Coffee news and miscellany

Shade coffee at HowStuffWorks

There’s an article up on the popular Discovery web site HowStuffWorks on shade coffee. The author contacted me a couple of months ago; Coffee & Conservation is cited frequently as a resource (under the common alias “Coffee Habitat”) and my photos of Finca Esperanza Verde from this post are used in the sections “Growing coffee in the shade” and “How shady is shade coffee?”

Speaking of Finca Esperanza Verde, the new crop is now available from Counter Culture Coffee as Cafe San Ramon. I can personally vouch for the shade, birds, and biodiversity present on this farm. I’ve just started drinking my first bag, and it’s excellent as always.

Research on coffee growing

Shade coffee farmers attitudes towards wildlife

Attitudes and knowledge of shade-coffee farmers towards vertebrates and their ecological functions [PDF]. 2009. P. Lopez-del-Toro, E. Andresen, L. Barraza and A. Estrada. Tropical Conservation Science 2:299-318.

The authors of this study interviewed 36 Mexican shade coffee farmers regarding their knowledge and resultant perception and attitudes of the wildlife on their farms. Farmers were members of a cooperative, and some of them had also attended environmental workshops, which included wildlife-related topics, sponsored by the cooperative. In general, this study found that:

  • All farmers liked having birds on their farms, and they were viewed positively.
  • Farmers thought most snakes were poisonous, and only a third knew they ate rodents and/or could be beneficial in pest control.
  • Most farmers had a very utilitarian view of non-flying mammals (everything from squirrels to ocelots), being largely indifferent except towards those used for food.
  • Bats were the least understood, with most farmers not knowing what bats feed on or what ecological role they fulfilled.
  • Most farmers knew that seed dispersal was an important ecological function, and identified birds as seed dispersers. Few knew mammals could also disperse seeds.
  • Few farmers perceived pollination as being important, or understood the process well.
  • Farmers that had attended educational workshops gave an
    “environmentally friendly” answer to questions for the majority of the
    questions, compared to the farmers who had not. The authors acknowledge this could either be due to what the farmers learned in the workshops, or inherent interest or knowledge by the farmers attending, since the sessions were voluntary.

These results are not particularly surprising, but serve to illustrate a point. I think most First World coffee drinkers, if they think about coffee farmers at all, envision a Juan Valdez-like farmer. There is some romantic notion of the peasant who lives close to the land, full of indigenous knowledge and in tune with nature. This study presents something much closer to reality: for the average small coffee farmer, the land is there to support a family. The flora and fauna have to aid in that goal. There are no field guides or textbooks (or, in many cases, the level of literacy to comprehend them). No binoculars or microscopes.

These are the people we expect to conserve and protect tropical biodiversity for us. We think they should grow their coffee a certain way, without cutting down trees, using chemicals, or harming animals. Further, we would like them to pay someone to prove this to us, by way of some type of certification. And we’d like them to do this with little or no compensation.

There is no such thing as “cheap coffee.”

Coffee farmer by Neil Palmer (International Center for Tropical Agriculture, CIAT).

Lopez-del-Toro P., Andresen, E., Barraza, L., & Estrada, A. (2009). Attitudes and knowledge of shade coffee farmers towards vertebrates and their ecological functions. Tropical Conservation Science, 3 (2), 299-318.

 

Corporate coffee / McDonald's

McDonald’s coffee in the U.S.

Background
When McDonald’s introduced its Premium Roast coffee in 2006, it was selling 500 million cups of coffee a day in the U.S. alone, or one out of every ten cups sold outside the home. On the heels of that success and that of the growing high-end coffee market, McDonald’s in May 2009 launched its McCafe line of espresso drinks nationwide. These drinks are based on beans from Latin America and Indonesia, and are currently available in over 11,000 U.S. locations.*

Across products, the company has a diverse and complicated supply chain, as you might imagine. They favor multiple suppliers which often vary geographically. This is true with their coffee: McDonald’s does not roast its own coffee, so it obtains its beans from other roasters.

