Shade grown coffee is generally better tasting and a more ecologically sound method of growing coffee, even if it adds a bit to the cost. The fact that the coffee can be grown without massive deforestation alone makes it a better method of growing coffee since it helps to preserve trees which sequester carbon and secure the soil when it rains.
But a recent article in the journal Current Biology (subscription only) shows that shade grown coffee also helps preserve biodiversity. From the article summary:
Coffee is cultivated across 11 million hectares (ha) of land within the world's richest centers of terrestrial biodiversity [1]. In tropical America, coffee is traditionally grown under a diverse canopy of overstory shade trees, which enhances the quality of the coffee farm as a conservation matrix and supports a broad spectrum of pollinators that increase fruit set per bush [2], [3] and [4]. Unlike sun coffee monocultures, shade coffee also sustains a diverse array of vertebrates, including bats and migratory birds, which provide farmers with many ecological services, such as insect predation [5], and may also conserve seed dispersal processes necessary for native tree re-establishment [6]. However, little is known about the capacity of shade coffee farms to maintain gene flow and genetic diversity of remnant tree populations across this common tropical landscape. In this study, we conducted genetic analyses that reveal recent colonization and extensive gene flow of a native tree species in shade coffee farms in Chiapas, Mexico. The high genetic diversity and overlapping deme structure of the colonizing trees also show that traditional coffee farms maintain genetic connectivity with adjacent habitats and can serve as foci of forest regeneration.
For those unclear on the concept, biodiversity makes an ecosystem more robust and less succeptable to disruption by diseases, pests, climate changes and other factors. Simply put, as a first approximation, the simpler the ecosystem, the less stable it is. The more diverse the ecosystem, both in terms of species and genetic variation within species, the more stable and productive it is. Shade grown coffee both preserves this stability and benefits from it.
Additionally, this allows shade grown coffee to also serve as potential foci of native forest regeneration in deforested areas.
I know Trader Joe's sells shade grown coffee, and really good stuff it is!
Audobon also has a list of sources for shade grown coffee.
Currently Joy and I mostly drink coffee from Equal Exchange sold through our local food co-op (which is the largest food co-op in the nation!), which keeps the cost down very nicely. Before joining the co-op, we bought our coffee from Dean's Beans, which I think sells shade grown...I know it is organic and fair trade! They were the cheapest high quality coffee we could find until joining the co-op.
Great article on shade coffee
I know that many of you are coffee lovers. We Americans consume over 2.5 billion lbs of coffee every year but, did you know that coffee beans, for the universally popular drink, are cultivated in more than 80 tropical countries around the World? And, with over $150 billion in annual retail sales and providing employment for more than 100 million people, coffee’s economic value is second only to petroleum. In addition, more than 124 million acres are currently cultivated with coffee in the most biologically-diverse tropical lands of the world.
There are two basic types of coffee plantations, namely shade-grown and sun-grown coffee. In shade-grown plantations, coffee plants grow under the shading canopy of larger trees. Most shading trees are native species commonly found in surrounding natural forests, providing important habitat for wildlife, protecting the delicate tropical soils and water resources. On the other hand, “sun coffee” plantations are a monoculture of coffee trees where, in order to increase production, the natural shading canopy of trees is eliminated exposing the coffee plants to full sun light. These plantations do not support native forest trees and wildlife species as traditional shaded coffee plantations do. In addition, since these monocultures can’t take advantage of the natural ecosystems they require higher inputs of fertilizers and pesticides affecting even more the delicate tropical ecosystems. The bottom line is that with shade coffee plantations you have nature working with you and with sun coffee you are working against Mother Nature.
Many of the birds that inhabit these shade grown coffee habitats are our own Chesapeake birds that migrate and winter in the tropics. Yes, many of our birds expend on average between 5 and 7 months every year, foraging and living in coffee plantations in South and Central America and the Caribbean. For example, the Black-throated Blue Warbler, Red-eye Vireo, Gray Catbird, and our beloved Baltimore Oriole, just to mention a few, all winter in tropical habitats including shaded coffee plantations. If these habitats are degraded or eliminated, our Chesapeake birds may stop singing.
We can help keep our birds singing by buying shade-grown coffee. Ask your local retailers to carry shade-grown coffees from the wintering habitats of our Chesapeake birds. Now look out of your window or go to your favorite birding spot and enjoy a fresh cup of shade-grown coffee. When you hear the birds singing at you they may be saying thank you!
Leo
www.GoodDogCoffee.com