute.

George Howell Coffee provides links to instructions for many brew methods; there are videos and you can download PDFs guides for each method.

Coffee flavors
One reason we began doing reviews at C&C was that we just didn’t “get” reviews at some other sites.  Personally, I could not fathom tasting brandied tomatoes or Meyer lemon in my coffee. Other sites were too general, or liked every coffee they tasted.  We try to strike a balance here at C&C, as best we can as regular folks, considering taste is pretty subjective.

Still, there are some commonalities and standards in coffee flavors.  Here are some great overviews and tutorials.

Those are some of the basics. There are also posts here on botanical varieties of coffee, as well as a link to variations in coffee taste by growing region.  If there’s anything else you’d like to see added to this post, just leave a comment.

 

Background information

Poverty and conservation, how coffee fits

The current issue (summer 2006) of the Nature Conservancy magazine has several articles on the poverty and conservation equation.  When I posted on “What is Fair Trade?” I wrote,

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 — both by  encouraging sustainable coffee farming methods that produce the highest quality coffee, and by empowering farmers economically and reducing their need to exploit the environment for survival.

These points are expanded upon in the Nature Conservancy pieces. They give an example of coffee farming in the Dominican Republic:

Today, the farmers in this idyllic mountain community [Los Dajaos] in the Dominican Republic’s central highlands no longer denude the hillsides to plant beans and graze cattle. Instead, they tend organic shade coffee beneath a canopy of flowering guama trees. … After once clearing thousands of acres of habitat critical to preserving biodiversity and the island watershed, they have come to view the forest as a friend.

These articles surely help elucidate why sustainable agriculture is important to biodiversity, and it’s not hard to understand how sustainable coffee — as one of the world’s top commodities — can fit into this equation.

Background information

Botanical varieties of coffee

There are over 100 species of coffee (Coffea) in the world, and all are native to tropical Africa and some Indian Ocean islands (Madagascar, Macerenes). Most have very limited distribution, and over 70% are threatened with extinction.

Usually only two species, C. arabica and C. canephora, are commonly grown commercially.  They are described below, along with a few other interesting species, and the most common commercial varieties of these species.  Because certain types grow best in the shade and others in the sun, knowledge of these names can be a convenient clue as to how your coffee may have been grown.

Don’t confuse these botanical varieties with coffees named for their growing regions, such as Ethiopian Harrar, Guatelmalan Antigua, or Hawaiian Kona.

  • Coffea arabica. This is the highest quality coffee, used by specialty roasters. It grows best at higher altitudes — 3000 to 6500 feet — and because it grows slowly the flavors are more concentrated. This species tend to be susceptible to various diseases, and has a lower caffeine content than C. canephora (below). Arabica is a deep-rooted shrub. Unlike other coffee species, arabica has two sets of chromosomes. Arabica has two common varieties, typica and bourbon. These traditional, older varieties are the types most often grown in the shade. Because arabica is self-pollinating, these varieties are stable, but sometimes do mutate into strains that are then cultivated. Just a few of the most common are described.
    • Coffea arabica var. typica.
      • Maragogype — large-beaned (“elephant bean”) Brazilian mutation. Porous beans are not especially flavorful, and low-yielding. (Roasting a larger bean correctly takes some finesse, so buy from a specialty roaster.)
    • C. a. var. bourbon. Old variety originating on the Indian Ocean island of Bourbon (Reunion) with broad leaves, and small fruits. In Kenya, bourbons are sometimes called “French mission ” or “Scottish mission.”
      • Catuai — cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra. There are red (rojo) and yellow catuais, named for the color of the cherries. High yield and hardy. Often grown as sun coffee.
      • Caturra — compact, multiple-branching form of bourbon, common in Brazil and Colombia. Disease resistant and fast-maturing, the higher yield of Caturra apparently comes at a cost to good taste. Considered lighter-bodied and more acidic than traditional bourbons. Often grown as sun coffee, it requires a lot of management and fertilizer.
      • Mundo Novo — cross between typica and bourbon, high yield, popular in Brazil.
      • Paca — a high yielding cross between bourbon and Caturra.
      • Pacamara — cross between Maragogype and the Paca variety of Caturra.  Not considered very flavorful, as neither parent is especially revered for taste.

If you’d like to see a “family tree” of some of the arabica coffee varietals, check out this post by Jim Hoffman and a table of coffee genotypes from a paper published in the Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology. More less-commonly referred to arabica varieties are described in the coffee glossary.

