Sustainability: Thinking Beyond Borders Part Two
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When Americans import goods from foreign regions they are often exporting environmental degradation. In the U.S. we import all of our coffee, mostly from Colombia, Brazil and Guatemala. And we import a lot of it. After oil, coffee is the second largest import in the United States.
Luckily, about two thirds of the world’s coffee beans are still classified as arabica. Arabica beans are grown at higher altitudes, require less watering, and need cooler climates. Which means that almost all arabica beans are shade grown, greatly reducing the number of trees being cut down. Shade-grown coffee also grows slower than other varieties, producing a more flavorful, higher quality product.
It is sold for a considerably higher price, especially in the western world. However, due to the lack of price transparency received by farmers, they often resort to growing more beans for profit instead of higher quality. Which means clear cutting their land to make room for quick-growing, high-yielding robusta coffee shrubs.
This system of demand leads us to a series of environmental problems. While rainforests at one time covered 14% of the earth’s surface; they now cover only 6%. This significant damage cannot be solely attributed to coffee farming, but caffeine lovers can’t escape blame. Clearcutting forests for coffee plantations causes soil erosion, often requires the use of more chemical pesticides resulting in toxic runoff, and if the farm is on a slope, can cause deadly mudslides.
The environmental effects are exponential, and a shrinking biodiversity creates limitless and complex problems. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant and animal species every day due to rainforest deforestation. That’s over 50,000 species per year, and with that comes the loss of cures for human diseases as well.
The scary part is that when an ecosystem is rapidly stripped of so many of it’s species, we simply have no way of knowing how that will effect the the food chain. All this destruction just to feed a nation’s caffeine fix. But that isn’t our only destructive habit. In fact, if you live in the U.S. and consume avocados, coconuts, figs, chocolate, bananas, or palm (kernel) oil on a regular basis (like most of us do) you are contributing to a relatively unsustainable market that is more than this earth can afford.
One of the more disturbing aspects of this system is that we don’t feel the affects in our own country. Not only are foreign environments suffering, but causing forced migration from destroyed ecosystems. Take for example the deaths of 14 immigrants that were attempting to cross the Arizona desert, half of them were coffee workers from Veracruz state.
Let’s face it America, we’re not quitting coffee anytime soon, but we can lessen our impact. From now on let’s pony up for the shade-grown stuff.
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