Coffee.. our daily fuel

Coffee is a daily must for many people, in fact 2.25 Billion cups of coffee are consumed daily.

Coffee is good, obviously, but 90% of its production takes place in developing countries. During the 1970's and 1980's the US agency for Industrial development offered Latin America $80 Million to switch coffee production to a monoculture.

Prior to this seemingly large offer, coffee was shade grown and mixed in with other vegetation that provided food for locals. It is now a sun grown monocrop.
The issues with this are obvious, increased use of pesticides, lower biodiversity, land degradation etc.. But the reason we don't do anything about it is because we are not directly effected. But, boy would we be pissed if we didn't get that morning cup of joe.

So... lets make the connection.

Since the transformation from sustainable shade grown coffee to sun grown monoculture there has been a complete devastation of the songbird population. Song birds are migratory, and so in the spring and summer come to North America and eat the same insects that are the primary vectors of infectious and parasitic disease.

Loss of Songbirds = Increased risk of disease

What you can do - buy local and fair trade coffee. Practice your sustainability first thing in the morning every morning. You will never taste a better cup of coffee.

What I will do- I am more of a tea drinker, which is equally as much of an issue. First I will be more conscious to buy fair trade tea, and continue to buy Red Rose as they have a commitment with the rainforest alliance. Second, I will only buy boxes of tea that do not have individual wrapping. Each tea bag does not need to have its own packaging, its absurd.