  • Coffea canephora.  This species is more commonly referred to as “robusta,” although this actually refers to the upright variety of canephora; there is a spreading variety known as nganda.  Robusta is a lower-growing and shallow-rooted, harsher and more bitter variety that is used in cheaper coffees, or as fillers.  Robusta tends to be more hardy and disease-resistant, will grow better in the sun than arabica, and tends to have higher yields. It has a higher caffeine content than arabica. I’ve written an entire post about robusta here.  Although there is such a thing as a decent quality robusta, Kenneth Davids at Coffee Review sums up the problem with most robustas in today’s market:

    Apparently with the support of the World Bank, robustas recently have been planted in very large quantities in Vietnam. These are mass-produced coffees at their most dramatic: stripped from the trees, leaves, unripe, ripe and overripe fruit and all, and dried in deep piles. All of which means the essentially bland, grainy robusta character is topped off with an assortment of off-tastes, mainly musty/mildewed and fermented. These coffees sell for considerably less than all other coffees, including better quality robustas. I am told that production costs for Vietnamese robustas are about 20 cents per pound or less, compared to, for example, production costs of 80 to 90 cents per pound for the excellent “100% Colombia” coffees competing in the supermarket. And now the current episode: Commercial dealers and roasters have learned to steam the often foul-tasting Vietnamese robustas, removing the waxy covering of the bean and muting (but not entirely eliminating) the offensive flavor notes.

There are some hybrids between arabica and canephora. They include:

  • Hibrido de Timor — a natural hybrid, with two sets of chromosomes like arabica.
  • Icatu — backcrosses of Hibrido de Timor with Mundo Novo or Caturra.
  • Catimor — cross between Caturra and Hibrido de Timor. High yields, often grown as sun coffee, with a reputation for inferior quality.

One other species is grown commercially:

  • Coffea liberica. Similar to robusta, grown at low altitudes in Malaysia and West Africa, it accounts for less than 1% of commercial trade. In the cup, it is thick and pungent, but has its fans in some countries.  It is known as Barako in the Phillipines.  Two subspecies are commonly recognized, C. liberica var. liberica, just called “Liberica” or “Liberian” coffee, and C. liberica var. dewevrei, known as “Excelsa.”

There are a number of varieties in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands that have little or no caffeine, including C. kianjavatensis, C. lancifolia, C. mauritiana, C. macrocarpa and C. myrtifolia. These species are in the taxonomic section Mascarocoffea; this is not a genus as is frequently reported on the Internet. Arabica and robusta coffees are in the section Eucoffea, and attempts to breed Eucoffea varieties with caffeine-free traits from Mascarocoffea types has not been successful.

Finally, peaberry (“caracol”) coffee is not a botanical variety, but a bean mutation where the cherry produced one small, rounded, fused bean rather than two flat-faced beans. May occur in any botanical variety, usually accounting for about 10% of the crop.  Some think peaberries have a superior taste, but choose a roaster widely, since peaberries roast quickly and are easily charred.

 

Background information / Certifications

Who evaluates non-certified shade coffee? Part 2

In Part 1 of “Who evaluates non-certified shade coffee?” I pointed out that roasters, importers, and retailers of non-certified shade coffee have assorted means of “verifying” that coffee is shade-grown.  These are usually described as farm visits by roasters, importers, brokers, or independent evaluators.  I pointed out that there isn’t much evidence that these evaluators have experience in actually assessing biodiversity, from a scientific viewpoint.

Why is this important? Can people without a biology background make sound assessments of coffee plantations?

The point of encouraging shade management on farms is not just shade, but functioning ecosystems that are as close as is practical to intact forest.  Looking at a farm and seeing lots of birds and trees does not address ecosystem functioning or biodiversity, the real goals of the shade coffee movement.

Agricultural areas share some of the same biological characteristics of urban areas. They are simplified, homogenized “ecosystems” populated with suites of similar, adaptable organisms.  One might find the same number of species of birds (or trees, or ants, or mammals) in a suburban park and an intact forest, and numerically these two plots would have the same species richness or “biodiversity.”

