Shade-Grown Coffee: Sustaining Biodiversity

1. Shade-Grown Coffee Vs. Sun-Grown coffee Text A sustainability project by Jade Van Dyke

2. How is coffee grown? Shade-grown coffee is the natural and traditional way to grow coffee. It’s grown under the forest canopy that has always existed. It consists of several layers of forest, the coffee plants on the bottom. This protects the coffee, as well as the environment around, and sustains the natural habitat and biodiversity. Sun-grown coffee is the new way to grow coffee, and was developed because farmers wanted room for more coffee plants, so they cut down the surrounding trees. This destroyed the natural environment, and also lowered the quality of coffee. Despite all this, sun-grown coffee is what most of us drink on a daily basis.

3. Thesis Statement Choosing shade-grown coffee over coffee grown in the sun would not only result in a better quality product, but would help to sustain the wildlife that live on coffee plantations, as well as the forested environment they live in.

4. So how do we solve the problem? -Raise awareness about the effects of deforestation in coffee plantations, as well as the ways that shade-grown coffee can improve the biodiversity of the environment. -Recruit helpers to stand behind the issue. Find coffee shops that buy shade-grown coffee, and support the cause of restoring the forests. Ask them to advertise and become spokes-people. -Encourage others to drink only shade-grown coffee. -Inform the farmers that if they make an effort to restore the forests to their natural growing processes, and replant trees, the quality of their coffee will go up, as well as the production.

5. The Pros & Cons Pros of shade-grown coffee: -Better quality coffee -Preserves the environment and biodiversity -Provides home for many creatures -Bees pollinate because of the many plants -Pesticides aren’t needed, because of natural pest control (Bats) Cons of sun-grown coffee -Diminishes biodiversity -Coffee plants are less pollinated -Pesticides are needed -Destroys the traditional ways of farmers in the rain forest area.

6. In Conclusion Shade-grown coffee and sun grown coffee are two very different things, and one has the power to sustain the environment, and even nourish it, while the other can be damaging to biodiversity. We, as coffee drinkers and connoisseur's, must fight to bring back shade-grown coffee plantations. We must raise awareness within coffee shops, and encourage people to drink only shade-grown coffee. Perhaps what is now a small movement can turn into a larger one, and help to sustain the tropical rain forests around the world.