If you are at all aware of health and environmental issues, organic coffee is a product that should be interesting to you. Do you like to wake up in the morning, feel the sun's rays on your face and savor the rich aroma of your favorite drink brewing? Do you like to spend rainy afternoons at the window, a cup smoking in your hand? Or to sit up late at night, watching a classic movie, the cheery pot resting at your elbow within easy reach? Then you will also want to ensure that you do not consume lots of harmful chemicals with the drink that you love so much. Then organic coffee beans are just what you need for your daily cup of coffee. It's a sad truth that modern agricultural practice greatly depends on the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In order to supply the growing worldwide demand for popular crops, farmers don't have a choice but to use harmful substances that boost production and minimize loss. Unfortunately, these substances persist in the finished product, though in residual quantities. Coffee is not an exception to this. As a partial solution to this problem of slow poisoning through toxic residue, many people all over the world have chosen only to consume produce that has been grown using traditional methods and without the use of chemicals. Many organic farms have sprung up to supply their needs. Organic coffee is grown on all continents, but predominantly in South America, where the traditional low-tech methods are perhaps least different from modern techniques. Organic coffee is produced under strict certification guidelines, and growers do their best to ensure that the methods are as environmental-friendly as possible. It is very often shade-grown, which means that large shade trees are used to shelter to coffee plants during critical periods of their growing season. In terms of environmental protection, this is superior to the high-tech method of clearing out wide regions around coffee plantations. It also means that the soil is protected from erosion, and the habitat and food-sources of birds and wildlife remain intact. |
