Colombia Recovers from Coffee Leaf Rust

The development of Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee varieties is a main reason for the increase in production of regular coffee and Colombian organic coffee brands. Exports are up by a forth this year and as Colombia recovers from coffee leaf rust it has equaled 2007 production levels. Colombia is not only one of the highest volume producers of coffee in the world but perhaps the producer of the best regular and healthy organic coffee. There numerous Colombian organic coffee brands, all of which benefit as Colombia recovers from coffee leaf rust.

Organic Coffee from Colombia

Colombian coffee is generally considered some of the best in the world. Any coffee grown in Colombia qualifies for Juan Valdez designation, meaning that the Colombian Coffee Growers Association certifies it as 100% Colombian. The Juan Valdez trade name came from the Colombian Coffee Growers Association nearly half a century ago. It is meant to give the buyer assurance that the coffee they purchase is 100% Colombian. Although there is a popular Juan Valdez coffee house chain in Colombia the name Juan Valdez is simply meant to guarantee 100% Colombian content. Here is a list of organic coffees from Colombia with prices adjusted for the peso to dollar exchange rate as of November, 2013.

Colombian Organic Coffee Brands and Retail Prices in Colombia

Brand Retail/Pesos Retail Quantity Retail in Dollars
Volcan 20000 500 grams $10
Linea Roja 19000 500 grams $9.50
Sostenible 24500 500 grams $12.25
Origen 25000 500 grams $12.50
Frailes 18600 500 grams $9.30

These are Colombian organic coffee brands available in the Colombian Cafetero. Prices are retail in Colombian Pesos and the US dollar equivalents are based on the late 2013 exchange rate of around 2,000 Colombian Pesos to the US dollar. It is easy to buy Juan Valdez organic coffee, Colombian organic coffee brands, in Colombia. It also is easy if the coffee was exported to your country. But, getting Colombian organic coffee brands sent from Colombia can be difficult. Even as Colombia recovers from coffee leaf rust the country still carries the stigma of being a place where cocaine is produced as well. As such any coffee leaving Colombia is carefully checked and that includes the bag of Juan Valdez organic coffee you purchased at the Bogota airport coffee shop. For advice on finding Colombian organic coffee brands contact us at Buy Organic Coffee.

The Future as Colombia Recovers from Coffee Leaf Rust

When coffee leaf rust swept into Latin America the Colombian coffee research organization, Cenicafé started work on producing a Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee. This was in the 1980s. Today Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee comes in two varieties, Colombian and Castillo. The first is a cross between an old Colombian variety, Caturra, and a rust-resistant strain from Southeast Asia, the Timor hybrid. Castillo is an offshoot of further cross breeding of the first Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee strain. Replanting with Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee in Colombia has reduced the incidence of leaf rust from 40% to 5% from 2011 to 2013.


Ground Coffee Beans

You need ground coffee beans to make coffee but as soon as you grind coffee it starts to lose its flavor. Regular and organic coffee antioxidants start to degrade on exposure to the air. To retain the value and flavor of the coffee that you drink how can you store ground coffee beans? To retain the health benefits of organic coffee do the right things and protect the antioxidants in your coffee.

Ways to Properly Store Coffee and Preserve Freshness

Heat makes coffee go stale faster so store your ground coffee beans away from the kitchen stove and other kitchen hot spots. Use a lower cupboard that does not get hit by the morning or afternoon sun. Ground coffee beans that are vacuum packed are OK until opened. Then you need to use what you need to and transfer the ground coffee beans to an airtight container. The best advice for buying ground coffee beans instead of organic whole bean coffee is to purchase in small quantities and buy again when you run out.

Roast and Grind Your Own Coffee

Because ground coffee beans do not last as long as whole roasted beans and whole roasted beans do not last as long as green coffee beans, consider roasting and grinding what you need day by day. Coffee from Panama, Colombian organic coffee brands, and others are typically shipped to the USA as green coffee beans. Coffee is roasted close to where it is sold and then consumed. You can improve on this practice by purchasing a coffee roaster and a coffee grinder and purchasing green coffee beans from your favorite healthy organic coffee supplier. With a home roasting unit you can roast enough coffee for the day or enough for the week. If you roast more coffee than what you will use in a day, store the roasted beans in an air tight jar. Make only enough ground coffee beans for brewing what you, family, and friends will drink on the spot. Green coffee beans last a couple of years and roasted whole coffee beans last up to six months. Ground coffee beans start losing potency the moment the air hits the coffee. So, buy green, roast as needed, grind only what you use, and brew right away.

