Coffee: Sipping eco-friendly

Click here to order from Amazon

Click here to order from Barnes & Noble

All coffee is grown in the rich, equatorial rainforest belt that circles the world. Growing coffee in the shade of rainforest trees is the natural way to raise this crop. It's also the best way to protect coffee's natural environment.

Shade-grown coffee:
• requires fewer pesticides and less fertilizer than coffee grown in the sun
• provides habitat for the birds and insects that devour the pests that prey on coffee plants
• keeps rainforests intact

(Here's a great slide show from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center with more information about the benefits of shade-grown coffee.)

In addition to growing their coffee in the shade, farmers can grow it organically, which helps keep groundwater safe. And growing coffee using "fair trade" principles ensures that farmers are paid a living wage for their crop.

Does it matter? You bet. After oil, coffee is the second largest import in the United States. U.S. consumers drink one-fifth of the world's coffee, making us the largest consumers of coffee in the world. It also makes the U.S. coffee industry extremely competitive on all fronts. The more we demand shade grown coffee, the more we can impact the entire coffee industry – and have a significant environmental impact.