Rainforest Alliance will be adding a carbon module to their certification for coffee farms (presumably other crops they certify). They are also looking for further incentives to encourage farmers to plant more trees, including developing a system that would allow coffee companies to buy carbon from farmers along with their coffee beans....

I've done a little mash-up on how to choose sustainable coffee over at Low Impact Living, a great site with articles and tips on everything from eco-friendly burial options to understanding polluted runoff. Go check it out, and don't forget......

A few weeks ago, I corresponded with Jonathon Colman, the associate director of digital marketing at The Nature Conservancy (and possibly the most intense user of social media that I have ever encountered). Turns out he is a coffee lover......

Certified coffees (organic, Fair Trade, Bird-Friendly, Rainforest Alliance, Utz, and Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices) make up only about 4% of world green coffee exports, or about 220,000 metric tons. The U.S. is a major importer of various types of certified coffee, which make up nearly 8% of green bean imports. Let's take a quick look at the market share and growth of the three certification labels...

I'd like to inaugurate my "Know your coffee birds" series with the bird Coffee & Conservation uses to rate coffees (e.g., a "five star" coffee here is a "five motmot" coffee): the Blue-crowned Motmot (Momotus momota). Motmots are a family......