Clipmarks | BirdBarista's clips

Eco-friendly Ethiopian coffee methods

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:40:43 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Ethiopia's finest coffee is grown in the shade of native trees, which allows the coffee cherries to retain their moisture until they are ready to be picked. Without the shade of these generations-old trees, the coffee bushes would produce bitter tasting, inferior quality beans.

By utilizing eco-friendly coffee processing, the cooperatives will not only increase their income as a result of selling washed coffee but also address environmental pollution related to the conventional coffee processing method.

The eco-friendly method of processing reduces the amount of organic waste from the washing process and cuts water usage by 98.5 percent.

It was just a little over a year ago that 238 coffee growers in Werka came together to form a primary cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union.

organic by-products of washed coffee, can be converted into bio-fuel, fertilizer, and animal feed to boost the income of coffee growers

Caribou switching to green lighting

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:48:18 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Caribou Coffee, the second-largest company-owned gourmet coffeehouse operator based in the U.S., has made a commitment to energy efficiency by mandating compact fluorescent lamps in its lighting design specifications for corporate-owned locations. The initiative is expected to save each coffeehouse up to 70% in lighting costs.

Caribou Coffee made the switch from 50-watt PAR30 halogen light bulbs to 15-watt PAR30 Spiral-PAR compact fluorescent light bulbs from Litetronics International, Inc.

More than half of the Caribou Coffee corporate locations have already made the switch to energy efficient lighting. The company plans to transition the rest of its coffeehouses to Spiral-PAR lamps by the end of this year.

National Zoo serving Bird-Friendly coffee

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:49:06 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: nationalzoo.si.edu

Golden Valley Farms, a Bird Friendly® coffee roaster near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is now the roaster for all coffee served to visitors at the National Zoo. The coffee comes from the unique Santa Teresa Estate in El Salvador

The certified organic, Bird Friendly® (certified shade) coffee grows between 900 and 1,400 meters (3,000 and 4,600 feet) above sea level. The beans are processed with warm mineral springs water in Santa Teresa's eco-friendly coffee mill. This mill is the only known mill in the world that uses geothermal energy

Some of the traits that helped Santa Teresa Estate coffee win the Cup of Excellence:

Organic practices the farm
Organic fertilizer application
Weed control is performed solely by hand
Yucca elephantipe barriers control erosion

Specialized insects face extinction

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:33:46 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: One of the top five hotspots where these extinctions are forecast to be highest is in the tropical Andes, a region where coffee is also grown. Encouraging shade coffee from the Colombian Andes in particular, in a country where sun coffee has been promoted, is especially important.

Clip Source: conservationmaven.com

Carlos Roberto Fonseca has published an ominous forecast for the fate of specialist insect herbivores (i.e. monophages or those that feed on only one species of plant). According to his calculations, somewhere between 213,830 and 547,500 monophagous insect species are trending towards extinction in biodiversity hotspots.

Monophage insects are particularly sensitive to extinction risk. As specialist herbivores, they rely on a single plant species for food. If their host plant goes extinct, they have to make a long shot evolutionary leap of adapting to another plant species in order to continue with their own survival.

Certain hotspots are faring much worse than others.

Future of Fair Trade coffee in question

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:17:58 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.time.com

Fair Trade pays $1.55 per lb. for Antonio's organic coffee, almost 10% more than the market price. But Antonio is left with only 50¢ per lb. after paying Fair Trade cooperative fees, government taxes and farming expenses. By year's end, he says, from the few thousand pounds he grows, he'll pocket about $1,000 — around half the meager minimum wage in Guatemala — or $2.75 a day

Fair Trade prices "haven't kept up" with the costs small farmers face, he adds.

Clip Source: www.time.com

the per-pound price that's needed for farmers to rise above subsistence is really more than $2. Farmer advocates are urging the FLO to consider raising the price that much.

FLO is balking. "What good is it to have $2-per-lb. coffee if you can only serve tens of thousands of farmers" instead of millions? asks Paul Rice, president and CEO of TransFair USA, the California-based nonprofit that oversees Fair Trade in the U.S.

A warning about self-certification

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:59:17 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: Here's what can happen when industries self-certify: greenwashing. Check out the link to the photo gallery of "sustainable" logging.

Clip Source: www.publicradio.org

Following the old adage, “if you can’t beat them, join them,” the American Forest & Paper Association created its own certification system for labeling sustainably managed forests, requiring all members to ‘self-certify’ that they comply with their “Sustainable Forestry Initiative” (SFI) requirements. (SFI became an independent non-profit in 2007.) Buoyed by the support of behemoth members such as Weyerhaeuser the SFI has grown rapidly, with SFI operations now covering approximately 90% of the industrial forestland in the US.

Michael Brune, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network described the SFI efforts as “a new green coat of paint over the same tired practices” and environmental groups have lined up to fight the SFI certification program producing a sobering photo gallery of SFI Certified Logging.

Another paper linking poverty and biodiversity loss

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:45:35 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: A topic I have touched upon here <http://tinyurl.com/nrw3h9>; and here <http://tinyurl.com/4tdn5b>;

Clip Source: news.mongabay.com

Twenty-nine scientists argue in Science today that the world will not be able to lift up the world's poor unless it also addresses global biodiversity loss.

"Action is urgently needed to identify and quantify the links between biodiversity and ecosystem services on the one hand, and poverty reduction on the other," the scientists write.

They point to agriculture as one example of an area where more sustainable methods can help save biodiversity and reduce global poverty. "For instance, we can use existing land more efficiently

Brazil to increase efforts to preserve cerrado

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:27:17 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: Read my post on coffee growing in the cerrado here: http://tinyurl.com/5kqjuc

Clip Source: news.mongabay.com

Brazil will try to reduce deforestation of the cerrado, a wooded grassland ecosystem in Brazil that is being destroyed twice as fast as the Amazon rainforest, according to the country's Environment Minister Carlos Minc.

