Do you sell Fair-Trade, Organic and Bird-Friendly Coffees?

Social responsibility and sustainability of the coffee industry are first and foremost in our minds. We live in a rapidly changing world, evolved into a global village by the connectivity of the Internet. All around us we hear stories of things like farmers living in poverty, depletion of the ozone layer, slashing and burning the rainforest so its indigenous peoples can continue to survive in the face of change. At Isla Java Coffee Company, we constantly seek out Fair trade and Bird Friendly coffees, organically grown and work with importers who work with the farmers in the growing regions directly in many cases.

If you sell Fair Trade, Organic and Bird Friendly Coffees, Where Are Your Certification Logos?

In order to display the logos, we would have to pay a royalty on every bag of coffee that we sell that comes from a Fair Trade, Organic and Bird Friendly growing origin, in addition to the premium prices we already pay for purchasing socially responsible coffees that contribute to sustainable industry practices. This would require us to mark up our prices to offset the cost of the royalty. In essence we pay a premium for first purchasing the Fair Trade, Organic and Bird Friendly coffees and then we would have to essentially pay the royalty fee for each pound of coffee we sell that carries the logo. That's like paying a double premium and while, we know where the extra cost goes when we purchase the green coffee that we roast (it goes to the farmers and the cooperatives), we don't know the percentage of the royalty that actually makes it to the farms and cooperatives and the amount that goes into administrative costs of the institutions licensing the logos. We feel that it is best to inform our customers by category, whether a coffee is Fair Trade, Organic, or Bird Friendly and let them make an informed purchase decision. As a company, Isla Java Coffee Company believes in sustainability of the coffee industry and is committed to that sustainability. This is why, when at all possible we purchase socially responsible and sustainable coffees to offer to our customers and we pay the premium prices to help elevate the working and living conditions of the growers and cooperatives.

What is Fair-Trade Coffee?

Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based model of international trade which promotes 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. The movement 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 so on. Fair trade coffee aims to reverse the effects of coffee producing countries having to accept bottom dollar for a world commodity second only to oil in trade.

What is Bird-Friendly Coffee?

Coffee grown in the shade of tree canopies, rather than on land cleared of other vegetation, provides a habitat for a number of species, including migratory birds such as various species of warblers, vireos, orioles, grosbeaks, hummingbirds, tanagers, and many more. In addition to birds, shade coffee plantations provide habitat for orchids, insects, mammals (such as bats), reptiles, and amphibians.

Shade-grown coffee, in contrast to sun-grown or "technified" coffee, provides food and shelter for songbirds, as well as other animals and plants. The use of shade trees provides natural mulch, which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. These trees protect the coffee plants that grow beneath them from rain and sun, help maintain soil quality, reduce the need for weeding, and aid in pest control. Organic matter from shade trees reduces erosion, contributes nutrients to the soil, and prevents metal toxicities

What is Organically Grown Coffee?

The concept of growing organic is essential to the preservation of our environment. Herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers seep into the ground polluting our groundwater and it also runs off the fields and into local water resources. When forest are cleared for the planting of fields much of the topsoil is eroded and transported in nearby streams to the nearest lake where it deposits the sediment, filling up the lake. Working with the environment to prevent this erosion, organic coffee farmers preserve the fertility of the land by growing coffee in the shade, where coffee was meant to grow. This shade grown coffee provides the migratory birds with habitat and is thus called bird friendly. The concept of organic goes beyond protecting the environment and extends to protecting the the people who work in the fields.

Doesn't Coffee Roasting Pollute the Air?

The process of coffee roasting produces smoke and odor which are byproducts of the roasting process. Green coffee is subjected to heat ranging from 250-475°F generated by a natural gas burner, one of the cleanest burning fuels known to man. While coffee will produce smoke and odor during this process, elimination of smoke and odor is accomplished by equipment called an afterburner. The afterburner utilizes oxygen and flame, and the byproducts of roasting, smoke and odor, in the presence of a high enough temperature and oxygen are 99.5% eliminated. We started our roastery with social and environmental responsibility in mind and installed an afterburner controlled by the Ambex automation package as part of our prodcution process. Even at the darkest roasts smoke is non-existent and odor is virtually undetectable, even by our sensitive noses :)

Do You Donate to Worthy Causes?

Social responsibility starts right here at home. During product development (new roasts, signature blends), and just because it's a good thing to do, we end up with coffee batches that are great, but not something we can repeat. The Roastmaster calls them "one hit wonders". It's not bad coffee, just difficult to reproduce easily to call it one of our standard product offerings. What do with do with this coffee? Community Outreach programs to shelter and feed the homeless, fund raising dinners to benefit such programs and other similar causes are the recipients of our "one hit wonders" that are blended to become a mystery blend. We put a very high-grade product into programs that benefit others because we feel it is the right thing to do, and let those programs benefit from a monetary standpoint and the standpoint of a great cup of coffee.

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