Coffee and Tea lovers can Help Save the World

Posted on by Hungry Tourist
Groundworks Coffees

A cup of coffee now have a new meaning to me. I can actually do something for the sake of humanity by drinking Fair Trade coffees. So what is Fair Trade all about?

Groundworks Coffees
Groundwork Coffee Shop
Groundwork Coffees
Groundwork Coffees

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices, Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

In addition to providing a fair and stable price for their products, Fairtrade is helping producers and their communities build better roads, access health care and send their kids to school. Fairtrade also enables them to grow and develop their businesses, ensuring they can improve life for their families and communities well into the future.

Songbird Migration and Rainforest destruction

Migrating bird populations have been in rapid decline since the introduction of “sun” coffee and the consequent destruction of rainforest for more coffee plantations.

Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Treeswalow
Treeswalow
Dickcissel
Dickcissel
Bird Migration Map
Bird Migration Map

Have you noticed when you go to coffee shops, the coffees are usually named after where they come from such as Costa Rica, Columbia, Guatemala, Brazil to name a few. These are also the places where the songbirds migrate.

Sun Coffee

Monoculture, with coffee plants growing in direct sunlight. No tree cover at all requires high inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, use of machinery, and an intensive workforce year round. It also produces the highest yield of coffee per acre, though the soil in most plantations requires that the fields often sit fallow. Shade-grown coffee plantations can continue to produce year after year.

Shade Coffee

The forest-like structure of shade coffee farms provides habitat for a great number of migratory and resident birds, reptiles, ants, butterflies, bats, plants and other organisms. Focusing solely on birds, shade coffee fields shelter up to two-thirds of the bird species found in natural pristine forests in the same geographic areas. In contrast, sun coffee fields shelter less than one-tenth of bird species. Among transformed land, shade-grown coffee is most likely the crop that supports the highest diversity of migratory birds, native flora and fauna (Perfecto et. al. 1996, Greenberg et. al. 1997). As many as 150 species of birds have been identified on shade coffee farms.

If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change.
– Michael Jackson

Hungry Tourist

Me (Hungry Tourist) at the Groundwork Cafe, a Certified Fair Trade. There are many Fair Trade coffees and I’m going to try each one of them around my area. I drink coffee or tea everyday, so why not do it for a cause?

Coffee

Making the world a better place one cup at a time. For our generation and the next generations to come.
Fair Trade are not only about coffees and teas. There are other products that practice and supports Fair Trade. When you buy Fair Trade Certified goods you are making a choice that means quality products, improved lives and environmental protection.

This is IFUGAO a province in the northern island of the Philippines.

Ifugao Banawe Rice Terraces
Philippine Ifugao Kape
Ifugao Kape, product of the Social Action and Development Center

Each purchase of Fair Trade products makes a difference.

Find Fair Trade products in your neighborhood

fair_trade_finder_app
Fair Trade Finder Mobile App

Links to find Fair Trade Certified products

  1. Fair Trade Finder in Facebook
  2. Download Fair Trade Finder Mobile App for  Android
  3. Download Fair Trade Finder for iPhone and iPad

Photo References:

Boreal Songbird Initiative
Journey to Fair Trade
Illinois Birds
Seattle Audobon Society
Fair Trade USA

Useful Links