More Coffee

Today we visited a coffee plantation just outside of San Jose. It was owned by a succesful business woman who bought the plantation ten years ago. We took our bus back a long bumpy dirt road then walked a long way down to where we learned about the plantation. Here is a picture of me next to a bunch of coffee plants.


Here is a coffee bean. If you squeeze the seeds out, you can eat them. I didn´t take time to test it out but I heard that they didn´t taste like coffee :(

Here I am with my freshest cup of coffee that I will ever drink (and the strongest).

I found alot of what I learned today to be very interesting. First off, this specific plantation just won an award for best coffee in Costa Rica (aka best coffee in the world according to the Ticos). It used to be an organic plantation for three years but changed back because of less profit due to low production capabilities. When the plantation switched to organic, production went from 800 sacks to 30 sacks. This played a big role in the change.

On the way up to the plantation we saw fields that been overused and degradation was taking place. It was cool to actually see some of the effects of overuse even though these farms can no longer be used sustainably.

We heard alot from the owner about how she has changed things at the plantation to become successful. Ever since they won the award, they have been able to sell their coffee at very high price compared to in the past.

She also talked to us about where her coffee is sent and sold. She mentioned that her beans are combined with other beans and sold in bigger batches to major companies. That was the only thing that surprised me. She told us that many coffee growers will label their beans as organic when they actually are not. Basically, the ethics are no longer there. Thats too bad for all those organic lovers out there!

Coffee is an export that is considered suitable for fair trade. Fair trade is a movement to alleviate global poverty and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards related to the production of a variety of goods. Fair trade can lead to equality in international trade. Sustainable development can be achieved through better trading conditions and securing the rights of producers in workers. This mainly relates to those in developing countries. The plantation that we visited and the woman who owns it could possibly benefit from fair trade. On the other hand, this woman completes all steps of production from planting and cultivating to exporting; therefore making use of fair trade is not necessarily beneficial in her case. Also, she has found that separating herself can allow her to work more directly with customers which has proven to work through her apparent success.

The main downfall of this plantation is its lack of sustainable growth patterns. Due to the location of the plantation, few pesticides and growth enhancers are needed and the altitude and lack of a lot of sunshine provide for very positive growing conditions. The reason sustainable practices are not in place is due the higher expenses with less attainable profit for the woman who owns the plantation.

Tomorrow we are visiting a coffee plantation that operates using more sustainable practices and has the benefit of being very successful.