Is shade-grown coffee the drink of the day?

Dilemma: First it was fairtrade for the farmers, now it's bird friendly for biodiversity. Lucy Siegle spills the beans on planet-friendly coffee

Lucy Siegle
The Observer,
Sunday October 19 2008

Everything concerning coffee is hotly disputed, including its origins. But I like the story that it was discovered by an Abyssinian goatherder who noticed his goats dancing about with exuberance. He correctly surmised they had eaten coffee cherries, experimented with them himself and, lo, a multi-billion dollar industry was launched (sort of). The array of 'ethical' screening and certification programmes came later, with every retailer preferring their own way of fulfilling their take on social and environmental obligations - so Starbucks presumably sees no conflict between its overseas environmental programme and leaving a tap running in every one of its stores, reputedly wasting 34.2m litres of water a day.

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