Coffee news and miscellany

The Coffee Conference

My husband and I attended the Coffee Conference at Miami University in Oxford, OH. I’ve now been to meetings that covered coffee from every angle: ecological (ornithological conferences), trade (SCAA annual meeting) and now the academic and scholarly. This event had a wide range of speakers on a variety of topics. The audience was also varied. As far as I could tell, there were perhaps 75 registered participants, including small roasters, academics from many disciplines (history, economics, literature), and representatives from producing countries and NGOs. Many Miami U. students also attended.

I will be following up with a more detailed post on what for me was the most interesting message I came away with: the fairly uniform negative attitudes toward certification agencies, ranging from distrust to disgust. Right now, I’ll just try to burnish my own legitimacy by doing some name dropping and showing you photos of famous coffee people.

Geoff Watts, left, of Intelligentsia gave a talk about Direct Trade relationships. In his discussion, Geoff noted that environmental sustainability has to be part of what is fostered and encouraged in direct relationships with farmers. He said that although a farm might be producing great coffee, if the land isn’t taken care of then it cannot continue to produce the same quality coffee over the years. Ecological integrity is part of the equation.

Geoff also offered a lot of the kind of insightful commentary on other talks, especially regarding Fair Trade, that only someone who has been intimately involved with producers can provide.

Ken Davids gave a great talk on interpreting the iconography and images of coffee through time. He grouped them by theme, such as the 1950s “Good Cuppa Joe” — coffee as every man’s luxury — or the “Safari in a Cup” adventure at exotic origins symbolism of the early specialty coffee movement. If  Ken hadn’t noted that his early background was as a novelist and college writing teacher, I would have guessed it by his presentation. It was creative, clever, and reminded me of the kind of deep interpretation of literature that I recall from my undergrad days. Very enjoyable — and I can’t imagine seeing a talk like this at any other kind of coffee conference.

At dinner, George Howell (center in front of laptop) showed off his new Extract MoJo software to Geoff Watts of Intelligentsia, David Waldman of Rojo’s Roastery in New Jersey, and yours truly.  Just listening to coffee guys talk about coffee was quite a learning experience. I was glad that I could keep up with a lot of it, and that I was able to make some contributions from a consumer and ecological viewpoint.

George and I, in fact, had several great talks about some of the pros, cons, and the future of various certifications, and he was very gracious about answering my questions. He gave a really lively presentation on the many points from crop to cup where quality can fall off. I was once again amazed that we ever end up with a decent cup of coffee, much less brilliantly delicious cups. And also again, I am sure that if more people know the many steps involved in bringing this crop to market, and the intense labor that goes into it, that they’d be willing to pay a lot more for it. As they should.

I asked Hacienda La Esmeralda’s Price Peterson some coffee-growing advice. I brought home some beans from Panama last winter, and have five little plants growing right now. A couple of them are looking a little anemic. Price was a bit stumped and was not sure exactly what to recommend. The guy can grow some of the most lauded and expensive coffee in the world, but didn’t know what to tell me about some mundane Caturra growing under lights at 193 meters in Michigan.

It was a really great conference, and all the other participants I talked to agreed. The small size allowed for a lot of interaction and discussion. Its interdisciplinary nature, and the varied backgrounds of participants made for a wide range of opinions as well more balance. There is a plan for a book derived from the proceedings which I look forward to. Kudos to the organizers, especially Robert Thurston. I’ll be incorporating more information from the conference into future posts, especially regarding the backlash against certifications.

Research on coffee growing

Research: Meta-analysis of biodiversity loss in coffee farms

Biodiversity loss in Latin American coffee landscapes: review of the evidence on ants, birds, and trees. 2008. Philpott, S. M. et al. Conservation Biology 22:1093-1105. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01029.x

At a recent ornithological conference I attended, I saw a presentation on this paper by one of the authors, my friend Tom Diestch. The authors examined multiple studies of biodiversity impacts of shade coffee management in Latin America (excluding the Caribbean). They wanted to see if there were any patterns to biodiversity loss in these systems. Their results were not surprising. For all taxa (trees, ants, and birds), there was a loss in the number of species as shade management went from rustic to highly-managed shade monoculture or sun coffee.

Compared to forests, there are losses of ant and bird species in most coffee systems, with the exception of rustic shade coffee farms, which had equal or greater ant and bird species richness (number of species) than nearby forests. Most sensitive to habitat changes of the three taxa were ants.

Resident birds, and species specialized in foraging in the canopy or understory, were more impacted by increased management (e.g., less shade) than were migratory species or those that are able to forage in multiple strata. Thus, the diversity of tree species and vegetation characteristics associated with less intense shade management — higher tree density, more vegetation layers, height of canopy and understory — were very important to birds.

The authors made several recommendations:

  • Since species are lost whenever forest is managed, remaining forest patches should be preserved.
  • Rustic coffee should be encouraged — but not to the point where forest is being cut down or substantially disturbed to grow coffee.
  • Sun coffee and similar intensively managed farms should be restored to multi-story canopies with more diverse shade to provide more habitat, and native trees should be included in the restoration.

Many farmers believe that shade coffee results in a lowering of coffee yield. Studies have indicated however that optimum yields come in at around 40-60% shade, and that shade actually helps farmers due to decreased pests (if predators are present) and increased pollination services.

The authors speculate that low production in rustic shade might actually be due to a lack of attention to the crop, and measures can be taken to increase yield without removing vegetation. If there is lowered yield and farmers do take an economic hit, then consumers or other funding mechanisms (e.g., a “payment for ecosystems services” program) should pay a premium to farmers who grow coffee under rustic conditions.

You get what you pay for. I know I’m willing to pay a little more to preserve biodiversity.

Housekeeping

Welcome ProBlogger readers!

Darren Rowse ran a little experiment on his excellent site, ProBlogger, last weekend. He invited folks to promote their blogs in 140 characters or less. There were 1400 responses, and Darren picked 10 of his favorite pitches. First on his list was…

Are your beans for the birds? Learn about eco-friendly, sustainable coffee, and how your morning cup can change the world.

If you are reading this because you were also intrigued by my pitch, welcome! I know Coffee & Conservation can be a little daunting. How could there be so much material on sustainable coffee?! Where should you begin?

First, a brief bit about why I believe that making the choice to drink sustainable coffee can bring real change to the world. Then please visit the User Guide for a list of background posts that help you understand what defines sustainable coffee. They include What is shade coffee? and What is sun coffee and why is it a problem? You may also want to check out the post on the coffee crisis (why cheap coffee is being grown on sun plantations) and how this cheap coffee perpetuates poverty. If you only read one post here and put what you learn into action, make it The Top 5 Indicators of Sustainable Coffee.

I hope ProBlogger readers find this site useful — and I welcome feedback.

Coffee cup photo based on an image by Klaus Post.

Retail and specialty roasters

Two roasters, two new marketing approaches

Two of my favorite responsible roasters have come out with new tools to market their coffees.

Intelligentsia has launched In Season, a web site emphasizing that coffee is a seasonal crop, and highlighting the coffees that are currently within 10 months of harvest, and which are upcoming. Clicking on each coffee provides a flavor description; the name of the farm, producer, and region; varietal, altitude, and harvest season.

The Roasterie has set up a cool tool called My Blend. Answer 10 questions about your coffee preferences, and a blend will be developed for you. You can even design the label. I thought the questions were both straightforward and the “right” questions to ask. I’m going to have to try this out! If you give it a try, let me know how your blend turned out.