Organic coffee in the news..

This "flash" came in thru Coffee's Daily Dose, an online rag I receive which has industry details.  Unfortunately this emag tends to focus on the big players in the commercial market, so there's sadly much press about the boring stuff relating to Starbu&*#, McD's, BK wars, etc., with the occasional interesting tidbit about something I actually care about. As reported originally in the Christian Science Monitor...

"Certification Process, Price Lead Farmers to Abandon Organic Coffee

8 Mar 2010 12:29 GMT - Certification Process, Price Lead Farmers to Abandon Organic Coffee 
March 8, 2010 /EIN PRESSWIRE/ Almost 75% of the world's organic coffee comes from Latin America, but farmers there are beginning to abandon the organic coffee trade, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Organic coffee farming is much more environmentally friendly (and human-friendly) because of the lack of pesticides used in production, but both the price and the certification process of organic coffee has turned buyers off of the product.
Beans of organically grown coffee are 25% more expensive than traditionally grown coffee, and it currently takes up to three years for beans to be certified as organic. This means a farmer needs to absorb the production cost while waiting to be able to sell the product as "organic" in a market where buyers are abandoning organic coffee.
    Read more at Organic Food News Today
    Latin America Organic Food news - http://organicfood.einnews.com/latin-america/ 

 Truth be told there'smuch validity to this information. We here at Badbeard's go to considerable length and great expense to source fine green coffee to roast for you, and rely heavily on partners such as Elan Organic (www.elanorganic.com) and others who emphasize sustainably-grown and equitably-traded coffee.  Our preferences are personal and subjective, of course, but the uptick in "digestive-consciousness awareness" is a good thing.  Does "certified organic" mean necessarily that you cup will taste better?  NO.  In fact there are many sources of DE FACTO organic coffee--in a nutshell, produced by farmers who literally can't afford to pay the certifications premiums OR non-organic materials which lead to better crop yields, etc.  Coffee farming is still a bare-bones business in most producing countries, and the quality and equitable-trade practices MUST be consumer-driven.  Quality keeps improving all over the world, but the vast bulk of commercially-traded java is only fair-to-middling in quality owing to the mass production necessities of the market, from source to roast.

Taste is personal first and foremost.  If you can't tell, or it doesn't matter specifically where your coffee comes from, you'll be reinforcing the NECESSITY of inferior coffee in the marketplace.  Those of you who care and are willing to pay those few extra dollars for your cuppa pleasure ormerely caffeine fix can only be encouraged to come to our side to experience the TASTE difference.  Have at it world!==BADBEARD