The Health Aspects of Properly Storing and Preparing Coffee

It is the antioxidants that are the primary reason for the many beneficial health aspects of coffee. It is the antioxidants that are degraded by improper storage and by roasting and grinding to long before brewing coffee. If you want to preserve the ability of your coffee to reduce the incidence of Type II Diabetes, various forms of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and suicide risk, buy green, roast as needed, and grind just before use. Coffee it turns out is good for you. Organic coffee is better because it is free of the many contaminates too often found in regular coffee. If you would like to learn more about organic coffee and how to get wholesale coffee visit www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org.

Coffee Borer Beetle

A major threat to coffee crops in various locations throughout the world is the coffee borer beetle. Hypothenemus hampei, its scientific name, is a small beetle native to Angola in Southern Africa. Over the 20th century it spread to the Americas and to Hawaii. The coffee borer beetle is a threat to coffee crops wherever it is found. In the Latin American regions where the pest if found it goes by the names barrenador del café, gorgojo del café and broca del café. Infestation is spread via the inadvertent transport of infected beans. The primary way to continue to produce healthy organic coffee when there is an infestation is to hand sort the bean and dry promptly after picking. Various organic approaches can be used to deter and destroy the pest while maintaining an organic crop and organic coffee certification.

Fighting the Coffee Borer Beetle without Pesticides

If you have an organic operation and want to maintain certification you need to use organic means to fight this pest. Here are a few:

Asking the Birds to Help

When young beetles come out of a coffee bean, various birds such as the Yellow and Rufous-capped Warbler feast on these insects. In Costa Rica the presence of these birds by itself reduces infestation by half.

Lethal Parasites

There are wasps native to Africa that are useful in controlling the coffee borer beetle. The wasp lays her eggs and the offspring eat the beetles. The downside is that the coffee plantation then has lots of stinging wasps flying around. Nevertheless this is a totally organic means of controlling a beetle than can destroy an entire crop. Another wasp found in Togo attacks adult beetles and tends to remain with the crop for a long time. It is widely used on the Arabica coffee plantations of Colombia. If you like Colombian organic coffee brands, be thankful for this approach.

Other Organic Approaches to Fighting the Coffee Borer Beetle

Ants, nematodes, and fungi can be used to help control the coffee borer beetle. All of these approaches allow the grower to control the pest without using chemicals. Besides, even in a non-organic crop, insecticides only work before the pest enters the coffee bean to lay its eggs.

Other Threats to the Coffee Crop

The other well-known threat to coffee crops is coffee leaf rust, la roya. This is a fungus that requires special attention or it will destroy an entire crop. Colombia has made substantial strides in developing strains resistant to roya. In the early 1970’s coffee leaf rust was found in the Americas. In the early 1980’s Cenicafé started work on producing a Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee. The Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee comes in two varieties, Colombian and Castillo. The first is a cross between an old Colombian variety, Caturra, and a rust-resistant strain from Southeast Asia, the Timor hybrid. Castillo is an offshoot of further cross breeding of the first Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee strain. Replanting with Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee in Colombia has reduced the incidence of leaf rust from 40% to 5% from 2011 to 2013. As with the coffee borer beetle the best treatment is prevention.

Organic Green Coffee Extract

A recently popular mean of benefiting from organic coffee antioxidants and caffeine is organic green coffee extract. In a fast paced world the argument is that you can get the stimulus of a cup of coffee as well as the benefits of the antioxidants with organic green coffee extract, typically in pill form. This is sort of the old idea that eventually all we would need was one big vitamin pill a day instead of all that food and beverage that we consume. Providing that you do not especially enjoy the aroma of a good cup of healthy organic coffee you can get some of the benefits of coffee from organic green coffee extract. But let us look at what happens when you roast coffee and then you can decide.

What Happens to Coffee when You Roast It?

The original quality of the organic coffee beans survives through most of the range of roasting but at the higher temperatures it the roasting process that dominates and produces the majority of flavor and aroma. Here is a list of the temperatures to which coffee is roasted and the associated description:

Cinnamon Roast 195 °C (383 °F)
New England Roast 205 °C (401 °F)
American Roast 210 °C (410 °F)
City Roast 220 °C (428 °F)
Full City Roast 225 °C (437 °F)
Vienna Roast 230 °C (446 °F)
French Roast 240 °C (464 °F)
Italian Roast 245 °C (473 °F)
Spanish Roast 250 °C (482 °F)

Roasting organic coffee produces the unique aroma and taste that coffee lovers long for. Green coffee beans expand and they change color. The heat creates chemical processes within the coffee bean. Although there are antioxidants in the green coffee bean and in organic green coffee extract, the roasting process creates other healthy antioxidants as well. If you limit yourself to organic green coffee extract you are getting the full amount of caffeine from the coffee bean but you are not getting the full range of antioxidants which are known to be responsible for the many health benefits such as a reduced incidence of diabetes or reduced incidence of various cancers.

