After the scare of the recent recession, consumers are looking for comfort, whether in their food or their beverage. It’s value, simplicity, home – a return to basics, with anything organic leading the way.

“Consumers still see coffee as an integral part of their everyday lives,” said Robert F. Nelson, President and CEO of the National Coffee Association.  “Even if economic conditions cause some to alter their coffee choices, they are nonetheless continuing to enjoy coffee at levels very much on par with recent years.”

However, CJ says that more adults are making their coffee at home. The retail coffee market grew 6% in 2008 and is increasing each year. Small coffee roasters are benefiting and so are the consumers.

Convenience has given way to the pocket-book mentality. It’s about time – more people should be concerned with the environment, how their food is grown, and how organics are the wave of the future.

Landlocked Bolivia

Through to the 21st Century, when in the elections held in December of 2005, Evo Morales and the socialist MAS party obtained a victory with 54% of the vote, becoming the first Native Bolivian president in history. In February 2009 a new constitution was enacted by Evo Morales. This gave Bolivians of indigenous descent more economic and political rights.

As one would expect, all this turmoil affected coffee production. In Bolivia 95% of coffee production is in the rural areas of the Yungas, but other growing regions are Santa Cruz, Beni, Cochabamba, Tarija, and Pando.

While there are large commercial farms, land reforms have expropriated most of the large landholdings and redistributed them back to rural farming families. These small plots range from 1-8 hectares and produce between 85-95% of Bolivia’s coffee, most of which is the Arabica variety and grown organically at an altitude of 600-2,200 ft. above sea level.

“Death Road” – dangerous transportation

Bolivia has altitude, fertile soil, and a consistent rainy season, but problems of rugged terrain and a lack of communication and technology make coffee quality control almost impossible. The green coffee beans had to be sent along “Death Road”, a dangerous mountain road, when they were prepared but not fully dry. This resulted in some strange flavours, but recently, funding from various outside agencies has helped to establish co-ops in rural areas, and since 2006 the road has been upgraded and modernized. Coffee farmers have the means to ensure quality, value, provide more community jobs, and be able to tap into the organic global market. Properly processed, the coffee has a full, fruity taste.

However, like its past, Bolivia’s future is still uncertain, but hopeful.

Pistol and Burnes likes to be part of the solution. Several of our fairly traded organic coffees from Bolivia are featured below. Please click on one of the images for more information or to order.

kitchen waste    =    landfill      

Coffee Joe intones the mantra of reduce, reuse, and recycle. As a responsible coffee company, we promote the use of our compostable bags, reuse the hemp bags the green beans come in, and because the other odds and ends of packaging are only a viable option for recycling if they are bundled together in large lots, we have it picked up monthly. We are doing our part as much as possible.

The global steps to sustaining and managing waste products should be as follows:

1. Prevention – Packaging only for loss or damage, not for aesthetic reasons.
2. Minimization – Reduce packaging: lower costs, less space, less in a landfill.
3. Reuse – Always should be a priority for everyone to consider.
4. Recycling – Old into new, esp. packages of steel, aluminium, paper or plastic.
5. Energy recovery—Waste-to-energy makes use of heat from packaging pieces.
6. Disposal—burning and allowing marked zones for special waste in a landfill.

CJ loves numbered lists, they organize and make everything logical. Take these points to heart. If packaging is here to stay, let’s make sure it stays in the right place. You can read our guest blog at www.myzerowaste.com. An international site, it is a check valve for what is going on in the world of waste.

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Coffee Joe Says: “We are all dietetic sinners; only a small percent of what we eat nourishes us; the balance goes to waste and loss of energy.” ~William Osler~

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People will go miles out of their way to find just the perfect organic blend. Or, like you, they will take a little extra time in their morning commute driving to their coffee shop that treats them like family. You sit down at your favorite table, the barista looks up, knows your brew, and has the server deliver it steaming, right to you. Of course it’s organic, and fresh from the roaster. You deserve nothing but the best.

Behind the scenes that produced your morning cup, the local coffee company first procured the finest green coffee beans. The roast master then emptied them into the hopper, set the dials, and carefully watched over the coffee beans as they were roasted to perfection. Afterwards, they were poured into great vats to degas, put into another hopper and bagged to the specifications of the customers. It takes time and effort to produce a superior coffee.

Don’t settle for anything less, and you can respect it all the more in the morning.

1)      Refuse to buy goods with surplus packaging.

2)       Re-use as long as possible; i.e. clothing, household goods.

3)       Barter or trade with neighbours, friends, or family to reduce clutter.

4)       Recycle garden matter; leaves, grass cuttings and prunings.

5)       Compost leftovers; vegetable ends, fruit peels, crushed egg shells.

6)       Compost tea leaves/bags (no tags, staples or strings), coffee grounds.

7)       Walk – don’t drive unless you have to.

