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

Here at the Center for Sustainable Development, the community sets goals of how to be more sustainable and students and faculty strive to reach goals individually. One of my goals was not to use the dryer because as a group we decided people should do their laundry in the morning so that it can dry on the lines in the sun. Here in Atenas, our first two months of weather did not permit us to dry clothes in the afternoon because it rained almost every day so whenever I had to do laundry, I woke up early so my clothes could be drying after breakfast. Now, near the end of this season, we had a week of rain where it rained all morning and all night and I really had to do laundry because we were going away so I had to use the dryer! After the 50-minute cycle, I could not have fathomed what would come next. I grabbed my clothes out of the machine and thought I was never going to let them go. My sheets were warm, my shirts were warm and my shorts were warm! I never thought that something like using a dryer would be so monumental because when I didn’t use it– it’s not like I missed it. Well I am back to drying my clothes on the line and now it is the transition into the dry season so that is the one time I will use the dryer in Costa Rica. However, because it is getting so hot, my clothes come off the line crisp and warm!

Location: Atenas, Costa Rica