Organic*
Ok, we’ll admit it. Coffee has a lot of fancy words it uses to describe itself.
And as consumers become more aware of the “speciality” coffee industry (“3rd Wave Coffee” anyone?) the terms and labels will “spontaneously mutate” (yep, another coffee phrase) and “bloom,” OK, OK you get the point.
But of all the terms used, you would think “organic” would be an easy one to understand, yet there is consistent confusion around its use.
Basically, in a nutshell, in order for a coffee to be organic it has to be certified to follow all of these practices (keep in mind certifications change from region to region, so this is a basic criteria):
The coffee is grown on land that wasn’t exposed to synthetic pesticides or other outlawed substances for 3 years prior
There’s farmable area between the organic coffee and the closest conventional crop
A sustainable crop rotation plan is in place to prevent erosion, depletion of soil nutrients, and to naturally control for pests
The coffee farm’s fertilizer must be 100% organic
Does organic coffee taste better? Is it healthier for you? Will it solve all your problems?
Um, maybe? Well it will solve one problem for sure — you won’t be ingesting synthetic chemicals from the fertilizer and pesticides used on a conventional farm. There might also be stronger antioxidants with organic than non-organic (and less nitrates). But truth is one study will give you results totally different than the next study... there is no discernible proof that eating organic is safer, healthier and higher nutritionally than eating conventionally.
But what about the farm? Does it help the farm and the plants?
Yes! And, um, no.
Plants, soil and animals (including us humans) benefit greatly from organic farm practices. OK, so coffee isn’t consumed for nutritious value, and all coffee is processed in one way or another (washing off any chemical residue) but the soil is another story altogether. Just imagine the things that grow at all bio-levels on a farm — toxins effect an organism at every level, and things that have to reproduce and grow don’t need a lot of chemical baggage to haul along the way. Things like larval and pollinator host plants, the entire food change at micro-levels, the entire life cycle of a farm is effected by chemicals and that’s ultimately bad for all of us.
How is organic farming bad then?
On some level all mono-culture farms negatively impact the land around them. And that’s mostly what coffee farming is, a single product crop. Organic coffee has less yields than miracle grown conventional coffee plants which makes a farmer use more land for cultivating the same single crop. Spreading out the single crop weakens the overall land integrity over time... and this increases the potential threat of any of a number of disease and pests taking root across the farm.
Also, organic certification is expensive. It costs money to maintain the farm, to meet certification, to transfer an entire farm from conventional to organic takes at least three years. It adds up and real fast. It’s already so expensive and by and large farmers are not getting paid fairly despite the many economic practices on play to pay fair. A farmer can lose their entire crop in trying to go organic, which is a major threat in some developing regions.
So we applaud all farmers who tow the organic line and we look forward to working with farms that are considering going organic. It’s good for the land, the farmers managing it and the other plants, animals and water supplies around it — and what’s good for the soil is good for the soul.
Sources:
“Organic Coffee.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 May 2019, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_coffee.
Craves, Julie. “The Power of Organic Coffee.” Specialty Coffee Association News, Speciality Coffee Association, 17 Oct. 2017, https://scanews.coffee/2016/12/06/the-power-of-organic-coffee/