Fast food coffee: how does McDonald’s coffee compare?
Personally, I rarely drink coffee outside my home. Quality and taste issues aside, if I don’t know where it comes from, I don’t want to drink it. But when I think about other ubiquitous fast food outlets and their brewed coffee, I think about Folger’s being served at Wendy’s, about Dunkin Donuts being owned by three creepy private equity firms (providing little or no information on where their coffee comes from), and another of the “big four” corporate roasters, Sara Lee‘s Douwe Egberts division, supplying Burger King’s coffee. These are horrible choices, driven by profit. Quality and environmental sustainability not top priorities. Or if they are, none of those companies are making any effort to disclose to the public where they source their green beans and what environmental protection (or producer compensation) measures they undertake.

McDonald’s coffee suppliers
In comparison, the identity of McDonald’s major coffee suppliers are known, albeit with a little digging. Information on the the sourcing policies of those suppliers varies (discussed below). I’m most impressed with Green Mountain and Distant Lands. Those of S&D and Gaviña are more opaque.

The roasters below supply beans to the McDonald’s McCafe drink line. The first two also did/do supply beans for drip coffee. That is generally done on a regional basis, so I presume that the espresso line is supplied regionally as well.

S&D Coffee
This Concord, NC-based company is one of the leading roasters to the food service industry, supplying tens of thousands of commercial customers with coffee and allied products. S&D has supplied McDonald’s with coffee for over 30 years, and in 2008 was named McDonald’s supplier of the year. It was founded in 1927 and is still privately held by the Davis family. It is much more difficult to find out how privately-held companies source their coffees. A look at their line up reveals that they have several dozen wholesale coffee selections, including a few that are certified by Rainforest Alliance (at the 30% level. e.g., the products contain only 30% certified beans). While some coffees are single origin, little to no detail is provided, at least on the web site.

Gaviña Gourmet Coffee
Gaviña is based in southern California. Founded in 1967 by Cuban immigrants, it is still privately held by the Gaviña family, and currently roasts 32 million pounds of coffee annually. Gaviña has supplied McDonald’s since 1983, first with drip coffee and now with beans used in the espresso-based drinks. McDonald’s represents 15% of Gaviña’s sales. Other big commercial customers include 7-Eleven and CostCo. Gaviña sources coffee from about 40 different countries. Gaviña doesn’t divulge the three or four Latin American nations used in McDonald’s McCafe drinks; they say that’s proprietary information (but see below). Guess that means we can’t narrow it down to the cooperative or farm level! Gaviña’s web site indicates they have a limited selection of organic coffees, and a search for other certified coffees comes up blank.

Distant Lands Coffee
Distant Lands Coffee is one of the newer McDonald’s suppliers. The original roasting plant is in Texas, and recently they added another near Seattle. Among other places, Distant Lands supplies coffee to Safeway supermarkets and Panera Bread. In my post about Panera’s coffee, I went into some detail about Distant Lands and had good things to say about their commitment to quality and sustainability, which you can read about there. The fact that Distant Lands also owns or manages the farms they source from (such as chairman Bill McAlpin’s well-known La Minita in Costa Rica) was appealing to McDonald’s.

According to a Chicago Tribune article, at least one McDonald’s rep traveled to Distant Lands’ managed farms in Costa Rica, Brazil and Guatemala (as well as Indonesia), thus revealing the origins of at least three of the Latin American countries McCafe drink beans come from.

One other McDonald’s coffee supplier is worth noting. Vermont’s Green Mountain Coffee Roaster has been supplying Newman’s Own organic and Fair Trade certified coffee to around 650 locations in New England since 2005. Unlike the other suppliers, GMCR is publicly-traded. They have a great corporate responsibility record, source a lot of sustainably-grown coffee , and have many initiatives in coffee-growing communities. GMCR only supplies coffee to McDonald’s for drip, but it’s probably one of the most responsibly-sourced cups you’ll get at any fast food establishment, if you are fortunate enough to live in the region supplied by GMCR.

McDonald’s and Rainforest Alliance outside the U.S.
In smaller (and some would say more eco-conscious) markets, McDonald’s has gone a step further. All McDonald’s coffee in Australia is Rainforest Alliance certified. The web site specifically says, “Every bean we grind at McDonald’s Australia is made using 100% Arabica coffee beans sourced only from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms in Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica that meet strict environment and social standards.”