But there is a huge difference in a park in which the bird species are Rock Pigeon, House Sparrow, European Starling, American Robin, and Northern Cardinal and one which has Scarlet Tanager, Acadian Flycatcher, Red-eyed Vireo, Ovenbird, and Black-and-white Warbler.  The latter group is a suite of forest specialists, which would occur at low abundance. In the first group, we have a suite of common generalists. An inexperienced observer might conclude since each plot has 5 species, they are “equal.” In fact, the  person might conclude that the first plot is “better” because of the large number of starlings and House Sparrows!

Biologists take into consideration more than numbers when defining biodiversity, including relative abundance (which takes rareness into account), genetic diversity, the diversity of habitat types within the landscape, and ecosystem health and functioning.

In order to accurately assess the value of a coffee plantation to biodiversity, if that is truly our goal, an evaluator, at a minimum, must be able to be able to identify many of the major tree and bird species of a region, as well as understand their roles in the local ecosystem (is this bird common or rare? does it represent a forest specialist or a generalist? does this tree provide fruit, pollen, or nesting sites?).

So, it’s not enough to recognize trees and birds.  One has to have some sort of idea of what to look for. It would be great if there were a group of independent biologists who were experienced with the differences in regional biodiversity who could go around to farms and assess the growing practices for their value to biodiversity.

Until that happens, consumers must rely on some background information to try to decide which coffees, advertised as shade grown but not certified, might be best for biodiversity.  This information can include:

  • Knowledge of regional growing practices.  Certain countries and regions grow mostly shade coffee.  I’ll be posting information on growing practices in various regions in the future.
  • Knowledge of which farms and cooperatives have been certified.  If these beans are used in blends with beans from non-certified sources, they cannot be labeled certified, as far as I know.  I’ll be posting lists of certified farms and coops, which may be listed as sources by roasters.
  • Knowledge of botanical varieties.  There are two main coffee species, known commonly as arabica and robusta, and robusta is usually grown in the sun.  But even among arabicas, there are varieties that are less sun-tolerant.  I’ll be posting about the characteristics of the botanical types, which are sometimes mentioned by growers.

Needless to say, I’d always recommend buying from roasters that have close relationships with growers; who favor small farms; whose selections are mainly organic (which are usually shade grown, at least to some degree); and who have made an effort to support sustainability via their business practices and associations.

Photo of a coffee farmer in Colombia by Ashley Aull, under a Creative Commons license.

Background information / Certifications

Who evaluates non-certified shade coffee? Part 1

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 — yet not be shade certified.

Coffees from these sources may be labeled by roasters as “shade grown.”  Unfortunately, so are some coffees that are grown under conditions that might not be best for biodiversity, such as shaded monoculture, or conceivably even in full sun, if a retailer or distributor were particularly, um, “shady.”

Who decides whether a coffee can be labeled “shade grown”?  According to an article at Virtual Coffee,

Many importers, roasters and retailers add to the confusion by selling “verified shade” coffee, which comes from plantations that have not been certified by [Rainforest Alliance] or [Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center] but have been visited by someone—often an importer—who, without scientific guidelines, checks to make sure shade trees are present on the farms.

A white paper on sustainable coffee [1] noted:

Most shade coffee sales are coming from uncertified shade coffee introduced by roasters moving..to capture market opportunity…(e.g., Trader Joe’s, Millstone). … Many of these roasters claim to have visited the farms themselves and thereby justify “self-certifying” their shade coffees. …[T]he rapid proliferation of uncertified shade coffee brands is fueling concerns across the industry regarding free-riding and even fraud.

I’ve seen various explanations on who determines whether a coffee is “shade grown.” The Thanksgiving Coffee web site contains this note:

“Thanksgiving Coffee uses verified shade grown coffee. This means that its CEO, Paul Katzeff, or the importer has personally inspected the farm to insure that the plants are properly grown in the shade.”

Several roasters told me that they determine conditions primarily through farm visitation, consulting another roaster, or relying on the word of an importer. Others say they use independent auditors, but I have not yet found out who these auditors are, their training, or their criteria.

Many roasters sport the label of the Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign, but it is a consumer-education organization, not a certifier.  NSCC goes so far as to say on its web site, regarding shade certification, that

“Brokers who actually visit the farms and are trusted in the coffee industry are more reliable than any form of certification.”

Really? I don’t know how many, if any, of these evaluators have experience in actually assessing biodiversity, from a scientific viewpoint. Is this really important? Can people without a biology background make sound assessments of coffee plantations?  I’ll address these questions in Part 2.

