Organic, Fair-Trade, Shade-Grown

Organic= Organic foods are made according to certain production standards, meaning they are grown without the use of conventional pesticides and artificial fertilizers, free from contamination by human or industrial waste, and processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.

Fair-Trade= An organized social movement and market-based approach to empowering developing country producers and promoting sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit and flowers.

Shade-Grown= Refers to coffee grown under a canopy of trees. Most of the coffee farms in Latin America have converted to “sun-coffee” to increase production. “Sun-coffee” entails thinning out the trees in order to make more room for the actual coffee plants. The debate over “sun-coffee” and “shade-grown” has mostly been caused by ornithologists who believe that the de-forestation of these farms has resulted in the loss of countless birds who once lived in the trees.

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