Sustainability in the coffee industry is ensuring eco-friendly values and being environmentally smart. At Espresso @ Home, we hugely value sustainability in the coffee industry, meaning we support the ‘do no harm’ approach which means that whatever we take from the planet should be put back into it. This is why agriculture is vital in ensuring sustainable coffee. If the growth and development of coffee is slowed down or even put to a stop then this could have huge repercussions on the coffee industry as a whole. Read on below to find out the important reasons as to why choosing sustainable coffee is not only important yet also the only real choice to take.
Economics in Coffee
When it comes to the economy, unroasted coffee is a hugely traded asset since it is one of the most popular agricultural goods sold on mass. Coffee is the second most important commercial product in the world after petrol, and is the second most important commercial product that is exported by developing countries. Before sustainability and ethics were considered in the industry, (this includes the environmental impact and poor conditions for farmers), the priority was supply and demand. We at Espresso are in favour of aiding farmers and putting the environment ahead of the economy as in the long term this will work out better for both and we will have a much more sustainable coffee industry.
How Can we Ensure Sustainable Coffee
First of all, we can stop buying non-sustainable coffee. This not only negatively impacts the environment but is also unfair on the farmers who are getting barely even pennies for their hard work just so you can enjoy your coffee. Instead you should actively go out of your way to understand how the coffee you buy and drink was made. Buying organic coffee for example is a way to support sustainable coffee methods, un-organic coffee beans are covered in chemicals like pesticides. These are not only bad for your health, they also are damaging to environment as they cause soil erosion.
A well known foundation is Fairtrade. When you buy Fairtrade coffee, you can go to sleep at night knowing that the purchase you made will go toa hardworking coffee farmer and his family. Ensuring farmers receive a realistic income indirectly encourages them to stop destroying their local environment, to grow more and more coffee. Paying a fair price will encourage the farmer to grow more sustainable coffee. .
You could also look for ‘shade grown’ coffee, it is well known that monoculture (where only one species dominates) in an environment is outstandingly negative. They leave no place for biodiversity. Monocultures are exposed to invasive species that can migrate into these environments and completely destroy them! On top of this, ‘shade grown’ coffee is grown in its natural setting, such as tropical rainforests. Helping by choosing shade grown coffee should, in the fullness of time help maintain the migration patterns of 150 species of migrating birds, who might otherwise have need to find somewhere else to go, if their traditional environment had been destroyed.
Danger to Arabica Coffee Beans
If we stick to our current unsustainable coffee habits then we could see a damaging impact on the growth and accessibility of arabica coffee beans. Arabica coffee beans are very prone to the negative effects of climate change and farmers are already experiencing the effects of it through erratic rainfall and elevated temperatures. As arabica coffee is grown in the mountains, they are more exposed to the effects of mother nature.
You may ask, ‘why does a rapid decrease in arabica coffee beans encourage less sustainable coffee methods?’ The reason is simple. Arabica coffee beans are responsible for around 60% of the world’s coffee production. This would mean that if the worst were to happen, we would lose more than a half of the total coffee sources available in the world. This would have huge economic repercussions and leave millions of farmers, workers and manufactures without a job! The bottom line is that we have to protect the crops where these coffee beans grow and improve the conditions around farmers in Africa, Asia, South America and Central America to ensure a more sustainable model.
Key Crops Will Suffer
Now talking on a more general scale, key crops like cashews, avocados and most importantly coffee beans will suffer. The reason for this is the increasing heat from climate change that means these crops can not be grown at their optimum temperature and so production is not as efficient as it should be, leading to an overall reduce in yield. As per a recent BBC article on climate change ‘Key coffee regions in Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam and Colombia will all “drastically decrease” by around 50% by 2050.’ This indicates that much greater efforts have to take place in order to change this trajectory and ensuring we follow the correct sustainable coffee methods in order to prevent this from occurring.
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