8)       Turn the heat down in winter, wear an extra sweater.

9)       Use a fan instead of air conditioning.

10)   Buy local, fairly traded or organic.

11)   Check out solar energy.

12)   Grow your own garden.

13)   Eat at home.

14)   Less pollution if you avoid take-out or fast food.

CJ has a quote for the environment, climate change and carbon footprints:

“Why don’t we pay more attention to who the farmers are? We would never be as careless choosing an auto mechanic or babysitter as we are about who grows our food. All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.”

The future of the planet depends on organics, whether it’s the coffee, tea or daily products we need to survive. Here are three posts worth revisiting:

1)      Schools: Change the World

2)      Easy and Organic Fundraising

3)      Fundraising in a Recession

We need to change our ways now, immediately, to form a sustainable, global marketplace. No borders, no politics, just communication and healthy living for all. Children are the ones who will ultimately benefit in the future if we believe organic farming is the only acceptable method for growing our food. Tell them and show them where their food comes from, take them shopping, point out the local organic food and beverages, take them to a local coffee roaster, a local chicken farm – turn them onto organic living.

Our complacency and laziness has created an environment in crisis – everyone of us must get past denial and do their part.

Men kept the money and made all the decisions. However, enter the fair trade program. With the organic coffee premiums, the time had come for the female coffee farmers to join the ranks of society, politics, and the community. The women organized, and in order to belong, the group mandate was for the men to deed the land to the women coffee farmers.

This support for the women coffee growers, has improved the quality of life in the entire community and helped to build a sustainable economic system.  So far, due to their efforts, progress has provided better diets, sanitation, new wet-processing mills, miles of new road and communication with each other.

However, the nemesis is the greater the demand for their coffee, the more diminished the supply. Solution: the women coffee farmers have grouped together with others in more than ten other world countries. The more integrated they become in all areas of their lives the better.

A global doorway is the key to their success and we, the consumer, need to be that door.

Check out our fairly traded, organic coffee offerings and order some today. We also can offer our sustainable fairly traded products as part of your next fund raising project

One additional expression is “organic”. Coffee plants are grown to maturity without pesticides in an earth-friendly way. A large number of people are demanding authentic goods free of additives. For coffee, the intention is for it to be pure, untainted, but good tasting as well.

However, in the beginning, organic sales didn’t quite translate into a well-made product. Factors such as poorly paid workers, unsanitary sites and a lack of recycling for the coffee slag, became evident. To correct this, a new process and word was invented – Sustainable.

CJ says this coffee is made through careful planning with agriculture and community support. It must be appealing, and have great taste. Way before the finished coffee in your cup, the organic coffee is shade-grown, under a canopy of trees at high altitudes, yielding a superior grade of coffee. The beans are better for having matured slowly, retaining higher sugar levels and density.

For Coffee Joe, it starts with basic commonsense – coffee forests eliminate the need for chemicals, supplying all the necessary nutrients through nitrogen, compost, birds and insects, all coming together to produce the most efficient soil

This is where sustainable involvement comes to the rescue providing better ideas for increasing yield, becoming more competitive, and using proper management. The hope is to promote farms and people who only treat their workers well.

Green is the color of the new world.

Coffee Joes says it’s nice to know organic thinking is growing, so to speak. However, it seems that consumers still pay more attention to what their pets eat than themselves or their children. The pet food industry is big business. There are over eight million pet cats and dogs in Canada and more than 160 million pets in the US. Last year, Americans alone spent over US$45 billion on their pets, including US$18 billion on pet food, while Canadians spent over 2.0 billion. Yes, billion with a “B”.

Coffee, of course, is our business. We deal with the coffee farmers direct, visit their communities, and try to make sure they receive fair value for their product. However, it’s all to no avail if the consumer doesn’t care enough to pay a little more to buy organic, knowing it will make a huge difference for the future health of the planet and these farmers.

Spend less on cat or dog food, and give it to the coffee farmers, or the tea and cocoa plant growers. People should be more important than animals.

Don’t you agree?

CJ has a list for you:

These are five Do’s for used coffee grounds:

1)      Do put into your compost.

2)      Do layer into your garden.

3)      Do spread around the top surface of inside plant containers.

4)      Do mix with eggshells for outdoor plant pest-resistance.

5)      Do check out cafes and coffee houses for used grounds.

Now, here are five Don’ts for used coffee grounds:

1)      Don’t throw down the drain.

2)      Don’t throw into the garbage disposal.

3)      Don’t throw into your local landfill.

4)      Don’t accumulate with the intention of using later.

5)      Don’t blame anyone or anything else for not recycling.

And…Coffee Joe says no, food waste and coffee grounds will not break down usefully in the landfill even though they are biodegradable. There are just too many other toxins in there resulting in contamination. Take these little baby steps towards a sustainable, healthy earth.

It all starts with you.