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Coffee is a commodity most of us take for granted; every morning millions indulge in cup or two to kick-start their day.
Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia, and has become the worlds most popular beverage; on average 400 billion cups a year are consumed.
North Americans love affair with coffee has built empires such as "Starbucks" and "Second Cup"; specializing in coffee only.

There are only 2 species of coffee plants, they are the "coffea arabica" and coffea canephora" respectively. These plants grow in the shade and can live up to 80 years. The Arabica species self pollinates and approximately 80% of this species is grown in Latin America. Traditionally coffee was a colonial crop in the tropical climates and serfs or wage laborers were used to harvest the beans. This made it quite profitable, as slaves and/or slave wages kept profits high. The laborers payed the price their human misery and degradation unbeknown to the consumers in Europe and North America.

Coffee is second most valuable legally traded commodity in the world, petroleum being first; collectively the plantations could cover a country the size of Portugal.
It is grown in 50 countries worldwide, 800,000 hectares of land in Central America has been cleared for coffee plantations. There are as many as 20 million coffee farmers worldwide.

It was from 1962 until 1989 that coffee production was regulated by the I.C.O. and the United States was a very strong supporter of this agency. All that came to an end in 1989 when the U.S.A. left the I.C.O., and all agreements legally expired.
The International Development Agency, U.S.A. and other special interest groups decided, if the coffee growers could increase their yields, it would be a great benefit to all those who invest in this commodity. The "Green Revolution" was born and 80 million dollars was invested; to help farmers transition from traditional crop growing techniques, to sun cultivation techniques.

In order to increase yields, farmers were told to grow their crops in full sun. To assist in this process the forests were cut to increase the size of the fields, and because coffee is a shade loving crop it would not grow well unless planted with fertilizers.
Pesticides and fungicides were included in this change as the plants would be under constant threat from insects and fungus spores.
Many of these pesticides and fungicides are used without regard to health and safety standards. Costa Rica, Columbia, and Brazil all grow coffee that has been exposed

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