My concern with the amount of chemicals used in coffee growing, started the evening following the evening,
that my granddaughter and I celebrated Earth Hour. Earlier that day when
she called asking to stay the night, I said great, but from 8-9pm we have to turn
off all the lights, her response was "Why?" and ..........."What will we do?"
Well I said "What did people do 50 years ago?" A great place to get grounded in what our parents and grandparents did with their Saturday nights not so long ago..........
While many pose the question, shouldn't every hour be Earth Hour? it seems Earth Hour has become the 'unofficial' kickoff to what is now being pegged as "Earth Month" previously known as Earth Day.
Earth Month "My Coffee AHA!" ............
Wal-Mart kicked off Earth Month with some great T.V. commercials, one of which highlighted a woman sitting next to a stream proclaiming "If all of us
bought a bag of Sam's Choice organic coffee, all 200 million of us, the number of customers that
shop at Wal-Mart every week, that would save 133 million pounds of harmful
chemicals from the earth!!!!"
Fresh off of two weeks work updating the chemicals used in cotton--my immediate thought....this cant be right---next step,hit the internet---Walmart.com/green---there it was..
"200 million bags of USDA Certified organic coffee (10oz) would prevent 133 Million pounds of fertilizers and chemicals from being released into the environment. One bag of USDA Certified organic coffee helps prevent 0.665 pounds of fertilizers and chemicals from being released into the environment. 200 million bags of USDA Certified organic coffee helps prevent 133 Million pounds of fertilizers and chemicals from being released into the environment."Source:http://walmart.triaddigital.com/Sustainability-Page_ektid39886.aspx
Coffee equation:
One bag is 10ounces-or .665 pounds or One bag of 12 ounces-or .75 pounds
200 million bags of 10-12oz coffee =2
billion ounces
2 billion ounces=125-133 million pounds
WOW...... I had no idea that coffee had such huge environmental and social impacts---that would mean that coffee was a 1 to 1 ratio, chemical pounds to product pounds, this couldnt be right, cotton which I am fairly knowledgeable about (see previous posts)---is touted as one of the most heavily chemical intensive crops in the world at 2.86 ounces of chemicals per pound of cotton grown---a mere 1/3 of the coffee claim.....
So, if coffees impact is one pound of chemicals for every pound of
coffee, why had I never heard about this?
Next step; contact Wal-Mart,to ask for the back up documents to these claims........
I was impressed by the Wal-Mart promise of transparency--not only the web-posted
Sustainability Substantiation but in the prompt reply my email received.
I was put in contact with the coffee supplier Cafe Bom Dia, the local office here in Northwest Arkansas, and the New York office as well, they immediately sent me all the back up documents from their agronomist.
After spending about a week conducting due diligence, including a third party check of all the information........
YES, indeed the inputs to coffee growing-is about one pound of chemicals-to one pound of coffee*--
I had no idea that my morning cup of Joe was so damaging to the planet!!!! *Note: Almost all of the chemical inputs are in the fertilizer category--not pesticides.
More on Cafe Bom Dia.... continued in Part III........
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