Sustainable Coffee There are two attributes to conventional coffee growing that negatively impact the environment. 1. Plantation dynamic 2. Amount of water used for processing the coffee bean BOTH of these issues are solved by a group of organic coffee growers in the central highlands of Costa Rica. We visited a farm that grew coffee and also produced the beans for the organization of farmers. Want to learn more? Well, some coffee growers have coffee plants growing on plantations without a single tree in sight. This type of exploitation with any type of crop degrades the soil within two to three years. The great thing about coffee is that it can be grown in the shade. So organic coffee growers plant coffee among their forest, which promotes biodiversity, soil health and nutrient cycling. The second issue conventional coffee production is the amount of water used to process the bean. At the farm we visited, the production machine used hardly any water at all. Besides the increase of manual labor and the space needed to dry out the beans in the sun, there really were few reasons that conventional coffee could switch technologies to produce coffee without using a valuable resource like water. However, that’s the problem: the switch of technologies would be a big and expensive change. But organic farming isn’t perfect: without the use of pesticides and an increase in growth, there are many pests that the farmers need to manage constantly and in return they get a set market price that averages above conventional coffee growers price which is GREAT! Currently, conventional and organic coffee prices have been about the same but organic coffee prices ensures fair treatment of labor forces, minimal use of chemicals and a great cup of coffee!

Location: Atenas, Costa Rica