The majority of the modern day experience with coffee is the on-the-go cup of joe. But when you have a moment to sit down with your cup of coffee and take a break from the busyness of daily life, what crosses your mind? Some philosophers have been studying precisely that: where do our minds travel when this rich yet bitter drug rolls across our tongues? How does caffeine alter our consciousness? Coffee can remind us to slow down and consider what we are tasting, what we are thinking, and what we are doing. Taking time for contemplation while enjoying coffee transports us into a new way of thinking; coffee literally alters our reality.

It’s no surprise that many people are addicted to coffee. Caffeine is addictive, and the ritualistic and social experience of drinking coffee is a trademark of our culture. Coffee has become a thing to gather around, and coffeehouses and cafes are the homes of revolutionary conversations, and continue to be the origin of grassroots activist planning. It’s no surprise that such discussion of change is happening in a places that serve a drink that gives us energy and motivation, and whose existence as a centerpiece of our culture, is embedded in revolution itself.

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The locations on our planet where coffee grows successfully have a direct correlation with geology in regards to: latitude, climate, topography, altitude, and soil (nutrients available, and longevity of availability). Some key factors we’re going to look at in this section are on how climate and topography play large roles in the loss of soil due to runoff and erosion in rainy seasons. Since Costa Rica is a renowned country for its coffee production and quality, research was done in the very reputable coffee growing region, Pirris watershed, 2 km west of San José. They grow 25% of the coffee for Costa Rica in ranging soil types from Ultisol, Ferrasol, and Acrisol, from sedimentary parent material, with clay texture, a 170 cm average soil depth and good drainage. Naturally, Ultisols are incredibly weathered found normally in warm and humid climates, usually on older geologic locations in intensely weathered parent material. Now when this soil is used for growing coffee on medium hills, to steep slopes, enduring an average of ±2,500mm of rainfall each year, erosion and run off pose serious problems for the farmers and the coffee producers. What’s interesting about this research on erosion rates between medium slope faces to steep faces, is that there isn’t a definitive answer as to which erodes more or less. Some steep slopes eroded and had less run off than the less steep slopes, and vice versa; however, what did have a role in run off and erosion rates came down to ‘good soil coverage’ and micro terracing done by the farmers. These practices helped combat the harsh weathering that poses grave threat to their crop yield and by doing so, are able to maintain successful growing environments for their coffee trees.

1. http://www.sciencedirect.com.evergreen.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S002216941500075X
2. http://passel.unl.edu/pages/informationmodule.php?idinformationmodule=1130447032&topicorder=10&maxto=14

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Popularity of coffee in America follows the high school cafeteria scenario: the popular kids are the coffee hipsters, the nerds and outcasts are people that don’t drink coffee, and the everyday high school zombies or filler people are the general caffeinated population. The coffee hipsters are everywhere; they purchase only the finest beans and have favorite types of roasts that “release the fruity and nutty notes” in their cup of joe. They all have a french press or drip coffee makers and some of the cooler kids might even have a cold brewer. If that wasn’t bad enough they shun people for using sugar and cream to mask the bitter taste of caffeinated poison and because of them every street corner has a new modern coffee shop. They are a niche, but that’s what popularity is after all. The general coffee drinking population, the zombies, are represented by college students with six essays due in an hour, business men and women who work a draining nine to five desk job, and anyone else who can’t make it a day or two without getting a headache. They doctor up their morning cup with cream and sugar to fight a bitterness that comes with a low quality and over roasted bean. They line up outside of the closest coffee shop, get their fix, and join normal and functioning society.  It wasn’t always like this. Coffee wasn’t always this popular; “coffee consumption was essentially flat, with minor fluctuations, past 1962 one can chart a consistent decline starting at 74.7 percent of the population drinking coffee and plummeting to 50 percent in 1988”(Roseberry 1996: 765). People were losing interest in coffee due to the rise of prices an the awful taste. After those things changed, prices went down and demand slowly started to rise, now coffee has become a socially accepted low dose drug deal.

By Alexis Allen

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-culture-of-coffee-drinkers/

The integration of permaculture methodologies into a coffee growing, processing, and distribution system begins with the farmers. The ideal growing environment for coffee is at a high elevation subtropical climate, with “young” nutrient rich volcanic soil (Bullough, 2). Location choice should take into account the idea of resilience in the face of climate change, with specific focus on resistance of the coffee borer insect The borer is cited as the most prominent threat coffee plantations worldwide (Bullough, 5). The size of the farm should be large enough for the farmer to obtain a substantial yield, but not so large that the workload becomes too great for the farmer and their family to maintain it properly. Agricultural practices should focus on the integration poly-culture food forests, (growing other cash crops, such as cacao, directly alongside the coffee) organic methods (or as close to that as possible), and ethical treatment of the laborers. To maximize profits for the grower the next step processes of washing and drying the beans should be able to be done by the farmer on their land, or close to it as possible.

Since the countries with the highest coffee consumption rates are in areas where coffee cannot be grown, Northern Europe and North America (Simpson), and since bean shelf life declines significantly after roasting, it is unrealistic for the growers to also be the roasters. Instead roasters should purchase the beans for a fair price, a price that does not keep the growers in poverty or force subsistence living, then have the beans shipped to their location in the most sustainably way possible. To curb further transportation costs and effects, distribution of the final, roasted bean should be as localized as possible, with little to no national or international deals being made.