Urge grocery chains to carry "Shade Grown Coffee".

This petition calls on major U.S. grocery retailers to carry "shade grown" coffee which can be grown under the tropical forest canopy and does not contribute to tropical deforestation as industrially produced sun grown coffee monocultures do.

Many consumers of coffee worldwide and in the U.S. do not realize that when they buy coffee that is not "shade grown" they are inadvertently contributing to the destruction of tropical forest and the wildlife which lives in those tropical forest.

There was a movement over the last 20 years towards the "technification" of coffee farming which replaced shade grown coffee with sun cultivation.

Over 2.5 million acres of forest in Central America were destroyed to make way for sun grown coffee monocultures.

Most coffee which is not labeled "shade grown" is most likely to be sun grown coffee which requires clearing the land of forest to plant and produce.....this method of coffee growing also requires more pesticide and fertilizer usage than shade grown coffee.

Shade grown coffee can be ordered over the internet or bought in certain grocery outlets which specialize in ecologically sensitive foods/food production such as Trader Joe's.

Other major grocery chains 's should demand that the major coffee companies that they buy from such as coffee giants Folger's, Nescafe, Maxwell House and others provide them with "shade grown" coffee and coffee products so that consumers of coffee can choose to not participate in tropical forest destructions and habitat loss.

Also requested is better labeling on the shelves of coffee sections of these grocery stores allowing shoppers to easily find shade grown/fair trade and organic coffee brands without having to read over numerous labels to find what they want.

This simple act of stocking shade grown coffee and better shelf
labeling can save many thousand or potentially millions of acres of tropical forest.

For futher information on this subject go to "Coffee and Conservation -Are Your Beans for the Birds" or simply type shade grown coffee into your search engine.

We the undersigned request that Walmart, Kroger's, Safeway, Food Lion, Albertson's, Publix and other major U.S. grocery chains buy, stock and sell a wide range of "shade grown" coffee brands which can be grown under the tropical forest canopy and does not cause the forest destruction/wildlife habitat loss that sun grown coffee does.