What Joy Is There in Taking a Pill?

Health benefits aside most folks drink coffee because they like the aroma and taste as well the wake up effect. There is a degree of sadness to distilling the benefits of coffee into a pill to be taken once, twice, or three times a day. After all one can buy caffeine pills to stay awake. Truckers and college students have been doing this for years. Our vote is obviously for the hot cup of freshly roasted organic coffee or even the lukewarm coffee in a thermos over popping a pill. There are a lot of folks selling organic green coffee extract. If you do go this route, look to see if they are certified. It is easy to claim to be organic but they need to have the USDA seal to show that their product is organic from start to finish!

Ground Coffee or Whole Coffee Beans

Which is better to buy, ground coffee or whole coffee beans? If you buy ground coffee you do not have to get out the coffee grinder before brewing coffee. On the other hand ground coffee has a shorter shelf life than whole bean coffee. Colombian organic coffee brands, Panama Mountain Grown Organic Coffee, and coffee from Costa Rica are commonly shipped to the USA for roasting. This is because coffee starts to lose its flavor as soon as the roasting process is completed. So it is best to roast coffee close to the market where coffee will be sold. If the coffee is ground and packed by the roaster it is doubly important that roasting takes place close to where you live and that you purchase recently roasted and ground coffee. The issue of ground coffee or whole coffee beans also applies to the health aspects of drinking coffee.

Regular and Healthy Organic Coffee as Ground Coffee or Whole Coffee Beans

There are two reasons for drinking organic coffee and the issue (of ground coffee or whole coffee beans) only applies to one of them. People drink organic coffee to avoid the many impurities that can be found in regular coffee. The level of impurities does not change when you grind the coffee. The other issue is that organic coffee antioxidants are good for you. There are antioxidants in all coffee. However, the more aromatic Arabica coffees that are more carefully grown and processed by organic growers may well have a higher content of antioxidants and therefore be better for you. The fact is that when you grind coffee the aroma starts to go away and so does the potency of antioxidants. If you drink ground coffee or coffee from whole coffee beans that you have just ground you make be making a decision that will affect your health.

Ground Coffee or Whole Coffee Beans and Health

Here is some data on the health aspects of coffee drinking. Our opinion is that regarding ground coffee or whole coffee beans whole beans ground just before brewing is better for health because of a higher antioxidant content.

Drinking Organic Coffee Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk

Recently released research says that that drinking organic coffee reduces prostate cancer risk. In a just published study 47,911 men were followed from 1986 to 2006. During that time 5,035 developed prostate cancer including 642 cases of lethal prostate cancer, fatal or metastatic…

More Organic Coffee Can Lead to Less Colon Cancer

It turns out that one of the antioxidants obtained during the process of roasting organic coffee may well reduce the risk of getting colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the USA…

More Organic Coffee Can Lead to Less Diabetes

Drinking organic coffee reduces the incidence of Type II diabetes, the type that affects 95% of people with the disease. There is a protein, sex hormone-binding globulin which regulates sex hormone activity in the human body. Researchers believe that this hormone has an effect on the development of Type II diabetes. Drinking coffee increases the body’s levels of sex hormone-binding globulin. Drinking 4 or more cups of coffee a day, with caffeine, reduces Type II diabetes incidence by 56%, more than half…

Organic Coffee Brand List

If you would like to try a few brands of organic coffee here is our organic coffee brand list. These brands of healthy organic coffee come from Central and South America and represent some of the nicest Arabica coffees that you will ever taste. We start with Colombian organic coffee brands .

