Thomas Garwood

LBST 2213

Food Ecosystem Study

This study will be about how sustainable Brazilian coffee is and the impact the
growing process, from birth to consumption, and the prices have on the environment,
economy and society.
Coffee is grown all over the world. Everywhere from Central and South America to
Africa and Asia. Among all the countries that grow coffee, Brazil is the leading producer.
According to http://www.defoundation.org/country-profile-brazil/, Brazil is by far the
worlds largest producer of coffee, contributing approximately one third of the global
supply which is higher than competing countries like Vietnam and Columbia. In Brazil,
coffee beans are produced by small-scale farmers with less than 50 hectares of coffee
plantations(DE Foundation). One hectare is about 2.5 acres so if you do the math, the
plantation owners have less than 125 acres.
During a coffee beans production, many things go into the process. Ben Salinas has
a diagram in one of his articles that shows a System Map of The Environmental Impact
of Coffee. In his diagram, the beans are first planted as trees. Then, during the growing
process, fertilizer and water are used. In Salinas article he states, their chemical
fertilizer use is offset by recycling the nutrient rich coffee fruit from the processing phase
and using it as a fertilizer. As for the water, no water is used for irrigation, as all the
water comes from rainwater. When the beans are picked, farmers use a large mechanical
harvester. Since Brazil is more worried about quantity than quality, the beans are picked
from raw green, to semi-ripe to over-ripe and dried pods, all picked and piled up at the

once and sorted later as Thompson Owen says it in his article New(ish) Methods in
Brazil Coffee Production. After it is picked, the cherries are soaked in a fermentation
tank and then transferred to a depulper which uses about 1L of diesel per day(Salinas 2).
Next, the beans are transported through trucks, semi-trucks and boats which use gas. After
transporting, the beans are roasted and then ready for consumption. According to Salinas
pie chart, roasting has almost as much impact on the environment as transportation.
The farmers in Brazil use genetically modified seeds. Experts in tropical
agriculture are developing genetically modified coffee, soy beans and other crops that can
withstand higher temperatures, Marco Sibaja says in a USA Today article called Climate
change threatens Brazils top coffee crop. Brazil is facing an increase in temperature so
the scientists had to do something so that the crops will not be effected. Scientists are
isolating genes from drought-resistant plants and combining them with traditional
crops.(Sibaja) These new seeds are for the farmers who are near the desert in the
northeast.
When the coffee is all ready to be sold to the consumer, it goes all around the world.
To get there, boats, truck, and semi-trucks are used and ultimately the consumers vehicle.
Most of the consumers are most likely working people. People who need a boost in their
day to get through their daily lives. I, personally, do not drink coffee. I would rather have
a good nights sleep. People my age start drinking coffee because they need to get through
their classes for the day, but people younger do not really drink coffee. They might drink
a Starbucks coffee once in awhile, but that is about it.
As for the environmental side of sustainability, coffee for the most part is not very
sustainable. According to Ben Salinas, only one percent of the overall environmental

impact comes from growing and processing. The other ninety-nine percent comes from
brewing (forty-two percent), transporting (thirty-five percent) and roasting (twenty-two
percent). During the growing process, at the particular farm that Salinas is talking about,
no pesticides are used and the fertilizers they use are from recycling the nutrients from the
coffee fruit. He also says, no additional water is used for irrigation, as all the water
comes from rainwater. To pick these coffee beans, mechanical pickers are used so this
adds a little more environmental impact to the growing process. Then, they are soaked in
a pre fermentation tank before being transferred for a depulper.(Salinas 2) Salinas says,
the depulper is a diesel powered device and uses about 1 liter of diesel per day. The
pulped coffee has mucilage on it and it is placed into a fermentation tank before being
washed in a washing canal. The water is is reused in other parts of the process and the
mucilage are used for fertilizer and the waste water goes to an evaporation lagoon. The
waste water has significant environmental issues since the water is acidic. Wastewater
has a pH as low as 3.4 (Salinas 3). This is dangerous for the plants as well as the animals
surrounding the area. During transportation, it is first hauled on a small truck which then
is loaded on a boat and finally it is hauled on a semi-truck to go to the consumers. During
the roasting process, a toxin called Ochratoxin A (OTA) is reduced, but not completely
reduced. M. Surez-Quiroz says in The impact of roasting on the ochratoxin A content of
coffee that Ochratoxin A is a secondary metabolite that is produced by some moulds of
the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium with nephrotoxin, immunotoxic, teragenic and
carcinogenic effects. It is a toxin that occurs in the cherries, green coffee and roasted
coffee (Surez-Quiroz 605).
Some relatively small core market of specialty retailers, social organizations and