[1] Rice, P. and J. McLean. 1999. Sustainable Coffee at the Crossroads. Consumer’s Choice Council.

Background information / Corporate coffee

Who owns what?

[The coffee consolidation landscape has continued to evolve rapidly! This post is a starting point but not entirely up-to-date.]

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.

Below is a primer on common U.S. coffee brand ownership. Read about how much certified coffee these companies purchase here, and their role in the coffee crisis here.

Note that some brands may have split ownership representing different parts of the world, or a division of distribution lines between retail/grocery and coffee shop/restaurant. For example, Nestlè owns the distribution rights to Starbucks coffee in grocery stores and retail chains, but Starbucks does the coffee sourcing. I have tried to simplify here.

JM Smucker Co. — Through purchases of other companies, coffee is now the main business of JM Smucker, and their Folgers brand is the largest brand in North America, accounting for nearly 20% of the retail volume. Other brands include Millstone, Cafe Pilon, Cafe Bustelo, and Kava. They distribute Dunkin Donuts retail coffee (both companies have poor coffee sustainability records). Read more about JM Smuckers here and Dunkin here.

Kraft Heinz Company –Maxwell House (North America), Yuban, Gevalia, Nabob, Ethical Bean — about 10% of the U.S. market by volume. As of 2019, Kraft Heinz was exploring selling the Maxwell House brand. Ethical Bean is the company’s attempt at sustainable coffee as it is all organic; volume figures are not available.

JAB Holding Company — Privately held company that went on a large buying spree starting in 2012 and now controls an enormous market share through its subsidiaries and acquisitions. Some of the familiar and important brands under the JAB umbrella include: Jacobs Douwe Egberts/JDE Peet’s, Green Mountain, Caribou Coffee, Peet’s, Intelligentsia, Stumptown, Panera Bread, Krispy Kreme, Douwe Egberts, Einstein Bros Bagels, and many more. See a fuller list of brands under their subdivisions Keurig Dr Pepper and JDE Peet’s. Additionally, JAB also launched the subscription coffee service Trade. I rarely say this, but you may want to check Wikipedia to keep up! All together, JAB’s brands probably make up 5-6% of the U.S. Market.

Nestlè — Nescafè and Nespresso are their popular brands. Purchases 870,000 tons of coffee annually, around 10% of world production, of which only a tiny fraction of a percent carries eco-certification. Their market share in the U.S. is quite small, less than 5% if their distribution of Starbucks coffee in stores isn’t counted (Starbucks sources this coffee).

Tata Consumer Products — Eight O’Clock. This one brand makes up perhaps 2.5% of the U.S. market.

Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA — Hills Brothers, Chock Full o’Nuts, Chase and Sanborn, Kauai Coffee, Segafredo. Owns many of the brands previously owned by Sara Lee, which divested itself of its coffee operations. MZB is a huge privately-owned company which sources a lot of its coffee from it’s own massive full sun plantation in Brazil, said to be the largest in the world. Their profile at the Sustainable Coffee Challenge website indicates very limited and lackluster sustainability goals. About 2% of the U.S. market.

These large companies rarely divulge coffee volumes purchased. These figures are estimated based on retail sales by volume and retail volume of coffee sold, calculated in tons. Numbers for 2019 and 2020 were averaged due to the market skew that occurred during the covid-19 pandemic. Data was primarily from Euromonitor, but included other sources.

Background information / Coffee and the environment

What is shade-grown coffee?

Coffee (Coffea sp.) is a small understory tree or shrub, and has traditionally been grown amongst forest trees, in the shade. Various studies indicate that arabica coffee has the highest yields under 35 to 65% shade. In addition, growing coffee under shade also discourages weed growth, may reduce pathogen infection, protect the crop from frost, and helps to increase numbers of pollinators which results in better fruit set. Coffee grown in the shade takes long to ripen and is often thought to taste better because the long ripening times contribute to complex flavors.

However, in order to produce faster, higher yields and prevent the spread of coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), many coffee plantations began to grow coffee under sunnier conditions. The fewer shade trees that are in coffee plantations, the less biodiversity there is in those plantations.

This loss of biodiversity, especially in birds, has led conscientious consumers to look for “shade grown” coffee.  However, coffee is grown under a continuum of conditions, from rustic or traditional, to full sun, and these “shades of shade” are not all equal when it comes to the health of ecosystems. Unfortunately, there is no official definition of “shade grown,” so coffee so labeled may be grown under what are technically shady conditions, but which are little better full  sun.

