The Benefits of Organic Coffee In the beginning, all coffee was
organic and shade grown. Coffee cultivation began in the ninth
century in Africa and since most varieties of coffee are
naturally intolerant of direct sunlight, coffee was originally
grown under shade trees, most often fruit and nut trees which
also helped to replenish the soil with valuable nutrients and
allowed the land to remain fertile generation after generation.
Beginning in the 1970s, full sun coffee varieties were developed
to increase productivity by allowing coffee plants to be grown
closer together. As a result, chemical fertilizers and
pesticides such as DDT, marathon, and benzene hex chloride had
to be used to compensate for the lack of nutrients being added
back into the soil. These types of chemicals harm the soil they
are used on by destroying natural soil organisms, the
surrounding wildlife including insects, birds and other larger
species, adjacent water supplies, the farm workers themselves,
and the taste of the coffee. The inc