Coffee is the most popular drink in the entire world. It is traded more than any commodity except for oil. The coffee market is rapidly changing as the world becomes more conscious of the environment and of many of the farming practices used in the past hundred years. Organic coffee is quickly gaining ground in the competitive coffee market.
Over a thousand years ago a lonely goat herder in Ethiopia first discovered the coffee the plant. It didn’t take long before people discovered they could make a marvelous beverage from the plant that would wake them up and keep them going day after day. The use of coffee spread throughout the world faster than wildfire.
Today people are considered by the environmental and health effect of many twentieth century growing practices. For the health conscious consumer, organic coffee is the only choice. Organic coffee is grown without toxic insecticides and herbicides. The fertilizers used are all natural and consumers don’t have to worry about being slowly poisoned.
The organic coffee companies today have to gain certification by following the guidelines of the Organic Food Production Act of the early 90s. This certification process ensures that growers don’t use toxins while growing though rigorous testing procedures.
Organic Coffee Can Only Be Grown In Certified Fields
The fields in which organic crops are grown must first be certified organic. This can be a time consuming process because a farmer may have used pesticides or heavy fertilizers for years which leads to a build up of these compounds in the soil. Before becoming certified, farmers must maintain chemical free land for three consecutive years. This ensures that past toxins won’t affect the new organic coffee crops.
Consumers will notice right away that organic coffee costs a bit more than non organic coffee. This is because the certification process takes time and money to complete. Farmers have to use new growing methods and convert their old land to chemical free land. This can take years and sometimes certification must be attempted repeatedly until it is finally granted.
Since modern fertilizers usually aren’t used when growing organic coffee, crops are often grown in the shade of large trees to protect the soil from sunlight. The delicate nutrients in the topsoil can be easily destroyed by the sun’s rays.
Many a coffee expert will agree than even without regard to the health and environmental benefits, organic coffee is still a superior product. Its flavor isn’t corrupted by the impact of unnatural chemicals and so organic coffee offers the highest quality taste.