120,000 square kilometers (46,000 sq. miles) of cerrado have been cleared in the past six years.

While conversion of the cerrado is often overlooked by environmentalists and authorities due to perceived lack of biological value relative to the Amazon rainforest, the ecosystem is home to more than 10,000 species of plants, 4400 of which are endemic; 935 species of birds; and almost 300 mammal species. Further, recent research indicates that the ecosystem provides important watershed services — serving as the headwaters of many rivers — and plays an integral role in carbon cycling.

Ten Reasons to Invest in Reducing Tropical Deforestation

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:03:07 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: Demanding, purchasing, creating a market for shade grown coffee is a cog in this great big wheel.

See the whole report "Protecting Trees, Protecting our Climate" by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Clip Source: www.ucsusa.org

1. Global warming is global.

2. Tropical forest emissions are significant.
About 20 percent of carbon emissions come from tropical deforestation

3. Global warming solutions protect our citizens.

4. Tropical forests are necessary for stabilizing our climate.

5. Reducing deforestation is cost-effective

6. Ignoring deforestation is unfair for good businesses.

7. Reducing deforestation is inexpensive for the United States.

8. Solutions exist today for reducing deforestation.

9. Stopping deforestation addresses multiple challenges.

10. Addressing deforestation shows we are serious about our future.

Details Magazine lists the "Roast Whisperers"

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:33:17 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: My favorite roasters also make their list of the best in the industry. Take a look.

Clip Source: men.style.com

The industry's innovators are creating coffees that have the complexity of fine wines. Here are the homegrown companies that are redefining how the pick-me-up ought to taste.

1. Counter Culture Coffee

2. Stumptown Coffee Roasters

3. Zoka Coffee Roaster & Tea Company

4. Intelligentsia Coffee

5. Terroir

Organic coffee imports in N.A. remained strong in 2008

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:00:42 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Organic coffee imports to the United States and Canada posted a surprise 12 percent volume increase in 2008 year-on-year because of health consciousness and customer habit, the North American Organic Coffee Industry Survey said on Tuesday.

North America last year imported 89 million lbs of organic coffee, or $1.3 billion, said Daniele Giovannucci, the Philadelphia-based industry consultant who conducted the survey.

Peru, Ethiopia, Brazil and Mexico are among the top suppliers of organic coffee, the survey showed.

Integrity of the federal organic label

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:41:52 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: Coffee certified 100% organic still must be just that. Any sort of exception would come from flavored coffee or beans with some sort of additive, noted on the label.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

consumers, who at times must pay twice as much for organic products, are not always getting what they expect: foods without pesticides and other chemicals, produced in a way that is gentle to the environment.

The market's expansion is fueling tension over whether the federal program should be governed by a strict interpretation of "organic" or broadened to include more products by allowing trace elements of non-organic substances. The argument is not over whether the non-organics pose a health threat, but whether they weaken the integrity of the federal organic label.

In response to complaints, the USDA inspector general's office has widened an investigation of whether products carrying the label meet national standards. The probe is also looking into the department's oversight of private certifiers who are hired by farmers and food producers and inspect products to determine whether they can use the label.

Climate change threatens Brazil's coffee crop

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:43:48 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.google.com

The future for Brazil's mighty farm sector could be grim, with hotter temperatures pushing crops past its borders, uphill into the Andes and toward the tip of South America.

Experts in tropical agriculture are developing genetically modified coffee, soy beans and other crops that can withstand higher temperatures in Brazil's expanding northeastern desert, new pests and diseases and more flooding in low-lying areas.

That could mean a 10 percent reduction Brazil's arable land for coffee by 2020 — and a one-third reduction by 2070 — as the crop's suitable climate migrates into the Andean foothills of neighboring Argentina

Brazil's coffee plantations extend across 5.7 million acres (2.3 million hectares) and produce more than twice as much as the next-largest grower, Vietnam.

Salamanders in steep decline in Guatemalan coffee area

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:11:26 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista
clipper's remarks: San Marcos is a prime coffee growing area in Guatemala. These declines are very disturbing.

Clip Source: news.mongabay.com

Salamanders in Central America — like frogs, toads, and other amphibians at sites around the world — are rapidly and mysteriously declining, report researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We document major declines of many species of salamanders at several sites in Central America and Mexico, with emphasis on the San Marcos region of Guatemala, one of the best studied and most diverse salamander communities in the Neotropics," write the authors. "Profound declines of several formerly abundant species, including 2 apparent extinctions, are revealed."

The authors note that salamander populations in mid- to high elevation forests have been particularly affected.

The researchers do not know yet what is causing the decline, though they suspect a human link.

Switch coffee, save birds.

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:07:53 GMT

clipped by: BirdBarista

Clip Source: www.burlingtonfreepress.com

As a breakfaster, Bridget Stutchbury enjoys a good cup of coffee. As an ornithologist who studies songbird migration, she knows her choice of coffee can make survival more difficult for those birds.

Coffee in Latin America traditionally was grown under tall forest trees. Shade for the coffee also provides shade and essential habitat for forest birds that fly south for the winter.

To increase production, growers developed coffee plants that can be grown in full sun, with the help of pesticides. Hundreds of thousands of acres of shade-grown coffee plantations have been bulldozed, replacing complex forest ecosystems with monocultures unfriendly to birds.

Even among birders, he said, there's a low level awareness of the coffee-songbird connection.

Stutchbury hopes to change that.

"If people latch on to shade-grown coffee, seek it out, that one decision can make a huge difference," she said.