Buying coffee: a question of ethics?

America's favorite hot beverage presents more ethical choices than many people know. Beyond the usual agricultural considerations, like organic versus nonorganic and domestic versus imported (yes, the United States does produce coffee beans, in Hawaii), come other issues of environmental impact, exploitative labor practices, and sustainable use of resources at home. Even sweetening and lightening a cup of joe involve choices that have real impact on the environment and our fellow human beings.

Like having to choose between buying local or buying organic, shopping for coffee often forces us to prioritize our concerns. Are we more worried about habitual destruction and loss of biodiversity in South American rain forests than we are about pesticide runoff in Asia? Does addressing near-slavery working conditions in one place tale priority over stemming the tide of deforestation elsewhere? These are all issues connected to the global trade in coffee. The good news is that you can make a difference in more than one area with a single choice.

Sustainable coffees include three main approaches: organic coffee, Fair Trade coffee, and shade-grown coffee. All of these coffees are produced in ways that mitigate problems, both in the environment and in the livelihood of the most vulnerable workers in the industry, that conventional production systems cause. Shoppers can find labels indicating which of these approaches was applied to production on packages of coffee in most outlets. Organic coffee is the most widely available, followed by Fair Trade, and then shade-grown (sometimes called "shade coffee").

Because organic coffee is produced with methods that preserve the soil and prohibit use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, its production helps preserve a clean environment for workers and indigenous peoples. Fair Trade coffee is purchased directly from cooperatives of small farmers that are guaranteed a minimum contract price, with some of the profits being invested in education and health care for those grower communities. In return, they are encouraged, trained, and usually expected to grow the coffee using sustainable, ecofriendly practices. Shade-grown coffee is grown in shaded forest settings that are good for biodiversity and birds. Such settings preserve quality of life for native peoples, and help ensure that their livelihoods won't be exploited out of existence.

Some brands are twice blessed: They produce organic coffee that is also Fair Trade certified and/or shade grown. Soleil Levant coffee, from Switzerland-based La Semeuse, is organic coffee grown according to Fair Trade standards in Colombia, Peru, and Indonesia. It's available from www.CafeLaSemeuse.com in both whole bean and ground forms. Café Mam is a Mexican coffee producer that sells only shade-grown, organic, Fair Trade–certified coffee from www.cafemam.com. Coffees are all triple-certified (organic, Fair Trade, and shade grown) at www.cafecanopy.com.

Organic coffee
Coffee, the world's second-largest traded food commodity after grain, is also one of the most chemically treated. Many producing countries have few or no regulations on spraying and the use of the most powerful chemicals, including DDT, Diazinon, paraquat, and active ingredients from Agent Orange. I don't believe that total conversion of all conventional farming to organic farming is feasible or desirable, since judicious use of the right pesticides is necessary to keep crop yields high and prevent further encroachment on wild lands. But the unregulated coffee industry is doing great harm to the environment and farmworkers with its excessive use of these chemicals for the sake of profit only. By choosing organic coffee, you're cutting down on the use of these synthetic chemicals in the global environment at a time when their use is out of control.

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Excerpted from The Ethical Gourmet by Jay Weinstein. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.