In the UK, where as of early 2007 McDonald’s was selling 143,000 cups of coffee daily, the company also uses Rainforest Alliance certified coffee exclusively. There, they source through Kraft under their Kenco brand. According to McDonald’s, they are expanding certified coffees throughout Europe, where all their coffee will either be Rainforest Alliance or Utz-certified.

As a reminder, neither of these certifications is specifically geared towards shade or biodiversity. More on Rainforest Alliance shade standards here and Utz environmental standards here.

Where does this leave us?
Getting coffee at a fast food chain is not the usual or best path to uplifting farmers, preserving the environment, or even appreciating great coffee. That being said, if I had to do it, my conclusion is that I’d feel least guilty getting a cup of coffee at McDonald’s than at other big fast food chains.

Perhaps, we can make it better. One thing on the McDonald’s corporate responsibility web page caught my eye:

“Other McDonald’s markets such as McDonald’s USA are working with suppliers to learn more about sustainable sourcing options for coffee. They will continue to monitor customer preferences and develop their coffee sourcing accordingly.”

McDonald’s has responded to consumer pressure in the past (albeit prolonged and crushing). Let them know that you want to see all of their U.S. coffee come from sustainable sources. Here’s how you can contact them:

Phone: 1-800-244-6227
Snail mail: McDonald’s Corporation, 2111 McDonald’s Dr., Oak Brook, IL 60523.

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*About half of McDonald’s 30,000+ locations are located outside of the U.S., and while I’ll discuss their sustainability efforts in other parts of the world — notably the U.K. and Australia — this post focuses on the coffee in their U.S. stores.

First two coffee cup photos by Majiscup, last by Avlxyz under Creative Commons License.

Coffee and the environment / Research on coffee growing

Climate change and coffee pests

Jaramillo, J., A. Chabi-Olaye, C. Kamonjo, A. Jaramillo, F. E. Vega, H.-M. Poehling, and C. Borgemeister 2009. Thermal tolerance of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei: Predictions of climate change impact on a tropical insect pest. PLoS ONE 4(8): e6487. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006487.

A paper just published in the journal PLoS ONE explores the impact of climate change on the life history and distribution of the world’s worst coffee pest, a minute beetle called the coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei.

The study modeled potential changes in mortality, number of generations per year, and developmental rate, among other traits, under eight different temperature regimes. The model indicated that CBB successfully develop at 20-30°C, and the intrinsic rate of increase (rate at which a CBB population increases in size) is highest, and the population doubling time lowest, at about 25-26°C (around 77°F).

As mean seasonal temperatures in coffee-growing countries move toward the optimum development temperatures for CBB, these areas become more vulnerable to increasing pest pressure from CBB. This could be especially problematic in Colombia, where multiple flowering of coffee plants means nearly year-round availability of coffee cherries.

The predicted optimal temperature for CBB increase is higher than that which is best for arabica coffee, which prefers a temperature range of 18-21°C (above which yields are reduced), while robusta coffee thrives at temperatures several degrees higher. Climate change is already predicted to reduce area suitable for coffee production. This is probably an even more pressing threat to coffee than changing pest dynamics.

As far as mitigation of the effects of higher temperatures on CBB and coffee production in general, the authors state:

A proven strategy to alleviate the potentially negative effects of climate, especially warmer temperatures, on coffee production is the introduction of shade trees in coffee plantations.

They point out that shade trees can lower temperatures around coffee by up to 4°C at low altitudes (<700 m) and 2°C higher up (>1100 m), that shaded farms harbor more CBB enemies which can provide bio-control of these pests, and that coffee cherry weight and quality is higher when grown under shade, thus offsetting lower yields.

A number of the authors are associated with the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology.

Update, March 2011: James Hoffman did an overview of the CBB with some links to climate change research.
Update, September 2011: Further follow-up research by the authors is summarized here.

Photo of a female CBB entering an unripe coffee cherry, part of Figure 1 from the PLoS paper, photo by Gonzalo Hoyos of CENICAFE. Don’t discount small enemies.

Jaramillo, J., Chabi-Olaye, A., Kamonjo, C., Jaramillo, A., Vega, F., Poehling, H., & Borgemeister, C. (2009). Thermal Tolerance of the Coffee Berry Borer Hypothenemus hampei: Predictions of Climate Change Impact on a Tropical Insect Pest PLoS ONE, 4 (8) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006487