Organic Coffee

What is organic coffee?
Organic coffee refers to the way coffee, food and fiber, are grown and processed. Organic coffee production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers. Organic coffee is minimally processed without artificial ingredients, preservatives, or irradiation to maintain the integrity of the food.

Is there an official definition of "organic coffee"?
The following excerpt is from the definition of "organic coffee" that the National Organic Standards Board adopted in April 1995: "Organic coffee agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances bio diversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony."

What does "Certified Organic Coffee" mean?
"Certified Organic Coffee" means the coffee has been grown according to strict uniform standards that are verified by independent state or private organizations. Certification includes inspections of farm fields and processing facilities, detailed record keeping, and periodic testing of soil and water to ensure that growers and handlers are meeting the standards which have been set.

Is organic coffee completely free of pesticide residues?
Certified organic coffee products have been grown and handled according to strict standards without toxic and persistent chemical inputs. However, organic crops are inadvertently exposed to agricultural chemicals that are now pervasive in rain and ground water due to their overuse during the past fifty years, and due to drift via wind and rain.

Do organic coffee farmers ever use pesticides?
Prevention is the organic coffee farmer’s primary strategy for disease, weed, and insect control. By building healthy soils, organic farmers find that healthy plants are better able to resist disease and insects. Organic coffee producers often select species that are well adapted for the climate and therefore resist disease and pests. When pest populations get out of balance, growers will try various options like insect predators, mating disruption, traps, and barriers. If these fail, permission may be granted by the certifier to apply botanical or other non persistent pest controls under restricted conditions. Botanicals are derived from plants and are broken down quickly by oxygen and sunlight.

How will purchasing organic coffee help keep our water clean?
Conventional agricultural methods can cause water contamination. The organic coffee farmer’s elimination of polluting chemicals and nitrogen leaching, in combination with soil building, works to prevent contamination, and protects and conserves water resources.

Is organic coffee better for you?
There is no conclusive evidence at this time to suggest that organically produced coffee is more nutritious. Rather, organic coffee is spared the application of toxic and persistent insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers. Many EPA-approved pesticides were registered long before extensive research linked these chemicals to cancer and other diseases. In the long run, organic coffee farming techniques provide a safer, more sustainable environment for everyone.

Why does organic coffee cost more?
Prices for organic coffee reflect many of the same costs as conventional coffee in terms of growing, harvesting, transportation and storage. Organically produced coffee must meet stricter regulations governing all of these steps, so the process is often more labor and management intensive, and farming tends to be on a smaller scale. There is also mounting evidence that if all the indirect costs of conventional food production cleanup of polluted water, replacement of eroded soils, costs of health care for farmers and their workers were factored into the price of coffee, organic coffee would cost the same or, more likely, be cheaper.

Isn’t organic coffee just a fad?
No. In the U.S. sales of all organic food, not just organic coffee, totaled $5.4 billion in 1998, about $6.5 billion in 1999, and reached nearly $7.8 billion in 2000. The market has grown 20% - 24% annually during the 1990s. The adoption of national standards for certification is expected to open up new markets for U. S. organic producers. Internationally, organic sales continue to grow as well.