Organic Coffee = A Balancing Act

This is a guest post by Coffee Joe. Learn more about how you can guest post for Daily Shot Of Coffee here.

The scales of the physical world, balanced by nature – soil and plants, hosts and parasites, prey and predators, light and dark, desert and forest – worked well for eons. Enter human beings who decided they could manage the earth much better and more efficiently.

Scientifically, humans are organism groupies, each one interdependent on the other to help make our society bustling and successful. It’s by the effort of many people that our daily lives are possible. Coffee Joe wants to know about your daily routine – how many people does it take to produce the most trivial part of your morning? For instance, suppose you had organic coffee for breakfast.

Before the coffee makes it into your cup, consider its journey. Are you sitting down?

You should be because it’s quite a complicated and amazing story.

Coffee Joe says it starts with the overseas organic coffee farmer, his family who, in most cases, hand pick the cherries or coffee beans, the wet or dry mill processors, the workers at the coop who bag the green coffee beans, the commodity marketers who decide on pricing, the buyers, the transport company, the customs agent, the drivers, shippers, receivers, office people, salespeople; now add the coffee roaster, the cupper, the packager, the wholesaler, the retail customer, the barista and the server at a coffee shop, right down to the cleaning service, and coffee grounds disposal.

Are we there yet?

Not even close – add the people who manufacture, repair, or maintain the machinery used in any of these processes. CJ is sure there are others he missed, but this should give you a pretty good idea of what goes into that cup of coffee. Thank goodness we are only talking about organic. Imagine what the number would be for a regular cup of java, with chemicals, herbicides, more machines and technology.

Tip the balance in the earth’s favour – make the conscious choice.

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About the author, Coffee Joe AKA Suzie Ambrose: I have several passions in my life. Coffee, writing and photography. When I have to work, it’s to fuel those hobbies. I live in the Cariboo in northwestern B.C. This provides ammo for my camera, my written observations and a first hand look at local organics, the old ways, and the strict stewardship of the farmlands. I take photos exactly as I see them and I write the same way. No compromises, no adjustments, just doing the research, and waiting for that moment when everything turns out to be all that I hoped for and more. Magic. Suzie writes a coffee blog for a Vancouver, B.C. coffee roaster Pistol And Burnes under the name “Coffee Joe Says”.

Photo by stevesheriw.

Category: Coffee Information