Categorizing types and levels of shade

It is important to understand the various levels of growing coffee under shade. Here are the five most typical categories, from the most desirable, traditional growing method, to the least diverse, most modern and technified method.

  • Rustic. Often used on small family farms. Coffee is grown in the existing forest with little alteration of native vegetation. Tree species are diverse, with an average of 25 species. Shade strata (layers of vegetation) three or more. Shade cover = 70-100%.
  • Traditional polyculture. Coffee is grown under a combination of native forest trees and planted tree and plant species, including fruit and vegetables both for the farmer and for market, fuel wood, medicinal plants, etc. Common tree species under which coffee is frequently grown include Inga, Grevillea, Acacia, Erythrina, and Gliricidia. Shade cover = 60-90%.
  • Commercial polyculture. More trees removed in order to increase the number of coffee plants, and shade is provided mostly by planted timber and fruit trees. Canopy trees are regularly pruned, and epiphytes are typically removed. More often involves use of fertilizers and pesticides due to the lack of vegetative cover which helps prevent loss of soil nutrients, etc. Typically only two vegetation layers, the canopy, and the coffee. Shade cover 30-60%.
  • Shaded monoculture. Dense plantings of coffee under an overstory of only one or two tree species (usually Inga), which are heavily pruned. Epiphytes are removed. Shade cover = 10-30%.
  • Full sun. Lacks a tree canopy, or has a few isolated trees. No shade cover.

And here is a diagram from a paper by Patricia Moguel and Victor Toledo [1] to help you visualize the categories:

As you can see, coffee grown in a shaded monoculture could technically be labeled “shade grown,” but it would probably not be what the consumer, concerned about biodiversity, is looking for.

Benefits of growing coffee in the shade

The post “The problems with sun coffee” outlines some of the negative environmental impacts of growing coffee in the sun. Here are some of the benefits of growing coffee in the shade:

  • Shade coffee supports biodiversity, and farms can act as wildlife corridors between plots of natural habitat. Numerous studies have shown that the diversity of birds, orchids, bats, ants, amphibians, bees, beetles, spiders, mammals, and other taxa are higher in shaded coffee than in sun coffee.
  • Shade coffee provides pollination services, increasing the fruit set of coffee itself, as well as other plants on the farm.
  • Shade coffee farms have a higher diversity of predators that help control coffee pests (just a few examples of research here, here, and here).
  • Shade coffee typically has fewer weeds. Weeds often require more sunlight and are also controlled by the natural mulch supplied by fallen leaves from the shade trees.
  • Nitrogen-fixing trees on shade coffee farms enrich the soil, as do the fallen leaves from the shade trees.
  • Soil erosion is reduced in shade coffee, also improving soil quality.
  • Shade coffee farms have more stable microclimates and can buffer against temperature and humidity fluctuations caused by climate change.
  • Coffee grown in shade can improve quality.
  • A diversity of shade trees can provide other economic benefits to farmers.

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has developed standards that are targeted specifically at shade management and preserving biodiversity; their certification is called “Bird-Friendly” (this is a trademarked term and should always carry the Smithsonian seal). More on their criteria here. The Rainforest Alliance has a certification program for coffee that has an array of environmental standards, although shade cultivation is not a requirement. Their optional criteria is compared to the Bird Friendly criteria here.

See also Rice, R. 2010. The ecological benefits of shade-grown coffee: the case for going Bird-Friendly. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

[1] Biodiversity Conservation in Traditional Coffee Systems of Mexico. 1999. Conservation Biology 13:11—21.

Background information / Coffee and the environment / Corporate coffee

The problems with sun coffee

Two species of coffee are grown commercially. Coffea canephora, or robusta coffee, is an often bitter species that is usually considered low quality and is used as a filler in cheap grocery store coffee. The higher quality arabica coffee, Coffea arabica, is an understory tree or shrub which naturally grows in shade. However, mostly with an eye toward profit, there has been a movement to find ways to grow arabica coffee in the sun.

