Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/989753
STiR coffee and tea 31 0 3 6 9 12 15 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Millions of Bags Bags / Ha 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 10.2 12.0 10.8 11.1 14.1 15.3 17.7 18.3 18.8 7.8 8.9 7.8 7.7 10.9 12.1 14.2 14.2 14.2 Production Productivity bags/ha 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 1,745 4,051 11,567 24,372 68,615 66,874 103,266 109,718 129,184 184,147 196,955 208,918 225,518 235,574 the semi-tropical sun, the coffee bushes require irrigation, using thousands of cu- bic meters of water. Other practices such as poor waste disposal lead to leaching of fermented waste into the soil, creat- ing a need for fungicides. Within a few years, yields drop and farmers move on, clearing new land for a quick-fix of high productivity. In some coffee growing re- gions like Antioquia, this has contributed to a rate of deforestation approaching 8% per year, with disastrous effects on soil erosion and ultimately contributing to climate change. This approach is totally unsustainable. Helping to spread sustainability into the global marketplace, Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs), with roots in so- cial justice and/or environmental causes are establishing niches alongside conven- tional agriculture export sectors. They are doing this by developing their own trade and marketing channels, and coffee is emblematic of the trend. As the cer- tified organic and fair trade movements benefit from growing environmental and social awareness among consumers in de- veloped countries, this helps the ATOs Source: FNC Colombia capture market share. Seven major sustainability standards have been developed by ATOs, NGOs, and large coffee conglomerates: 4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community) CAFÉ Practice (Starbucks), Fair Trade certified, UTZ-Rainforest Alli- ance, Triple AAA (Nespresso), and organic. These certifying bodies, in turn, are lead- ing to consumer interest in the way coffee is produced and traded. There have been a series of projects involving various coffee-producing countries and regions that sought to develop ways to bring farmers into the sustainability surge. Solidaridad, which operates in more than 40 countries on every continent, has a large footprint in Colombia. From 2013 to 2014, Solidaridad ran a three-country test Photo by Dan Bolton/STiR Average Bags per Hectare (60-kilo)