An Environmental Look at Coffee: part 2, Shade-grown Coffee Farms

Traditionally coffee plants were grown under the shade of trees, which provided natural habitat for many animals and insects. The trees provided a moderate climate for the plants, and leaves that dropped from the shade trees enriched the soil. Farmers also used compost coffee pulp before chemical fertilizers were available.There is typically 70 to 100 percent shade cover. Traditional polyculture includes a mixture of the native trees and planted trees with 60 to 90 percent shade cover. Commercial polyculture, with 30 to 60 percent shade covering, has even more trees removed to increase the number of coffee plants. Finally, shaded monoculture includes dense plantings of coffee beneath merely 10 to 30 percent of shade covering. While rustic farms are the most natural, each of these shade farms is more environmentally friendly than the typical sun farm, which provides nearly no shade covering at all. Additionally, shade farms help to harbor diversity, prevent soil erosion, isolate carbon, and even save forests