Organic Coffee from Colombia

From the Colombian Cafetero come some of the best coffees in the world. Colombia is one of the top producers by volume as well. The Colombian organic coffee brand list is as follows:

Organic Coffee Brand List for Colombia
Brand Retail Quantity Retail in Dollars
Volcan 500 grams $11
Linea Roja 500 grams $10
Sostenible 500 grams $13
Origen 500 grams $13
Frailes 500 grams $10
Juan Valdez 500 grams $12.50
Arabica 500 Grams $10

Retail prices are for coffee purchased in the Cafetero the region roughly bounded by Cali, Medellin, and Manizales. Prices are retail in Colombian Pesos and the US dollar equivalents are based on the late 2013 exchange rate of around 1,900 Colombian Pesos to the US dollar. You can buy Juan Valdez organic coffee at their coffee shop when you fly in and out of Bogota and many regular and organic Colombian coffees are available in supermarkets and corner tiendas throughout the country. The issue for getting coffee from the Colombian organic coffee brand list outside of Colombia is that you cannot mail this coffee anywhere in the world. If you carry coffee with you out of Colombia expect to have the security guard poke a pinpoint hole in the bag and present your bag of coffee first to a mechanical sniffer and then to a large pooch at his side. For info about shipments of wholesale coffee from Colombia contact us at www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org .

The Panama Organic Coffee Brand List

Panama is a much smaller nation than Colombia so it produces much less coffee. However, what Panama mountain grown organic coffee lacks in volume it makes up in quality. A prime example of Panama organic coffee is Duncan Estate produced by Kotowa Coffee. This Arabica coffee received honors as the best organic coffee in Panama in 2005 and the best organic coffee in the world in 2006. It is certified by Bio Latina. The Panama organic coffee brand list includes the following:

  • Los Lajones Estate Coffee S.A.
  • Leap Of Faith Farms, Inc
  • Hacienda La Esperanza
  • Hacienda Barbara Jaramillo
  • Finca Señor Ramón Arauz
  • Finca San Miguel de La Montaña
  • Finca Ramon Arauz
  • Finca El Remedio – Ama de Casa
  • Finca Dos Jefes
  • Asociación de Caficultores Orgánicos Ngöbe Ascon

Organic Coffee from Costa Rica

In the mountainous spine of Costa Rice, the Cordillera de Talamanca, the Hacienda Las Mellizas grows healthy organic coffee at 4,600 above sea level. Hacienda Las Mellizas is considered one of the top organic coffee producers in Costa Rica. Others on the Costa Rica organic coffee brand list include Café Terrazú and Tres Rios. For more info about organic coffee from Costa Rica or elsewhere feel free to contact us today.

Wholesale Organic Green Coffee Beans

Scientific research tells us that coffee is good for us. It also tells us that healthy organic coffee is a better choice than regular coffee. We also know that green coffee beans have a two year shelf life. That is, the regular or organic coffee antioxidants in the coffee bean retain their properties for a couple of years. In comparison roasted coffee beans are good for six months or so and roasted and ground coffee starts to lose its potency the moment that it has been ground. This having been said the best choice for buying coffee is to get wholesale organic green coffee beans. Wholesale organic green coffee beans can be stored for later roasting and wholesale organic green coffee beans can be made into a coffee bean extract that helps with weight loss. So, where can you find wholesale organic green coffee beans?

Buy Your Coffee Wholesale

Wholesale coffee is most commonly purchased directly from coffee growers and cooperatives while standard coffee commonly enters a worldwide supply chain and ends up where price, supply, and demand dictate. A prime example for the purchase of organic wholesale coffee is Starbucks. This worldwide chain of coffee houses purchases in multiyear contracts from organic growers in the four corners of the coffee producing world. But what if you want to buy wholesale organic green coffee beans? Where do you go? Who do you deal with and what are the problems you need to overcome? The short route, buy the way is to contact us at BuyOrganicCoffee.org.

The Commodity Supply Chain for Coffee

Large coffee producers typically export their own coffee beans. Smaller coffee growers sell to an exporter, the middle man. He sells to coffee importers who sell to roasters who sell to retailers. Much of the cost of a good cup of coffee full goes to paying all of those folks who connect the coffee farmer to you the customer. Because coffee roasters commonly have the largest profit margin in the supply chain you can save money when you buy wholesale organic green coffee beans.

Organic versus Regular Coffee

Organic coffee accounts for about one percent of world production (67,000 tons versus 69,000,000 tons). Because organic coffee sells at a premium to regular coffee so do wholesale organic green coffee beans with a premium of up to forty percent. Well known and trusted producers commonly command a higher premium than unknowns. This presents a problem for unknowns who pay for Bio Latina organic coffee certification or certification by other reputable certification agencies. Certification does not guarantee sales or profits! For the individual who would like to buy, roast, package, and sell organic coffee in the USA or Europe how does he go about finding an organic grower with product to sell? Again, think of us at BuyOrganicCoffee.org.

