Why Organic Coffee?

When we started Tend Coffee over a decade ago we wanted to bring a net benefit to the communities we ended up working in and the people and environments we trade with.

Why “I” should bother to drink organic coffee, and is it really better for “me” are questions people ask themselves when shelling out there hard earned money for the coffee they choose and rightly so. In the end it’s a personal decision.

So if It's ultimately a personal decision, what about everyone else? Well lets see what ecologist Julie Craves writes in her 2016 article for the SCA:

“Pesticides that are banned or highly restricted in the U.S. or Europe are still being used in many coffee-growing countries, including some that are highly toxic. Even illegal pesticides are still obtainable and being applied. Improper storage, inadequate personal protection, and lack of training for handlers of pesticides are not uncommon in the developing world, and result in farm workers being directly exposed to toxins.”

As a roaster myself, something I hear often is “most of the chemicals used to treat conventional coffee are burned off in the roasting process”

Well hey now, who is doing the roasting? Assuming your roasting here on planet Earth those chemicals are being burned off in somebody’s community, somewhere. Don't let them sneak the phrase "most of" by you either.

This brings to mind the Butterfly Effect, where one small event like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in South America, through a series of cascading events can cause a hurricane in North America. Although it seems to be mostly correlated to negative events. I like to think of it in the positive.

When you purchase a cup of our Certified Organic coffee, you get to enjoy it and…

• I don’t have to roast conventional coffee in my community

• Importers and exporters don’t have to treat/fumigate that conventional coffee

• Farm Owners don’t have to support big Ag., by purchasing toxins

• Farm workers don’t have to be exposed to the toxins

• Healthier farm families are intact longer

• Habitats and soils stay more in equilibrium

• Species get to thrive in their natural habitats

• and on and on it goes...