Understanding Organic Coffee: What Is It & Why Should You Care?

Food And Drinks

Most people want to live healthier, longer, and more active lives, which is why the food and beverages they consume should merit considerable thought. Many of us tend to opt for quick, easy, and sometimes unhealthy foods and drinks due to the busy nature of our daily routines.

Even with coffee, generic, sugar-filled, and calorie-laden options are often the first off the shelves instead of healthier alternatives, like organic coffee.

Obviously, non-organic coffee has been enjoyed by a majority of consumers. However, drinking too much of it can harm your health and severely damage your body systems over time.

Coffee is the world’s second most valuable traded commodity, next only to petroleum. To put this fact in perspective, more coffee is sold globally than corn and sugar combined.

Clearly, people drink a lot of coffee. Read on to learn what organic coffee is and why you should care.

What is organic coffee?

When talking about organic coffee, it is essential to note that we are comparing it to conventional coffee. Traditional coffee growers use synthetic pesticides and herbicides to manage weeds and pests. In contrast, organic growers utilize natural solutions such as isopods. Learning how long do isopods live is crucial for maintaining these beneficial populations, ensuring a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to pest management. In fact, conventional coffee is one of the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crops in the world.

On the other hand, organic coffee farmers utilize farming practices that work in harmony with the environment and promote biodiversity, soil health and other good benefits for the world.

Many specialty coffee farmers do not even require pest control solutions as their coffee grows at high enough elevations, where pest problems are not an issue.

Organic-certified coffees can also be treated with pesticides; however, the organic label on a coffee bag signifies that the pesticides used were also organic (natural) as opposed to synthetic chemicals.

As organic coffee grows in cleaner soil and contains no synthetic pesticide residue, organic coffee is obviously the healthier option.

Another difference is that coffee that is certified “organic” must be roasted on a roaster solely dedicated to organic beans or on equipment that has been thoroughly cleaned between roasts. For this reason, most small-batch roasters either sell purely organic coffees or none at all.

Why should you care?

Even if your own health is not enough to convince you to care — organic coffee is high in antioxidants, which can prevent cancer and inflammation in your body — maybe how it benefits the environment will be.

After conventionally grown coffee beans are treated with chemicals, they then get washed with water, which seeps through the soil, going on to leak back into the waterways and contaminate drinking water.

This process destroys the earth’s water resources and also damages the soil. Do you want your cup of coffee to be part of a vicious cycle with new plants growing in pesticide-laced soil?

Granted, you may not live in a locale that will see the immediate effects of this, but regions where organic coffee grows are cleaner and safer. The land is safe and conducive for the cultivation of flora and for fauna to thrive.

By being a patron of organic coffee, you indirectly support the life and health of the people who produce it than if they were producing conventional coffee.

What is the difference in quality?

No matter what the type of coffee, the quality is determined by many factors, including land elevation, soil, harvest and processing technique, the roasting process, the quality of the water, the freshness of the coffee, and the cleanliness of the equipment.

Factory farming and roasting are usually associated with a drop in quality, as farms and roasters that can’t afford to become organic-certified are also generally operating at a much higher scale.

That being said, as with all organic beverages, the most delicious cup of joe is the one that has received a significant amount of love, all the way from the farm to your cup.

The best-tasting organic coffee, for example, has seen the hard work of many hands, and it has been carefully grown, harvested and roasted so that its flavors are preserved and the coffee is clean and fresh.

It is also something you can feel good about drinking as it is better for your health, the environment and the coffee-growing communities.

Where can you find organic coffee?

If possible, you should opt to purchase Fair Trade organic coffee as it helps to contribute to the global movement working towards ensuring healthy and sustainable living conditions, proper pay and economic growth for coffee farmers. Alternatively, consider roasters like Iron and Fire and similar others, who offer ethically sourced, organic blends that reflect similar values, making it easier to enjoy quality coffee with a clear conscience.

By purchasing coffee sourced from a local Fair-Trade farm, you are ensuring that everyone in the production chain gets a fair share of the revenue earned.

You get to sit back and sip on your favorite drink, knowing that you bought something that strives to better the lives of poor farmers and their families. This just makes drinking organic coffee all the more enjoyable.

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