Buying Wholesale Organic Green Coffee Beans from the Grower

There are a couple of approaches to obtaining a reliable supply of high quality organic wholesale coffee. One is to contact the various certifying agencies around the world and request a list of the growers and processors whom they certify. Then one needs to contact these folks, typically in their native language, and negotiate price. The other approach is to contact someone on the ground in the area in which one is interested. If you are interested in Colombian organic coffee brands, Panama mountain grown organic coffee, or organic coffee from Costa Rica let us know at BuyOrganicCoffee.org.

Why Drink Organic Coffee

Why drink organic coffee instead of the regular stuff? After all organic coffee is more expensive. Coffee is made using boiling water so any germs should have been taken care of with either organic or regular coffee. So, why drink organic coffee? Here are a few facts as well as a few thoughts on the subject. First let us look at organic versus other coffee and then at coffee in general and versus other beverages.

How Many Unwanted Ingredients Are Too Many?

Several years ago health authorities in Australia analyzed coffee for impurities and came up with as many as 133 contaminants in a single cup of commercially available coffee. These contaminants include metals such as aluminum and zinc, pesticide residues, ochratoxin A, acrylamide, furan, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found to cause cancer. Furans have been associated with skin disorders, liver problems, certain kinds of cancers, impairment to the reproductive, endocrine, and immune system, as well as effects on embryonic development. One bad ingredient in your cup of coffee is too many. But, 133? Give me a break. Why drink organic coffee? Drink organic coffee to avoid drinking the 133 things that you do not want along with your cup of java. Stick with healthy organic coffee and avoid the impurities.

Science Says That Coffee Is Good for You

There are a lot of great health effects of drinking coffee . Medical research has shown a reduced risk of Type II diabetes, a lower cancer risk, less depression, a reduced risk of suicide; fewer gall stones, and even a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Drinking four cups of coffee a day appears to reduce the chances of getting Type II Diabetes by about a half. Research has shown that drinking coffee increases levels of sex hormone-binding globulin which in turn appears to reduce the incidence of diabetes . Regular and organic coffee antioxidants are molecules that inhibit the cell damage and cell death in human cells caused by oxidative breakdown of other molecules in the cell. These chemicals are related to a reduced incidence of several cancers. Because coffee is a great source of antioxidants it helps reduce the incidence of cancers of various sorts. Want to avoid Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, feeling so bad that you want to commit suicide? All of these unwanted outcomes in life occur in lower numbers when you drink coffee. Why drink organic coffee? Because you get all the good aspects of coffee and avoid any unwanted additives along the way.

What Is Good for You Is Good for the World Too

Organic coffee certification requires that the soil must have been verified as free from prohibited substances for at least three years. Organic coffee production requires sustainable farming practices include crop rotation or interspersing crops among other plants such as plantain and native trees. These practices are good for the environment besides helping produce a great product for you. Organic farming preserves top soil and protects the water table. Growing coffee in the shade of native trees preserves the forest for birds and other creatures that are otherwise displaced in farming operations. Why drink organic coffee? Drink organic coffee because it is good for the environment.

Lists of Organic Coffee Brands

Here are a couple of helpful lists if you are looking for information about organic coffee.

A List of Coffees from Colombia

Colombian organic coffee brands are among the best in the world. Not only is Colombia is producer of large amounts of coffee but many of its brands are coveted the world over. Colombian organic coffee brands include the following:

List of Colombian Organic Coffee Brands
Brand Retail Quantity Retail in Dollars
Volcan 500 grams $11
Linea Roja 500 grams $10
Sostenible 500 grams $13
Origen 500 grams $13
Frailes 500 grams $10
Juan Valdez 500 grams $12.50
Aribica 500 Grams $10

This table lists Colombian organic coffee brands available in the Colombian Cafetero. Prices are retail in Colombian Pesos and the US dollar equivalents are based on the late 2013 exchange rate of around 1,900 Colombian Pesos to the US dollar. Purchasing Juan Valdez organic coffee, and other Colombian organic coffee brands, is easy in Colombia and is easy if it has been exported from Colombia. However, getting Colombian organic coffee brands sent from Colombia can be difficult. Contact us at www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org for info.

