Coffee farming and the environment

How does coffee farming change the environment?

1) To make space for their coffee plants, the farmers cut down trees and thin the forest on the eastern slopes of the Andes.

2) By cutting down trees, the farmers increase the amount of soil that is washed away every time there is a heavy rainfall. The soil gets washed into the rivers that feed the mighty River Amazon. Already some people are worried about the amount of silt that is being carried down from the Peruvian mountains into the Amazon Basin

3) The coffee itself uses up a lot of the nutrients in the soil, so that it is less fertile.

SOIL: (n) the top layer of earth in which plants grow

SILT: (n) tiny pieces of rock and soil that are carried by rivers

NUTRIENTS: the things in soil that provide food for plants

These changes have direct results for the farmers

1) Because there are fewer trees, the temperature drops lower. This has happened in Brazil, and it is one reason why Brazilian farmers have problems with frost. Now the farmers higher up the Tambopata Valley have noticed that temperatures are dropping there, too.

2) The farmers are losing the very soil that they need to grow the coffee and their food.

3) Because the soil is less fertile, the farmers can no longer produce such good crops:

"With the exhaustion of our soils, production has fallen. I get half the coffee from my farm that I used to 20 years ago."
Gregorio

FROST: (n) powdery white ice

EXHAUSTION OF OUR SOIL: the soil has lost its nutrients

The farmers are not the only cause of soil erosion

All the soil of the Amazon Basin has naturally eroded over time through the action of the rains and the river systems. And that is not the only reason that trees get destroyed - the mountains are scarred by landslides that have cut down areas of trees, too.

EROSION: (n)
ERODE (v): erosion is when the soil is lost because it is blown away or washed away.

Farming makes the natural process happen more quickly

The farmers know this, and they want help.

"David,.. tell all those ecologists, those very distinguished professionals, tell them to come and visit us here. Tell them that our forests are being extinguished and that we urgently, urgently need their help."
Hugo, an official from Union Azata, a small coffee co-operative near Putina Punco.

ECOLOGIST: (n) a person who studies ecology -- how an environment works

Can Fair Trade help?

So far, the coffee farmers of the Tambopata Valley have not received any help. It is clear that some simple answers, like terracing the slopes, would improve the situation, but for people struggling to live, some outside help is necessary. Perhaps, now that they are starting to deal with Fair Trade organizations, some help will come?

TERRACING: making a series of level fields, like steps