Coffee is grown on nearly 10 million hectares in tropical regions around the world, areas that also harbor high levels of biodiversity. In the 1990s, farmers were encouraged to replace traditional shade grown coffee with sun cultivation in order to increase the yield of their coffee. In sun coffee systems, there is little or no canopy cover, and coffee trees are planted at high densities. In Latin America, 1.1 million of the 2.8 million hectares in coffee (41%) were converted to sun cultivation (Rice and Ward 1996). The impact of deforestation and conversion of shade coffee to sun coffee on biodiversity in these regions is much greater than the absolute levels of destruction would indicate.

While older arabica coffee varieties traditionally grown in the shade did not do well in the sun, they were replaced by hybrids that could withstand the sun and had more resistance to introduced diseases. But sun cultivation also has many other negative environmental impacts:

  • In shade plantations, dead leaves from the overstory trees provide nutrients to the coffee.  In sun plantations, these nutrients are not available, so fertilizers must be used, especially nitrogen (since many traditional overstory trees are nitrogen-fixing legumes). Sun coffee farms leach triple the nitrates into the local watersheds than shade farms.
  • There are fewer weeds in shade plantations, both because of the shade itself and due to the fallen leaves from shade trees acting 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 leads to erosion of topsoil, and the leaching of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides into local watersheds. Soil erosion and acidification 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. Sun-grown coffee trees are typically productive for less than 15 years, while shade-grown coffee trees may yield for 30 years or more.

You can read more about the benefits of growing coffee in the shade in this post.

Donald, P. F. 2004. Biodiversity impacts of some agricultural commodity production systems. Conservation Biology 18:17-37.

Rice, R. A., and J. F. Ward. 1996. Coffee, conservation, and commerce in the Western Hemisphere. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and National Resources Defense Council.

Background information / Birds and other biodiversity / Coffee and the environment

Birds and coffee plantations

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 really kick-started the shade-grown coffee movement.

Over the last few decades, scientists noticed long-term declines in many species of Neotropical migrants — about 200 species of birds that breed in North America but winter south of the Tropic of Cancer. Researchers were prompted to examine the entire life cycle  of these species.  The ecology of the migrants on their nesting grounds here in North America was fairly well-studied, but more information was needed about the needs of these birds which spend most of their year in-transit or in the tropics. Searching for answers, researchers looked to the wintering areas of “our” breeding birds.

With so much habitat in the New World tropics being cleared for agriculture the importance of coffee plantations to wintering North American migrants (as well as resident species) soon became evident. The multi-layered vegetation of traditional or rustic shade-grown coffee plantations provides food and cover for birds which is in some cases very similar to native forest. In areas where farming has replaced natural habitat with stark pastureland and row crops, coffee farms are sometimes the only quality habitat available.

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s fact sheet, “Why Migratory Birds are Crazy for Coffee,” notes:

In the regions most heavily used by migratory birds — Mesoamerica, the Caribbean islands, and Colombia– coffee plantation “forests” cover 2.7 million hectares, or almost half of the permanent cropland.

In southern Mexico, coffee plantations cover an area over half the size of all of the major moist tropical forest reserves, providing critical woodland habitat in mid-elevation areas where virtually no large reserves are found.

Under the category “Research on coffee growing,” you can find summaries of some of the research on bird diversity on coffee plantations.  Some facts gleaned from this research include:

  • The majority of bird species in shade coffee plantations are feeding in the shaded overstory, not in the coffee.  The coffee shrubs themselves offer few resources.  This is why sun coffee monocultures do not support a diversity of birds.
  • The value of coffee farms is dependent largely upon the diversity of  their canopy: both the number of different species and the structural complexity of the canopy.
  • Invertebrates, fruit, and nectar are the most important food sources for birds in coffee plantations, so coffee farms are especially important to bird species that feed on these resources.
  • Migratory birds are more flexible in their habitat requirements, and do better in coffee plantations than many resident species, which are more sensitive to habitat changes.
  • Use of coffee plantations by migrant birds is highly seasonal.  Of course, North American migrants are only present in the tropics during spring and fall migration and in winter.  However, even during winter some migrants, in particular those that feed on nectar or fruit, tend to increase in number from early to late winter in plantations where these resources are available.  Three North American migrants are strongly associated with the flowering of Inga trees (which are commonly planted in shade coffee canopy):  Baltimore Oriole (above), Orchard Oriole, and Tennessee Warbler.

Bird diversity in rustic or heavy shade plantations sometimes rivals that of natural forests.  These plantations always have a significantly higher bird diversity (as well as a diversity of other species) than do sun coffee plantations. Shade coffee plantations offer important refuges for species in areas where natural habitats are quickly being converted to agriculture.

