The True Cost of Coffee

ByKelly CorreiaBrandi Alfaro

Tyree Marshall

The most expensive coffee is made in Indonesia called Kopi Luwak. It sells from $200-$600 per pound. How else do we pay for coffee other than money?

Why do we need it?• The obvious reason of why we need coffee is of course for

energy.• So what do we really need it for? -Adults spend the average amount of $164 a year on daily

coffee. - We import coffee or coco beans from places like Brazil, Italy,

Africa, and tons of other places using tons of land just from consumption of energy in the end.

- First there are tons of other options for energy (but Mrs. Stewart thinks otherwise) and other options for the use of coffee. For example composting. You can grow healthier plants by putting (grinded coco beans) in soil.

Environmental Consequences

• Growing coffee is the cause of deforestation in many rainforests

• Since coffee is one of the worlds most popular drinks it requires a lot of land to grow

• Chemicals are also sprayed to make the coffee grow larger

• Not only does it cause deforestation but roasting coffee also causes pollution

• When coffee needs to be roasted, machines release CO2, smoke, and other chemicals which pollute the atmosphere

Cultural Consequences

• Some cultural consequences are that many people are losing their homes due to the amount of land needed grow coffee

• Fair Trade– Many farmers that grow coffee earn less than what the

actual production cost is• This forces farmers into a cycle of debt• When the coffee prices lowered to .60-.70 cents a pound it

left most farmers unable to maintain their land or their families

― Fair trade provides farmers with a fair amount of money for their harvests for a decent living. The farmers will have to get at least a minimum of $1.26 per pound produced.

• International Coffee Council– “A Coffee Quality-Improvement Programme

establishes target standards for exportable coffee and will play an important role in improving the quality of coffee on the world market in the interests of both producers and consumers”.

– “Consideration of contamination from mould formation resulted in a US$5,593,000 project to reduce mould formation.”

What can be done?• To prevent deforestation we can start to grow

organic coffee shade grown.– Shade grown is when the coffee is grown

organically without any pesticides. Shade grown also involves trees to shade the coffee. This prevents less rainforests being destroyed. Funky Alternatives

To get rid of ants, put coffee grounds on ant hills to prevent problems at homeFishermen, when saving worms and maggots, put them in a bucket of moist coffee grounds to make them live longer. Coffee grounds can be used for stain resistant surfaces.