Organic Coffee Benefits

Welcome to the world of organic coffee benefits! If ever there was a list of reasons to feel good about your morning brew, this will just make it better…

To start with, before we get to organic coffee benefits, let’s talk about what organic really means. To the average person, organic means a whole mess of all things natural, no chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, chicken allowed to run around instead of being cooped up, thereby laying organic eggs – there’s a world of concepts floating around. Gone are the days when you ate what you were served, now there’s vegan, vegetarian, high protein, low fat, kosher, macrobiotic, and who knows what else, and to add to that, you can now have all these go organic. In the simplest way to define it, organic foods are those in which the use of synthetic chemicals is limited. Many countries now have specifications and certifications for food that need to be obtained to be certified as organic. That brings us to organic coffee, which is essentially coffee that is grown within organic farming standards, with restrictions on the use of fertilizers, chemicals and pesticides.

Organic Coffee Benefits – Environment and Agriculture

Organic farming is widely accepted as environmentally friendly, primarily because of the lack of dependence on synthetic material to be added to the soil.

Fertilizers

that are allowed and used, under organic farming standards, include natural ones (mainly forms of compost and mulch), this in turn is beneficial not only to the crop being grown but also to the soil.

Organic coffee

, and for that matter any organic crop, will benefit from the chemical free nutrients they can absorb from the soil, greatly enhancing taste. The term organic farming is often closely linked with fair trade practices, and ethical trading opens up avenues for responsible consumers to shop for goods that conform to the norms that fair trade supports. Essentially, this enables producers in developing countries, to maintain better trading conditions, in turn providing solutions for sustainable living.

Organic Coffee Health Benefits Some of the health risks associated with drinking large amounts of coffee can be attributed to the chemical and pesticide

residues as opposed to the coffee beans or the brew itself. Organic coffee reduces these risks because of the lack or reduction in synthetic additives used in organic coffee plantations. Shade grown coffee ensures the preservation of nutrients that naturally occur, by reducing sun exposure that bleaches important compounds in the top soil. The following are the main organic coffee benefits:

• High in antioxidants, vitamins and mineral content
• Free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which means no residues, and reduced risk of chemical ingestion
• Natural energy booster – organically grown coffee contains caffeine in its purest form
• Higher levels of antioxidants as opposed to conventionally grown coffee, translates into better defense against a wide range of diseases, that antioxidants guard against Shade Grown Coffee Benefits The benefits of shade grown organic coffee are manifold. Traditionally, all coffee was shade grown, but newer hybrids of coffee introduced to increase the production, were found to tolerate sunlight better. As requirements increased, farmers cut down their shade giving trees, stripping forest cover to meet demand and depleting natural soil reserves. This in turn, affected the availability of animal habitat, causing severe decline in animal and bird population in addition to already serious environmental issues. Shade grown coffee benefits the soil by maintaining forest cover, which in turn maintains bird and animal habitat, and reduces soil erosion. In terms of taste, it is by far superior; the beans mature slower, and the concentration of flavors is more intense. Shade grown coffee is most often organically grown, while conventionally grown coffee is sprayed with more chemicals than any other product consumed by humans, save for tobacco.

Strange though it may seem, organic products are more expensive than others, despite the fact that they rely far less on synthetic chemicals. This increased cost is linked with the economies of scale, as well as the time and effort that organic farming involves, as compared to its conventional cousin that receive external and artificial aid. Supporters of organic grown foods and products however, feel that this is a small price to pay for the betterment of the environment. Whichever way you choose to look at organic coffee benefits, impacting the environment, sustaining fair trade, preserving natural habitat, or just a better tasting cuppa, give it a whirl. You may find yourself a convert for life.