It is essential to understand the different degrees of shade under which coffee is grown, because some growing methods even if technically “shade grown,” are not beneficial to birds.

A summary of the eco/bird-friendly, sustainable coffee movement and its associated certifications is within the paper “In pursuit of sustainability: lessons from the coffee sector” by Robert Rice of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.  Annotated PDF here.

Baltimore Oriole photo by Cindy Mead of Woodsong Nature Photography; used with permission.

Background information / Certifications

Shade grown, Organic, Fair Trade: how do they relate?

If it’s certified Fair Trade…
Much of the coffee certified Fair Trade in the U.S. (by TransFair USA) is also “shade grown”, although the volume is often overstated.  However, Fair Trade certification itself has no shade and few ecological requirements; see this post for details. Organizations that certify shade grown coffee are the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and, in many cases, the Rainforest Alliance.

Nearly all of the coffee certified Fair Trade in the U.S. is also certified organic (various organizations provide organic certification). Those Fair Trade certified coffees that are not also certified organic are often passive organic.  For example, they are still required, under Fair Trade certification, to use integrated pest management (which cuts down on use of chemical pesticides), and Fair Trade farmers also use other soil and water conservation measure which help preserve biodiversity. In the Fair Trade system, certified organic coffee receives a per-pound premium, a strong incentive for farmers to go organic.

If it’s certified organic...
It’s likely to be Fair Trade as well. Over half of all organic coffee is Fair Trade certified.

Sun cultivated coffee relies heavily on chemical inputs of fertilizer and pesticides to produce successfully. Organic coffee is very difficult to grow without the presence of shade trees to provide habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and other organisms; to provide natural mulch; to aid in nutrient cycling; and to help in weed suppression.  Therefore, if coffee is organic, it is more likely to be shade grown, at least to some degree. While certification varies, organic coffee is usually grown completely free of synthetic chemicals, and have been for at least three years.

If it’s shade grown…
It is always also certified organic, if it has Bird-Friendly certification. Rainforest Alliance certified coffees have no organic requirement, and other “shade grown” claims that lack a certification are anybody’s guess. Read about shade grown certification here.

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Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown.  The three work can together to protect the environment, biodiversity, and the economies of small farm cooperatives and coffee growers.  It is very important that the labels don’t just say organic or shade-grown, but actually show a certification label. There are many coffees on the market today that are “triple certified.”

See our Guide to Coffee Certifications page for a ton more information.

 

 

 

Background information / Fair and Direct Trade

What is Fair Trade?

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 — both by  encouraging sustainable coffee farming methods that produce the highest quality coffee, and by empowering farmers economically and reducing their need to exploit the environment for survival.  Here is some background information on Fair Trade.

Fair Trade: What it does
Fair Trade helps small producers of various goods and agricultural products avoid exploitation.  Global Exchange, an excellent resource, lists these Fair Trade principals:

  • Producers receive a fair price; for commodities, farmers receive a stable, minimum price.
  • No forced or child labor allowed.
  • Working conditions are safe and healthy.
  • Equal employment opportunities are provided for all.
  • Buyers and producers trade under direct long-term relationships.
  • Producers have access to financial and technical assistance.
  • All aspects of trade and production are open to public accountability.
  • Sustainable production techniques are encouraged. NOTE: This does not mean that Fair Trade certified coffee was grown under strict environmental standards. See this post for more about the environmental criteria for Fair Trade certification.

Fair Trade certification

Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International sets standards and certifies. In order to reduce consumer confusion, it is working on using one label (the one in color here on the left) for Fair Trade products.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Fair Trade USA (formerly TransFair USA) places this black and white “Fair Trade Certified” label (right) on coffee, chocolate, and other commodities. It only indicates that the labeled product is Fair Trade, not that all products from the same company are Fair Trade.

NOTE: As of January 1, 2012, Fair Trade USA will no longer be a member of FLO. See this post for more information.

Because Fair Trade certification can be expensive, and is available only to cooperatives, it is unavailable to some farms who may have otherwise qualified.  An interesting article at Reason Magazine highlights some of these types of Fair Trade issues.  Some roasters gather together to pay fair trade prices — or more — to growers, even though their coffees are not officially certified.  See Cooperative Coffees for an example.

More resources on Fair Trade: