You KNOW I love coffee. I've worked in coffee, I buy variety, I love the coffee shop atmosphere. I love it. I need it. I spend more money on it than I care to admit. So you can imagine my interest in the hot coffee debate - organic & shade-grown issues.
I found an interesting point of view in the book Green Chic by Christie Matheson. A coffee plant's natural habitat is in the rainforest, growing under the tree canopy. Many countries are cutting down the trees and mass growing the coffee plant to produce greater amounts of beans. Most coffee crops grow in the sunniest countries, meaning coffee is forced to grow in the hot sun. Doing this means thet are growing coffee outside of it's natural habitat, thus requiring additional water use, fertilizers and pesticides to maintain a crop. Yuk. Further to this topic is the practice of Fair-Trade, giving a fair wage to the coffee farmers of the world. But that's another can of worms.
I was inspired to try Organic Shade-Grown Bird Friendly coffee from Javatopia and am VERY pleased. Their French Roast rivals that of Starbucks, yet is 1) organic, 2) shade grown, 3) fair trade and 4) cheaper!
Fred Meyer sells it in the natural food section and regular price is $8.99/lb. Compared to Starbucks at $9.99/lb (or more) in their stores. Starbucks also sells a Fair Trade blend, but I haven't had the chance to look for organics since I am spending so much time drinking coffee at home these days.
Shades of Green
Welcome to my discussion post. Some feedback regarding smidgegreener:
"Sure, everyone has a carbon footprint, some larger than others, and if everyone cut back a little we could make a difference. BUT the huge violators are commercial businesses. For example, I think it’s hilarious that people suggest we stop using disposable diapers and switch to something eco-friendly, yet Huggies and Pampers aren’t faulted for making these environment polluting merchandise. I think the government should be going after distributors of diapers, cleaning supplies, light bulbs, etc. and make THEM comply with environment standards. They are the big wigs who could afford to make a change, yet it’s the consumer who is placed the responsibility of “cleaning up the environment”. And since the producers will then try and pass the cost of becoming green on to the consumer, the government should place a cap on inflation of these products so that the consumer doesn’t have to absorb the entire cost. Let’s take a little out of their enormous profit they are making."
"And what’s even more hypocritical is the businessmen who own and run these conglomerates. Their carbon footprint is ENORMOUS. So next we should go after the wealthy like them and basically all of Hollywood in general (who insist on taking private jets to and from location 3 times a week, driving 100k+ vehicles and lighting a 10,000 s.f. home). It sickens me. They expect us peons to come out of pocket even more (in addition to skyrocketing gas and grocery prices) to protect the environment. I say no way! I can’t afford to, with either time or money."
"It’s election year…get ready for some changes!"
"One thing I also think though is that as consumers, the middle-class probably has the largest "voice" in consumerism. That being said, we can make a pretty big impact by choosing what we want to buy and eventually the companies would have to listen. I don't know if you noticed but even Clorox is making green cleaning products, and that has to be a result of following the trend and trying to pursuade buyers to pick them."
"You bring up some great points and yes, I think we are impacting our environment with the pollution which we have been advancing dramatically to clean up and with great success, but China, India, etc. are not nearly as ecologically minded as we are and their pollution impacts us. But global warming is a natural phenomenon and the concept is great for businesses creating new products and services. As you mention, the bottom line is how much will it cost us and are we willing to bear the brunt of that cost and to what degree..."
"I love the recipes for household cleaners..."
Join the debate and send me your feedback! fromONEmom@gmail.com
"Sure, everyone has a carbon footprint, some larger than others, and if everyone cut back a little we could make a difference. BUT the huge violators are commercial businesses. For example, I think it’s hilarious that people suggest we stop using disposable diapers and switch to something eco-friendly, yet Huggies and Pampers aren’t faulted for making these environment polluting merchandise. I think the government should be going after distributors of diapers, cleaning supplies, light bulbs, etc. and make THEM comply with environment standards. They are the big wigs who could afford to make a change, yet it’s the consumer who is placed the responsibility of “cleaning up the environment”. And since the producers will then try and pass the cost of becoming green on to the consumer, the government should place a cap on inflation of these products so that the consumer doesn’t have to absorb the entire cost. Let’s take a little out of their enormous profit they are making."
"And what’s even more hypocritical is the businessmen who own and run these conglomerates. Their carbon footprint is ENORMOUS. So next we should go after the wealthy like them and basically all of Hollywood in general (who insist on taking private jets to and from location 3 times a week, driving 100k+ vehicles and lighting a 10,000 s.f. home). It sickens me. They expect us peons to come out of pocket even more (in addition to skyrocketing gas and grocery prices) to protect the environment. I say no way! I can’t afford to, with either time or money."
"It’s election year…get ready for some changes!"
"One thing I also think though is that as consumers, the middle-class probably has the largest "voice" in consumerism. That being said, we can make a pretty big impact by choosing what we want to buy and eventually the companies would have to listen. I don't know if you noticed but even Clorox is making green cleaning products, and that has to be a result of following the trend and trying to pursuade buyers to pick them."
"You bring up some great points and yes, I think we are impacting our environment with the pollution which we have been advancing dramatically to clean up and with great success, but China, India, etc. are not nearly as ecologically minded as we are and their pollution impacts us. But global warming is a natural phenomenon and the concept is great for businesses creating new products and services. As you mention, the bottom line is how much will it cost us and are we willing to bear the brunt of that cost and to what degree..."
"I love the recipes for household cleaners..."
Join the debate and send me your feedback! fromONEmom@gmail.com
