LINCOLN/SAN FRANCISCO, US – As Earth Day approaches, saving the rainforests – “the lungs of the earth”- along with vanishing wildlife and their habitat takes on extra urgency.
And one person can make a difference every day by taking a single action: thinking before drinking that cup of coffee. One’s choice of coffee can alter the future of tropical rainforests, migratory songbirds, rare reptiles and mammals or even the water supply of people thousands of miles away.
HOW coffee is produced and WHERE it comes from has an impact on the environment.
To cut costs and boost production, many coffee farmers use full sun farming – eliminating native shade trees and rainforests, and replacing them with a single variety of coffee tree. The result: a heavily fertilized “monoculture” farm that can’t support native wildlife or plants, and decreases water supplies for local communities.
The Lincoln, Calif.-based Rogers Family Company (www.rogersfamilyco.com) – whose gourmet coffee and tea products are sold under various brands across the U.S. – only grows or buys coffee beans produced by sustainable coffee farming.
The Rogers’ Organic Coffee Company division is the official sponsor of “Earth Day San Francisco 2014” on Saturday April 19 when an expected 10,000 people will converge at the U.N. Plaza/Civic Center to celebrate one of the largest Earth Day events in the Western U.S.
As the official sponsor of the event which will include multi-cultural music and performances, workshops on the “green economy” and “green tech” and prominent civic “eco-green” public officials, the Rogers family will have a special stage where they will educate people on how coffee affects the environment, give away free coffee and gear and hold a contest where someone can win a year of free coffee.
For more information, click: http://www.rogersfamilyco.com/index.php/rogers-family-company-official-sponsor-earth-day/
The Rogers’ coffee farm partners must maintain native plants and wildlife as a natural shade cover, practice natural methods of fertilization and pest control and preserve soil and water supplies.
As millions of acres of rainforest vanish each year, Rogers Family coffee farms are helping to stop deforestation – viewed by many as a contributor to global warming.
A World Bank report states: “Coffee, when grown properly, is one of the rare human industries that can actually restore the Earth’s health.”
The Rogers family asks consumers to carefully consider their choice of coffee as a small, but powerful example of the Earth Day mantra to “think globally, act locally” to make a difference.
A few examples of the Rogers family’s environmental projects:
- Deploying a “green army” – six billion earthworms – that helps create organic, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and digest coffee pulp waste. These “worm farms” also are used in simple inexpensive “Biogas” systems that turn waste water into clear water for irrigation – and restore fish and other aquatic wildlife – and gas to fuel dryers.
- Launching a “100-year” tree planting program in Central America.
- Requiring farmers to grow coffee in concert with nature.
- Producing lines of coffee for the National Audubon Society and Panthera, an organization dedicated to protecting big cats such as the jaguar.
- Purchasing and protecting thousands of acres in Mexico and Central America to create organic farms and restore land to its natural rainforest state.
- Commissioning studies to ensure birds and wildlife – including “globally threatened” species – can thrive on its farms.
