Coffee

This topic submitted by John Williams ( williajc@muohio.edu) at 11:55 AM on 5/16/08.

A view from the air--Where have the forests gone? (Sierpe River Area, SW Costa Rica)

Tropical Field Courses -Interdisciplinary Studies-Miami University

Coffee, the socio-economic and environmental impacts

Coffee, that dark and robust beverage that is on every corner in America, but where did it come from, and how did it make it here for us to utilize. There are many myths and legends that shroud the past and make it difficult to determine, however the most widely used myths starts with the Òdancing goatsÓ in Africa {{101 Wikipedia contributors; }}. The story goes that in the country now known as Ethiopia a goat herder, Kaldi, awoke to find that his goats were missing; he then went out searching for them in the surrounding hills. He came across his goats ÔdancingÕ about each other and was surprised. Kaldi realized that his goats were eating a small red berry that was in the area, and being hungry himself, after searching all day, he too ate the red berries. The story continues that an Imam came upon the goat herder and his goats and watched in disbelief as they all danced around the area. After speaking with the boy and asking several questions the Imam realized that the red berries around the clearing were the cause of the energetic dancing. The Imam tried the red berry and spent more hours at prayer than ever before. The Imam exclaimed Òthis is no ordinary fruit!Ó and realized that if everyone ate these berries they would be more energized and pray with more fervor. There is no telling if this was true but it has now become part of the legend of the origins of coffee. The name and origins of coffee is believed to have started in the kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia. There is no hard evidence to support this claim however it is generally recognized that coffee came out of Africa. Some of the earliest mentions of coffee are in seen in the 10th century and becomes more easily traceable during the 14th century. It appears that Yemen merchants brought it back in to their homeland and began to cultivate the seeds for their own crops. Later in the 14th century you find mention of coffee entering in to Venice and then in the 16th century it arrives in England. Today the plant can be found in nearly every tropical setting and is a source of income for many countries big and small.
The genus coffea is the common coffee tree in which there are 25 species. The most commonly cultivated species is the Coffea arabica, which currently is 70% of all coffee cultivated. Where C. Arabica is cultivated the shrubs are pruned to 15 feet for ease of harvesting, however when left alone some varieties of Coffea can reach 30 feet. In general when coffee is first planted it takes three to four years before it produces any cherries. Once production starts the trees can be fruiting for 20-30 years with some varieties lasting as long as 40-60 years. Typically there are two seeds per berry but 5 Ð 10% of the plant can produce a single seed per berry, called a ÔpeaberryÕ. These peaberries as said to have a different taste when brewed but there is nothing to support this particular claim. Traditional methods for growing coffee involved, ironically enough, growing coffee in the shade. The demand for shade grown coffee has increased so much that farmers are reverting their fields back to a more traditional growing method of allowing the forest to grow up around the existing plantation. Beans grown in this method are smaller than the sun grown type, however, there is a school of thought that shade grown coffee tastes better because the taste is more concentrated in the smaller bean. True or not people are demanding more shade grown coffee than ever before. Another method of farming coffee is the sun grown method. This is an ecological nightmare, first the area is cleared of all trees so that the coffee plants are able to have full light to grow bigger beans. In this process the farmers are reducing the habitats of the local flora and fauna there by reducing the biodiversity of the region. A side by side comparison of these methods shows just how it affects biodiversity and why farmers were so enamored of growing coffee in the sun rather than in the traditional method of shade grown coffee (Table 1).

Table 1 here you can see how shade-grown coffee has a higher biodiversity, it also has a smaller ecological impact. This lower impact is felt in the lower need for chemicals during the growing season.
Shade-Grown Coffee Sun-Grown Coffee
Yield Lower (about 25-40 percent) Higher
Coffee plants per hectare 1,000-2,000 3,000-7,000
Kilograms of coffee per hectare per year 550 1600
Lifetime of coffee plants 24-30 years 12-15 Years
1Number of other crops in same area High Low/none
Flavor Less bitter More bitter
Producer Mostly small-scale growers Mostly large-scale growers
Number of Bird Species 150 20-50
Proportion of birdlife compared to a normal forest Two-thirds About one-tenth
Number of mid-sized mammal species 24 Almost none
Number of other plant & animal species more ants, beetles, epiphytes, amphibians, and other species fewer ants, beetles, epiphytes, amphibians, and other species
Weeding needed lower higher
Chemical fertilizers lower higher
Pesticide use lower higher
Irrigation needed lower higher
Soil erosion lower higher
Soil acidification lower higher
Toxic runoff lower higher
Source: Seattle Audubon Society Shade-Grown Coffee Project

A coffee buyer like Starbucks has driven some o f the change seen in the coffee growing practices in Costa Rica. In the late 1990Õs when Brazil and Vietnam flooded the market with cheap coffee and crashed the market price. While New York set the price at $60 for a bag of coffee (as low as $38 during the coffee crisis) Starbucks was paying $100 a bag. In 2001 Starbuck introduced the CafŽ practices (Coffee and farmer equality practices) that require a social responsibility from the farmer to not use child labor and to provide better living conditions for the workers. It is also required that there be an economic accountability and that full-time works be paid more than the minimum wage. There is also the responsibility to the environment which bans agrochemicals and encourages better management practices through soil and water conservation. The requirement is that of maintaining shade trees on the farm which allows for trees to produce longer and remain healthier. With these types of practices in place the face of coffee growing has become a bit more ÔshadyÕ but in a good way.

References
Adams, M., and A. E. Ghaly. 2007. Maximizing sustainability of the costa rican coffee industry. Journal of Cleaner Production 15, (17): 1716-29.
Lindell, Catherine, and Michelle Smith. 2003. Nesting bird species in sun coffee, pasture, and understory forest in southern costa rica. Biodiversity and Conservation 12, (3): 423-40.
Muschler, R. G. 2001. Shade improves coffee quality in a sub-optimal coffee-zone of costa rica. Agroforestry Systems 51, (2): 131-9.
Pendergrast, Mark. 1999. Uncommon grounds :The history of coffee and how it transformed our world. 1st ed. New York, NY: Basic Books.
PHILPOTT, STACY M., PETER BICHIER, ROBERT RICE, and RUSSELL GREENBERG. 2007. Field-testing ecological and economic benefits of coffee certification programs. Conservation Biology 21, (4): 975-85.
Raynolds, Laura T., Douglas Murray, and Andrew Heller. 2007. Regulating sustainability in the coffee sector: A comparative analysis of third-party environmental and social certification initiatives. Agriculture and Human Values 24, (2): 147-63.
Wikipedia contributors. Legend of dancing goats. in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia [database online]. [cited 4/14/2008 2008]. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/legend_of_dancing_goats?oldid=203904992 (accessed 4/14/2008).

Sorry for the table. I can send you an e-copy so it is more easily read.

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