cause-conscious consumers (Giovannucci 16), as Daniele Giovannucci puts in The State

of Sustainable Coffee, have had some sales growth in the past. Giovannucci also states
In the last few years this has begun to change dramatically and these coffees are now at a
crossroads with many opportunities in new, high-volume distribution channels.
(Giovannucci 16) In other words, these coffee producers and retailers are having
challenges like Giovannucci talks about on page 22. the coffee industry is faced with a
number of challenges and that overproduction is at the top of the list. Overproduction
causes the price to go down drastically because of all the excess and competition.
Elizabeth M.M.Q Farina talks about a price decline in 1992 in her article Challenges to
the Coordination of Brazilian Coffee Agribusiness. In 1992 the international coffee
price dropped to less than US$50 per bag while the Brazilian average production costs
were about US$75. (Farina 453) If a producer is loosing US$25 per bag, you cannot
continue to produce. Farina also states, Many producers were not able to continue
producing coffee of the same quality and in the same quantity. The farmers had to find a
way to lower the cost of production. So they started using the mechanical harvester which
reduced the manpower which in turn, reduced the cost to produce.
According to Giovannucci, social sustainability is sometimes done on a small scale.
Charitable initiatives are often carried out on a very small scale: for example a church
may distribute a certain coffee, and at the same time support a particular development
project with the income generated (Giovannucci 59). In other words, they sometimes
fund projects with the income they receive from the coffee. Another example is Coffee
Kids. Coffee Kids return contributions from coffee outlets to grower communities in
order to finance education and health-care programs for children. (Giovannucci 59) For

the social aspect of sustainability of coffee, it is pretty moderate because of the education
and health-care programs, but since it is sometimes done on a small scale, it lowers it.
All in all, coffee is pretty sustainable if it was not for the environmental impact of it.
The environment is impacted greatly due to coffee so I think that causes it to be so
unsustainable. Between the gas, diesel, fossil fuels and the lagoons, the ozone is damaged
and the area surrounding the lagoons are damaged so I do not think coffee is very
sustainable. Also, since there is overproduction of coffee, the producers are not paid as
much as they would be if there was not overproduction.

Bibliography

D.E Master Blenders 1753, . "Country Profile Brazil." DE Foundation. N.p., 2014. Web. 6
Nov. 2014. <http://www.defoundation.org/country-profile-brazil/>.
Farina, Elizabeth M. M. Q. "Challenges to the Coordination of Brazilian Coffee
Agribusiness." Agribusiness. 10.6 (1994): 451-458. Print.
Giovannucci, Daniele, and Freek J. Koekoek. "The State of Sustainable Coffee: A study of
twelve major markets." International Institute for Sustainable Development. N.p., 2003.
Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2003/trade_state_sustainable_coffee.pdf>.
Owen, Thompson. "New(ish) Methods in Brazil Coffee Production." Sweet Maria's Home
Coffee Roasting. N.p., 2014. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.sweetmarias.com/library/node/9114>.
Salinas, Ben. "Life Cycle Assessment of Coffee Production." Ben Salinas. N.p., 18 Dec.
2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://secondary.oslis.org/cite-sources/mla-secondary-citation>.
Sibaja, Marco. "Climate Change Threatens Brazil's Top Coffee Crop." USA Today. N.p.,
19 Feb. 2009. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2009-02-19-brazilcoffee-climate-change_N.htm>.
Surez-Quiroz, Mirna, Batrice D. Louise, Oscar Gonzalez-Rios, Michel Barel, Bernard
Guyot, Sabine Schorr-Galindo, and Joseph-Pierre Guiraud. "The Impact of Roasting on
the Ochratoxin a Content of Coffee." International Journal of Food Science & Technology.
40.6 (2005): 605-611. Print.