JAVA!
I read a news brief about how the people who pick and initially process the coffee beans are mistreated. So I started researching the whole process. Lord & Lady was I amazed!
First of all, the wages are often next to nothing and work conditions are worse. Then there is the damage to the environment. Cutting down the rain forest, clogging streams and rivers with silt and fertilzer. In some cases the loss of habitat due to coffee growing has been a contributing factor in edangerment of species of birds and animals as well to reduced rainfall!
However, there is now a solution, thank the Goddess! It is called the Rainforest Alliance. The Alliance works with the growers to pay better wages, have better working conditions and change the way the coffee is grown such that the environment is not harmed.
What they do is grow the coffee under a canopy of native trees. Less fertilizer and pesticides are needed. The Alliance even monitors and certifies the farms for biodiversity to assure that the farms are not damaging the ecosystem! The coffee cherries are even sun dried rather than using ovens. It is incredible and heart warming to me that people are doing these kind of things.
It turns out that that the resulting coffee is superior to that produced using the peasant powered rape and plunder approach to coffee farming that is being fazed out by the good work of the Rainforest Alliance!
I am heartened to find that many coffee roasters are embracing this top of the line coffee. Some examples are: Starbucks, Seattles Best, Elan Organic Coffees, and many others.
What can we Pagan folk do to help? When we shop for coffee, look for Rainforest Alliance Certified, or Shade Tree, Fair Market or something that indicates that the coffee you are buying came from these types of farms.
Pagans can contribute to saving the Lady's Garden by simply buying products like "Dolphin Safe" Tuna and "Certified Rainforest Alliance" Coffees. I know that these products may cost a little more, but what a difference we can make if we all join in a united circle to do what we must to assure clean air and water for our children and theirs!
Join with me and pledge to the Lady that you will do what you can to save this paradise from ruin!
Blessed Be,
Stormy)O(
I read a news brief about how the people who pick and initially process the coffee beans are mistreated. So I started researching the whole process. Lord & Lady was I amazed!
First of all, the wages are often next to nothing and work conditions are worse. Then there is the damage to the environment. Cutting down the rain forest, clogging streams and rivers with silt and fertilzer. In some cases the loss of habitat due to coffee growing has been a contributing factor in edangerment of species of birds and animals as well to reduced rainfall!
However, there is now a solution, thank the Goddess! It is called the Rainforest Alliance. The Alliance works with the growers to pay better wages, have better working conditions and change the way the coffee is grown such that the environment is not harmed.
What they do is grow the coffee under a canopy of native trees. Less fertilizer and pesticides are needed. The Alliance even monitors and certifies the farms for biodiversity to assure that the farms are not damaging the ecosystem! The coffee cherries are even sun dried rather than using ovens. It is incredible and heart warming to me that people are doing these kind of things.
It turns out that that the resulting coffee is superior to that produced using the peasant powered rape and plunder approach to coffee farming that is being fazed out by the good work of the Rainforest Alliance!
I am heartened to find that many coffee roasters are embracing this top of the line coffee. Some examples are: Starbucks, Seattles Best, Elan Organic Coffees, and many others.
What can we Pagan folk do to help? When we shop for coffee, look for Rainforest Alliance Certified, or Shade Tree, Fair Market or something that indicates that the coffee you are buying came from these types of farms.
Pagans can contribute to saving the Lady's Garden by simply buying products like "Dolphin Safe" Tuna and "Certified Rainforest Alliance" Coffees. I know that these products may cost a little more, but what a difference we can make if we all join in a united circle to do what we must to assure clean air and water for our children and theirs!
Join with me and pledge to the Lady that you will do what you can to save this paradise from ruin!
Blessed Be,
Stormy)O(