A List of Coffees from Panama

Panama mountain grown organic coffee ranks among the best in the world. Panama is the small Central American country that serves as a land bridge between North and South America. The Cordillera Central, the mountainous spine of Panama with its volcanic soil is ideal for growing healthy organic coffee. This is a relatively small region so Panama does not compete for tons of coffee produced against the large scale coffee producers of Arabica coffee like Brazil or Colombia. A prime example of Panama organic coffee is Duncan Estate produced by Kotowa Coffee. This Arabica coffee received honors as the best organic coffee in Panama in 2005 and the best organic coffee in the world in 2006. It is is certified by Bio Latina. Other Panama mountain grown organic coffee certified producers receiving Bio Latina organic coffee certification include the following:

  • Los Lajones Estate Coffee S.A.
  • Leap Of Faith Farms, Inc
  • Hacienda La Esperanza
  • Hacienda Barbara Jaramillo
  • Finca Señor Ramón Arauz
  • Finca San Miguel de La Montaña
  • Finca Ramon Arauz
  • Finca El Remedio – Ama de Casa
  • Finca Dos Jefes
  • Asociación de Caficultores Orgánicos Ngöbe Ascon

Coffee Organic Coffee in Your Neighborhood

Much of the organic coffee consumed in the USA comes from coffee houses. Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Dunn Brothers, Peets, and your local coffee house commonly carry organic coffees. If you always get your coffee on the go just ask for organic when you get coffee from your favorite coffee house. You can always ask for your favorite coffee house coffee treatment and still be organic.

All coffee house coffee starts with espresso and here are the variations:

  • Americano
  • Breve
  • Cappucino
  • Latte
  • Mocha

Americano

Americano is a coffee house coffee made from espresso and diluted with water. This goes back to the World War II era and after when GI’s who were used to Mom’s home perked or boiled coffee asked the barista to add water to their espresso to make it less strong. Think “weak espresso.”

Breve and Latte

Both of these are made with espresso and foam. Latte is made with steamed milk and breve is made with half and half. For latte think “coffee with milk” or café au lait and for breve think “coffee with milk and cream.”

Cappuccino

Cappuccino is made with espresso plus hot milk plus lots of steamed foam.

Mocha

Mocha is for coffee and chocolate lovers. It is made with espresso plus chocolate syrup plus milk.

For more info about lists of organic coffee brands contact us at www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org.

History of Organic Coffee

Healthy organic coffee has been around ever since coffee was discovered growing wild and ever since it was first grown. However, the history of organic coffee of the certified variety starts in 1990. The Organic Foods Production Act was passed in 1990. It –

requires the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances which identifies synthetic substances that may be used, and the nonsynthetic substances that cannot be used, in organic production and handling operations.

The reason that organic coffee certification as well as certification of other foods came into being is that farmers learned that they could increase production by using synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Because there was no clear way to differentiate between products grown by an organic method and those grown by more modern methods a need arose to certify food as organic. The law states that for coffee to be certified as organic the soil in which it is grown must be free from prohibited substances for at least three years and have been verified as such. There have to be clear boundaries between land on which organic coffee is grown and land where pesticides, herbicides, and prohibited chemical fertilizers are used. This is so that drift of substances from adjacent land will not contaminate the organic plot. Organic coffee certification requires a specific and verifiable plan for all practices and procedures from planting to crop maintenance, to harvest, de-husking, bagging, transport, roasting, packaging, and final transport. Procedures must be in place to insure that there is no contamination of healthy organic coffee with regular coffee produced on soil exposed to contaminants.

Who Does the Checking?

Once there was a set of regulations in place to certify organic coffee the problem was that aside from Hawaii no one grows organic coffee in the USA. And the USDA does not run around Latin America where three fourths of the organic coffee in the world is grown. Thus there are certifying authorities who act on behalf of the USDA. One of these is Bio Latina . These folks office in Lima, Peru but they tramp all over Latin America certifying various organic foods including coffee. One issue for small producers is that the $500 a year certifying fee is too steep a price unless they can get connected to a buyer who will pay the organic rate instead of the regular coffee rate.

Just As Good As Organic Certification

There are two organizations that provide much the same assurance of quality as USDA certification. These are UTZ and Rain Forest Alliance . This history of organic coffee as regards these organizations is this: There is more to organic coffee than good taste and a lack of impurities. When a grower goes organic he practices sustainable agriculture. That is good for his land and good for the land and eco-system in general. Growing shade grown organic coffee under the canopy of an undisturbed forest is good for the birds and the watershed. Working with UTZ and Rain Forest Alliance growers abide by good child labor practices and good business and farming practices. The history of organic coffee continues as these organizations help growers prosper, find buyers, and lead better lives.